A decade or so ago the cry was to build your email lists. It’s still a very valid tactic today, but now is the time to start collecting those mobile phone numbers too. About 60 billion people have mobile phones and with each passing year the technology improves to the point where it may be the only portal of information for some folks.

First off, just like you wouldn’t spam with email, you certainly don’t want to grab mobile phone numbers from prospects and customers so you can send annoying messages. There are some great reasons to use text messaging however and smart marketers, including small businesses, are starting to discover them.

Services like Mobile Storm and Mobivity are making easy and affordable for small business to explore the world of mobile marketing. Pizza joints are sending out coupons via mobile for sure, but small businesses of every ilk are also creating campaigns for weekly tips, event updates, contests and members only content via mobile campaigns.

This is a very hot topic and one that’s not going away soon, so dive in and start learning.

I conducted an interview with Kim Dushinski this week for upcoming episode of the Duct Tape Podcast. Kim is the author of the soon to be released – Mobile Marketing Handbook. I’ve had an early read and this is a great resource. More on that.