A few weeks ago we opened the doors of our Latin American office. With clients already including Personal in Argentina, TIM in Brazil, and Comcel in Colombia, we knew it was time to formally acknowledge the popularity and potential of mobile marketing in the region. A few weeks before that, we set up shop in Silicon Valley - something that most technology companies would agree is no mean feat. The incorporation of these new offices shows, in bricks and mortar, not just that the company is doing well but that mobile marketing is doing very well indeed.

Analysts concur. Forrester, for example, recently predicted that mobile marketing spend will rise to $1.25bn by 2014. The battle for consumer attention on mobile devices has been intensifying for a while, as the small screen continues to prove it offers big returns and increased responsiveness to marketing campaigns. Gartner has also vouched its confidence in the market, and expects mobile ad revenues to reach $3.3bn this year.
These numbers have tempted many companies to rush into the space, and with good reason. However, it has already become clear that the continued vitality of the mobile marketing channel will depend very much on operators and advertisers following a particular practice, or a set of industry standards. While the Mobile Marketing Association has set out a code of conduct for consumer communication over mobile, with over a decade of customer insight and experience, we’ve also learnt a few lessons along the way.

Top of the list is our oft-repeated mantra, ‘communicate less, with more impact’. Marketers need to recognise that consumers will only tolerate a finite number of contacts over mobile; otherwise they will run the risk of switching consumers off completely. Results from research we conducted with YouGov showed that 38 per cent of consumers will only accept one message per month from their own network operators. Across different regions the exact number of contacts accepted will vary, (depending on the dominance of other channels), but the key takeaway is that communication needs to be limited. While the mobile marketing opportunity certainly knocks, marketers failing to respect these limitations shouldn’t be surprised if consumers slam doors in their faces.

Taking this into account, another unwritten rule for success is to remember that context is everything, and unless each message is relevant and personal, it is unlikely to leave much of an impression or generate a response. Another of our research initiatives into U.S. mobile consumers, this time with LuthResearch, explored exactly which elements of personalisation consumers found most relevant. Surprisingly, given the hype around companies such as Foursquare, the research found that 59 per cent of respondents preferred marketers to shape their pitches around their interests, rather than their location. We now know that the mobile device is one of the greatest direct-response marketing mediums ever devised, but it is clear that more time needs to be spent looking at the effectiveness of the communications we’re putting out over the channel.

Finally, we need to step back and see things through the eyes of the average consumer. No one wants to be hounded with irrelevant and impersonal messages over mobile. Contact over mobile is extremely personal and marketers and operators alike must be cautious not to abuse the clear trust that consumers have in them. As mobile is a small screen medium, consumers only use it for short and focussed time-periods – with average engagement times being under one minute.

Yet as stressed, the medium is uniquely personal and has the power to cultivate close relationships with consumers, especially through targeted text-based marketing. Providing you get the message right and obey these few simple rules – and you’ll have the perfect 160 character pitch.

Marco Veremis is President of Upstream a world leader in mobile marketing solutions, reaching over 500 million consumers in more than 40 countries.