Mobile marketing is the fastest growing areas of marketing. Rise of smart phone use and penetration of fast download speeds and unlimited data downloads on mobile devices are presenting businesses with new opportunities to target the ever increasing mobile market.

Following are the top 10 mobile marketing trends that will give you a better idea of the potential of mobile marketing for your business.

1. Growth of Mobile Video Marketing

According to data released by Bytemobile, mobile video became the dominant form of mobile data traffic during 2010 with more than 40% of total volume in wireless networks. In 2011, mobile video accounts for more than 60% of network traffic up from 40% in 2010.

Mobile video also ranked as the 2nd most preferred method for advertisers in the Media Post study referenced earlier in this article.

Video Advertising is also witnessing a growth. Mobile video advertising opportunities on sites such as YouTube are becoming increasingly popular.

2. Growth of Apps

Apps are one of the most effective and popular ways to target the mobile Internet market.

New data out of app analytics firm Flurry finds that mobile users are spending more time in mobile apps than mobile web browsing, widening a gap that began for the first time last summer.

3. Rise in Mobile Websites

Apps are not a replacement to a mobile version of your website. A significant share of website traffic now originates from mobile devices. In spite of this a recent study has found that fewer than 30% of businesses have actually got around to creating a mobile version of their website. This is set to change significantly in the coming years and more businesses launch mobile enabled websites.

4. Rise in Mobile Advertising

According to a study by MediaPost, 82% of brands and agencies have plans to boost their mobile ad budgets in the next year.

An increasing number of businesses are now also paying attention the mobile paid search market. Most ad networks including Google Adwords and Facebook ads offer the ability to target ads specifically for mobile devices.

According to Forrester, by 2014, it has been projected that the U.S. market alone will more than double in size, reaching $2.5 billion!

Better return on investment and lower cost of acquisition also make mobile advertising more attractive to businesses. Click through rates (CTRs) on mobile phones are a staggering 72 percent higher than on desktops.

In App advertising is another area fuelling the growth in mobile advertising. With consumers increasingly turning to mobile apps, January 2012 data from Juniper Research indicates that global revenues from in-app purchases could reach $4.8 billion by 2016, representing a 129% jump from 2011.

5. Growth of Mobile Coupons

Consumer usage of mobile coupons will see users exceed 300 million globally by 2014 according to a report by Juniper Research.

The Media Post study has found that 39% of mobile advertisers rated mobile coupons as their preferred method of advertising in the coming year.

Facebook are focusing increasingly on their offers feature, their equivalent of coupons. FourSquare, the leading location based service,  are the latest business to join the coupon craze.

6. Location-based Services

Geo targeting is becoming increasingly prevalent in mobile marketing. Location based services such as FourSquare allows businesses to easily target users by location or demographics and tailor content based on location. Geo targeting on both, desktop and platforms are becoming increasingly used, allowing businesses with an opportunity to customise their marketing message and and tailor content as well as ad delivery to match the location or demography of users.

Marketers are adopting “Social targeting” by tracking social interactions within specific locations.

7. Device Targeting

An increasing number of businesses are now targeting users based on their devices. This lets you serve content based on whether the user is accessing your site via a regular smart phone, iphone or tablet, letting you address different usability and design concerns of various devices.

8. Increased Potential for Social Media

Social media offers an even greater opportunity for mobile marketing.

Widespread availability of fast internet access and unlimited data downloads on mobile devices is changing the way consumers use social media. A major share of a consumer’s time on mobile is spent on social media. According to comScore, 45% of all Facebook traffic and 55% of all Twitter traffic is via mobile devices.

9. Mobile Payments

Mobile payments and money transfers is another area that is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. 2011 saw $86.1 billion in mobile transactions which is expected to grow further in 2012.  Mobile banking growth is even more prevalent in developing countries due to poor overall banking alternatives.

10. Mobile Gaming

Games (49%) and social networking (30%) capture the largest proportion of consumer’s time spent with mobile applications, according to January 2012 analysis from Flurry.

According to VentureBeat, the company polled 2,425 people in the UK and US. The survey found that 52 per cent of respondents said they had played a mobile phone game.