Cited by smallbusiness.co.uk, figures from Pitney Bowes’ new report claim over a quarter of firms report that traditional offline marketing accounts for just ten per cent of their total marketing activity. In addition, a further 22 per cent state they have no traditional marketing activity whatsoever.

The oldest business are most likely to have left traditional marketing behind with a third doing less than five cent of marketing using standard offline tactics.

More than half of micro-businesses admit that traditional techniques account for less than ten per cent, with many opting to focus on mobile marketing and online avenues to grow their business.

For example, confidence in mobile marketing is growing, with mobile SEO and QR codes attracting twice as much interest as it used to.

Ryan Higginson, vice president of Digital Channel Europe at Pitney Bowes, commented on the statistics: “Many SMEs’ success, and even survival, can depend on targeted, effective and easy-to-implement marketing that covers a multitude of channels.”

Pitney Bowes’ research follows figures from Gartner, cited by mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk, which suggests worldwide smartphone sales grew by 42.9 per cent year-on-year.

According to new research from the International Telecoms Union (ITU), the number of mobiles in use will surpass the seven billion mark in early 2014.

As it stands, the earth’s population stands at 7.1 billion, whilst mobile subscriptions total 6.8 billion. This is despite only a third of the population actually being online.

Europe has the highest penetration of mobile use, with 75 per cent of its inhabitants owning a connected device. The Americas follow behind in second with 61 per cent, whilst Asia manages just 32 per cent. Lowest is Africa, where penetration is just 16 per cent.

This proves beneficial for European brands turning to bulk SMS for their marketing campaigns, as it proves there is a large - and growing – network of users that is showing no sign of slowing just yet.

Commenting on the findings, director of the ITU telecommunication development bureau, Brahima Sanou, told deccanherald.com: ”Every day we are moving closer to having almost as many mobile cellular subscriptions as people on earth.

“The mobile revolution is ‘m-powering’ people in developing countries by delivering ICT applications in education, health, government, banking, environment and business.”

That’s according to research published by Canalys, cited by mobilemarketingwatch.com. It revealed that these devices (encompassing smartphones, tablets and notebooks) experienced sales growth of 37.4%, year on year.

Of the total devices sold, 59.5% operated on Android systems, 19.3% on Apple-based systems and 18.1% of the share went to Microsoft. The latter is representative of the technology provider’s lagging place in the smartphone market, Canalys suggested.

A principal analyst for the firm, Pete Cunningham, shared his thoughts on the future of smart mobile devices: “HTC and Samsung have raised the bar with their latest handsets and Apple needs to respond with its next iPhone.

“The iPhone user interface is now six years old and badly in need of a refresh,” he continued, adding: “It [Apple] cannot afford to ignore the trend for larger displays in premium smart phones We expect an increase on the iPhone 5′s 4-inch display, but are not anticipating a ‘Phablet’-style phone.”

A larger display on what may be the world’s most popular handset would likely be welcomed by those using MMS messaging to market their business, or app developers hoping for more room to play with. What’s more, they could find out how the display will change on the next iPhone iteration sooner rather than later, with indiatimes.com reporting that Apple is rumoured to be releasing the iPhone 6 in a matter of weeks, on June 20th.

According to business-stardard.com, if they send a text to the dedicated hotline, consumers will be able to receive information on well-known brands selling a certain drug. For example, if they wanted to purchase some paracetamol, they’d be given details of the major brands selling it and the prices they put on it.

If no alternatives to the specified drug are available, a response stating ‘no alternative suggested’ will simply be sent.

To be monitored by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the SMS scheme will help prevent overcharging of common medicines and help make consumers more aware of the options available to them – something which might interest healthcare authorities throughout the world.

A representative of the scheme commented: “Our intention is to offer an SMS-based scheme that will enable patients to know the cheaper alternative medicines available.

“There are a number of medicine brands available in the market with the same medicament composition, but in a wide variation of prices.”

New Delhi’s government aims to having the scheme up and running within the next few months and, depending on its success, institutions such as Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) may end up creating their own similar service. After all, local health bodies around the UK are already utilising SMS to their advantage – such as in the Wirral, where SMS alerts are sent to patients each winter-time, reminding them to book an appointment for their flu jab, connectingforhealth.nhs.uk reports.

The latest figures published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have shown that digital sales increased by 8.3 per cent month-on-month in April, with much of this coming from the mobile market.

Retailers have found that around one in five of all their orders now come from mobile devices. Furthermore, this number is growing with every additional month, thereby taking up a larger share of total sales volumes.

Marketers looking to monopolise on this fast-growing market have turned to a number of mobile-friendly options, such as optimising their site for smaller screens and using links embedded in SMS marketing messages to allow smartphone users to navigate with just one touch.

Elsewhere, the BRC report found that high street sales posted a decline in sales of 0.6 per cent over the same period, or a 2.2 per cent drop on a like-for-like basis.

Commenting on the results, BRC director general Helen Dickinson told myretailmedia.com: “Online sales of non-food goods picked up well as the month progressed with a very strong finish driven by seasonal clothing and footwear, which sold as the weather improved.

