I’m sure you’ve all noticed the recent activity like Exact Target acquiring CoTweet, Constant Contact acquiring NutshellMail and Unica Corp’s partnering with Mobile Messenger.

This leads me to wonder – is being multichannel the “new black?”

Waterfall Mobile works with many ESPs (e-mail service providers) and technology companies, and we frequently discuss the future of the business.  And the consensus from those conversations is, yes, marketers are expanding their focus to include more ways to digitally and directly reach consumers, so their vendors must follow suit.  It’s just smart business.

Nearly every major ESP has announced social media integration plans in one form or another, and most have selected a mobile partner or are building messaging into their platforms.

In general, and in particular for direct marketers, mobile continues to represent tremendous opportunity.  As we’ve seen with these acquisitions, the appetite for social and digital media technologies is growing.

As readers of Mobile Demystified know, we regularly make the point that marketers should have a multichannel strategy – one that includes email, online, mobile and social media.  The more opportunities you have to reach a customer, the more opportunities you have to engage with them.

So, yes – multichannel is the new black.  If you aren’t thinking about a comprehensive, cross-platform engagement strategy, you’re going to get left behind — see Forrester’s interactive marketing spend chart, below.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to get started for your company, drop me a line at msilk@waterfallmobile.com.

According to the recent State of Marketing Report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, corporate marketers plan to be less dependent on agencies and more self-sufficient in the near future.

The report, which surveyed 5000 senior marketers, found that 46% of respondents said investing in digital demand generation and online relationship building are among the top initiatives for 2010.

The study also found that 38% are exploring alternative media and new routes to market, and that 62% are reviewing customer data in an effort to improve segmentation and targeting.

To me, this reads like big brands are finally getting the message about mobile and other so-called “alternative” media.  It also means they’re getting serious about measuring ROI – excellent news for mobile as a technology, because once its widely proven benefits are put to the test by Fortune 100 brands, mobile will be here to stay – and will no longer be an “alternative” to anything.

More from the CMO Council survey:

35% of marketers also said they plan to initiate marketing projects to improve go-to-market effectiveness in 2010 with the most common projects being:

• Digital marketing makeover - platforms, programs people (46%)
• Sales and marketing organizational alignment (40%)
• Customer data integration and analytics (32%)
• Marketing performance measurement (31%)
• Lead qualification and harvesting system (28%)
• Reorganization of marketing group (28%)

Further showing the growing shift to digital modes of engagement, the report also found:

• 59% of marketers are looking to train and develop existing staff
• 40% are adding or expanding digital marketing agency support
• 36% expect to bring in new talent resources to their organizations
• 72% of marketers anticipate no headcount reductions as they re-skill staff
• 18% expect to review web design and development resources
• 8% who plan to do ad agency reviews, an all-time low, as marketer attention moves to the digital realm

It’s an exciting time to be in the fast-moving realm of brand marketing, and I’m glad these industry leaders are up to the task.  A rising tide lifts all boats, and better ROI metrics are great news for legitimate enterprise players in the mobile space.

As the hype surrounding the iPad becomes deafening, it’s helpful to get some additional perspective from people who know the mobile space.

Over at AdWeek, Simon Vella makes some excellent points in his op-ed “Forget Apps, Text Still Reigns in Mobile.”

He notes:

Nearly every cellphone in the U.S. is capable of text messaging and because it’s used for regular personal communication, it’s always top of mind in terms of general daily use. By comparison, only 18 percent of all phones in the U.S. are smartphones. Further, Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones worldwide will account for just 23 percent of all new handsets sold per annum by 2013, hardly representing the mass market for general consumer goods and services.

And furthermore,

An October 2009 report from Strategy Analytics] showed only four to six mobile apps are used on a consistent basis. Brands need to be aware that there’s intense competition for share of the mobile phone desktop…This doesn’t leave a lot of room for grabbing consumer attention for those without big budgets or unique functionality. The reality is that most mobile apps are downloaded and discarded to the bin unless they’re compelling and have an ongoing mobile usefulness to them.

Elsewhere, Mobile Marketing Watch has used the AdWeek essay as a jumping off point to discuss the power and utility of SMS in the face of lots of noise.

Justin Montgomery notes in “Mobile Apps May be Reaching a Saturation Point, SMS Still Reigns Supreme”:

Mobile apps are dominated by the iPhone, with most development going toward its platform, which only represents 4% of the entire mobile market.  With such a frenzy for mobile apps, competition is rampant with very few avenues to distribute, apart from Apple’s App Store which has the most competition of all.  Because of it, the mobile app market is beginning to be saturated.  SMS, on the other hand, has none of these limiting attributes.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Marketers don’t want hype; they want to reach consumers with meaningful brand messages.  SMS, and targeted digital messaging, are powerful tools that can achieve exactly that.  While apps are fun to play around with, they’re expensive to make, offer questionable ROI, and the bulls eye is extremely small.

Pound for pound, SMS is the more effective and proven marketing channel.

eMarketer recently posted the results to the “The Marketing Trends Report 2010” from Anderson Analytics and the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG).

The report found “Marketing ROI” is currently the most important trend to marketing executives.

Social Media also made the top 10 trends for executives with 72 percent of respondents planning a social strategy for this year and 36 percent listing “Social Media ROI” as an important buzzword in 2010.

Don’t get too excited though, according to the same research, even though marketers know they need to have an overall social media strategy – they are also sick of hearing about it.

Along with being one of the most important buzz terms this year, “social media” was also found to be one of the most annoying.  Nearly 30 percent of those surveyed are sick of the phrase.  15 percent were annoyed specifically by Twitter.

That said, even if people are tired of hearing or reading about it (or not), social spending is predicted to increase in 2010 (which is not surprising).

Your best bet – look over the buzzwords and use it as a checklist for your 2010 marketing plan.  And maybe review the buzzwords and make sure you are addressing them (or intentionally not using them).

You can read eMarketer’s full post here.

I recently read a post on Geofencing and Location-Based Messaging from Mobhappy (you can read it here). After reading the post, I reached out to the author Carlo Longino to continue the conversation.

The result, I did a Q&A with Mobhappy on the value of LBS. You can read the full post here.

In the Q&A, we discuss the value of LBS from the consumer perspective, the need for compelling messaging, and just how “relevant” messages should be for the consumer.

Take a look at the post, and I would love to hear if you agree or disagree. As always, you can reach me at: msilk@waterfallmobile.com if you want to discuss further.

You can also follow Carlo Longino on Twitter @caarlo (or me at @WaterfallMobile).

– Matt