Apr 14, 2014 By Devon McGinnis

Common Mobile Marketing Terms Defined

in Marketing, Digital Marketing, Mobile Marketing

MMS, LBS, MTM, short code, long code, shared code-the list goes on. Already have a headache? Acronyms and buzzwords run rampant in the world of mobile marketing and it's difficult to keep them all straight. Here's a quick look at some common mobile marketing terms explained:

Aggregator: An organization that acts as a middleman between application and content providers, and mobile carriers. Provides message traffic throughput to multiple wireless operators or other aggregators, mobile initiative campaign oversight and administration, as well as billing services.
Alerts: Notifications, typically in the form of a text or multimedia message, containing time-sensitive information (event details, weather, news, services updates) that are pushed to a mobile subscriber who has opted in to receive this information.
Carrier: A company that provides wireless telecommunications services.
Common short code: Short numeric numbers (typically 4-6 digits) to which text messages can be sent from a mobile phone. Wireless subscribers send text messages to common short codes with relevant keywords to access a wide variety of mobile content.
Confirmed opt-in: The process used for verifying a mobile subscriber's intention, and for gaining the subscriber's explicit agreement to participate in a mobile program/initiative.
Data collection: The process by which a marketer collects mobile subscribers' personally identifiable information.
Dedicated short code: The process of running only one service on a common short code at any given time.
Double opt-in: The process of confirming a mobile subscriber's wish to participate in a mobile program by requesting the subscriber to opt-in twice, prior to engaging the subscriber. Double opt-in is a requirement for many types of mobile communications.
Email opt-in: Inviting a customer (via email) to opt in to receive mobile messages from your organization.
Keyword: A word or name used to distinguish a targeted message within a short code service.
Location-based services (LBS): A range of services provided to mobile subscribers based on the geographical location of their handsets within their cellular network. Handsets must be equipped with a position-location technology such as GPS to enable the geographical-trigger. Location-based marketing messages could include subscribers receiving a targeted offer upon entering a certain geographic vicinity.
Mobile Marketing Association (MMA): The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association established to lead the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies.
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS): Standard for telephony messaging systems that enable the sending of messages that include multimedia objects (images, audio, video, rich text).
Mobile originated message (MO, MOM): An SMS/MMS sent from a mobile device.
Mobile terminated message (MT, MTM): An SMS/MMS message received by a mobile device.
Mobile web: A channel for delivery of web content, which offers and formats content to users in awareness of the mobile context. The mobile context is characterized by the nature of personal user information needs (e.g., updating your blog, accessing travel information, receiving news update), constraints of mobile phones (e.g., screen size, keypad input), and special capabilities (e.g., location, connection type such as 3G or WLAN).
Push message: A mobile app notification that delivers information directly to a mobile subscriber's home screen, pushing them into the app when the message is clicked.
Opt-in/opt-out: When a customer gives or revokes permission for you to contact them through mobile marketing (both SMS and push messaging).
SMS opt-in: Inviting a customer (via SMS) to subscribe to future text message communications from your organization.
Random short code: A random number sequence assigned by the administration body to the company leasing the short code.
Shared short code: A short code that is used to run multiple mobile services and/or marketing campaigns simultaneously.
Short message service (SMS): More commonly referred to as a text message, an SMS is any message sent via short message service. Limited to 160 characters.
Subscriber (mobile subscriber): A customer that enters into an agreement with a carrier. Once executed, the agreement requires the carrier to provide wireless telecommunication services to the customer.
Text response: An automatic text reply that's triggered when a customer sends an inbound SMS message.