“Ultimately, sales growth was up on the previous month’s weak performance, confirming that it was a short-lived blip.”

When he first came into power in 2010, David Cameron set up the so-called “nudge unit”, guardian.co.uk reports, which was tasked with finding ways in which society could run a little more smoothly. The unit comprised of nine academics, although the number has since swelled to 13, which is made up largely of psychologists and economists.

One of their brainwaves was to send criminals text messages when they were due to pay court fees in the hope of increasing the number of those who actually make the payment.

The previous approach used letters sent in the post but only saw five per cent of recipients actually pay up. During a regional trial in the South East last year, however, it was tested using text messages instead, with surprising results. Furthermore, when a recipient’s name was included in the message, payment rates soared to 33 per cent.

This could translate for brands seeking an immediate response on their limited-time sales or offers. It could also be used by insurance firms and the like that are utilising SMS marketing as a way to ensure they receive payment on time for so-called “grudge purchases”.

Unsurprisingly, the success of the government scheme has prompted a nationwide roll-out, which could happen over the coming months. If it proves as successful on a national scale as it was regionally, it could completely eradicate bailiff intervention in around 150,000 cases and save the government £30 million, politicus.org.uk reports.

Mobile expert Juliet Stott, writing in full for econsultancy.com, explained that a number of brands are using mobile to target engaged consumers and deliver ‘smarter, personalised deals’.

Through mobile, users can ‘get what they want’: better service, rewards for brand advocacy and money-off deals.

For instance, many businesses are delivering offers and vouchers direct to mobile users. Businesses can send SMS messages with promo codes or discounts which can be shown at tills.

In addition, some firms are using SMS as confirmation of a purchase or to inform the user about progress of a service. Addison Lee, a taxi service in London, sends an SMS to confirm a taxi is coming to collect a customer.

Stott also cites a whitepaper by mobile specialist Pete Gough, who suggests marketers can use mobile to connect with people anywhere at any time.

“Marketers can now reach and connect with people in their pockets, at their desks and whilst they are watching the television. This everywhere and anywhere culture is what consumers are expecting.

“[Using analytics provides] a great opportunity to connect the dots and follow these consumers across all channels to deliver consistent and relevant messages,” he added.

Whilst the likes of Apple, Samsung and LG are reported to be working on new devices with flexible screens, a group of researchers from the Human Media Lab of Queens University have come up with a prototype that could put their efforts into the shade.

Dubbed ‘MorePhone’, the device can arch or bend whenever a phone call, text message or email is received. This is achieved through the use of alloy wires connected to the back of the device which cause its flexible plastic body to contort. These contortions can then be represented either by individual corners of the phone flexing or an entire ‘arching’ of the phone off the surface it’s resting upon.

Furthermore, it is possible to customise the device for each user and ascribe different actions to each notification.

Developers have hoped that their prototype could forge the way in new telephones which offer much more noticeable physical notifications for users and halt the current situation where calls or messages can be easily missed. It could also prove useful for brands using mobile marketing as it ensures their messages get through straight away, even if the user is out walking or is listening to music.

“This is another step in the direction of radically new interaction techniques afforded by smartphones based on thin film, flexible display technologies,” developer Roel Vertegaal told ibtimes.com.

“One of the problems with current, silent forms of notification is that users often miss [them] when not holding their phones. With MorePhone, they can leave their smartphone on the table and observe visual shape changes when someone is trying to contact them.”

New figures released by IDC indicate that 216.2 million smartphones were sold across the world in the first quarter of 2013, which represents 51.6 per cent of the entire mobile phone market.

This milestone could be seen as interesting news for professionals in SMS marketing, who may be more encouraged to take advantage of a smartphone’s online connectivity within their text messages. Some marketers are already keen to include URLs within SMS messages, directing subscribers to a deal on a company website.

In an interview with appleinsider.com, IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo predicted that smartphones would continue to dominate the mobile phone market for some time yet.

He said: “Phone users want computers in their pockets. The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and send text messages are quickly fading away. As a result, the balance of smartphone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on smartphones.”

Theverge.com reports that Samsung were the biggest sellers of smartphones in Q1 2013, with a 27.5 per cent share of the market. Nokia, Apple, LG and ZTE were also listed amongst the top five smartphone sellers.

Writing for realbusiness.co.uk, journalist Megan Webb-Morgan advocated the use of text messages in marketing campaigns as they are not only easy to send, but also come with some of the best open-rates around.

Webb-Morgan claimed that subscribers can be informed of almost anything via SMS marketing, from sales and promotions to information on new products or services. She added that the use of multi-media messages (MMS) can even be used to send photographs or videos of a new product in action.

For this all to be effective, however, Webb-Morgan urged businesses to conduct research into their target audience as this will give a clear and honest insight into how they would react to such messages. This can include variables such as the best time of day for messages to be sent or which types have the greatest open rates among different customer segments.

“Mobile marketing can help you promote your business to new and returning customers,” tweetbuzz.us reports Webb-Morgan as saying. “Make sure that the method you choose is appropriate for your target demographic and that you follow the best practices for designing, promoting and sending mobile messages.”