According to the recent AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey, three out of five small businesses are planning to increase their investments in mobile marketing in 2012. With AT&T Mobile Barcode Services, small businesses can take success to another level by adorning everything from business cards to storefronts and products with rich, scannable marketing content. The free AT&T Code Scanner mobile application for both consumers and businesses uses smartphone cameras to scan barcodes.

A Simple Scan Mobile barcodes have become increasingly popular among consumers, with small businesses beginning to see the benefits of this "scan-and-receive" consumer mentality. For example: -- AT&T estimates that 44 million people have a scanner app on their mobile device. Of those 44 million, 20 million are active users, meaning they scan from 1-20+ times per month. -- Further, more than a third of respondents in the AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey have featured mobile barcodes in their marketing materials, with 60% of those having found barcodes to be very or somewhat effective..

AT&T Mobile Barcode Services include: -- AT&T's Code Management Platform allows small businesses to create mobile and manage the associated content. -- Small businesses can use customized, pre-made templates within the Platform to easily create mobile-optimized web landing pages, which appear on-screen when consumers scan a barcode. Having a mobile-friendly site has helped boost site traffic for many businesses -- 48% of the respondents in the AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey point to an increase of 10% to 25% in traffic, while 14% have increased traffic 26% to 50%. -- After creating mobile barcodes, small businesses can use the Platform's powerful reporting tools to gauge the effectiveness of any given mobile marketing campaign.

And if users grant permission, businesses can receive demographic and location data from the users' scans. -- The flexible AT&T Code Management Platform also allows companies to keep content fresh by changing the results of scanning a barcode without replacing the physical codes. One unique offering for small to medium-sized advertising, marketing and public relations agencies is the ability to create various accounts within the platform and provide Mobile Barcode Services as an additional service or capability to clients.

Comprehensive Mobile Marketing Portfolio AT&T's rapidly growing mobile marketing portfolio also includes AT&T Messaging Toolkit and AT&T Mobile Web. AT&T Messaging Toolkit is an all-in-one tool that allows users to create multi-channel campaigns, including voice broadcasts, social media, text messaging and more. Since the beginning of 2012, the number of AT&T Messaging Toolkit customers has increased 14-fold. For example, Flash of Genius Inc./UpdatePromise.com, a technology provider to the automotive claims and collision repair industries, will be using AT&T Messaging Toolkit to send friendly, daily repair updates to their customers in the form of a text message and/or email. Once the repair is completed, the system will continue to send appropriately timed messages to the customer throughout the first year to help drive referrals and repeat business.

In addition to the obvious benefits the Messaging Toolkit brings to marketing campaigns, customers are creatively employing it to enhance their customer service. Cabrillo Credit Union, a financial cooperative based in San Diego, Calif., began use of AT&T Messaging Toolkit to help distribute urgent information to customers regarding their accounts. "A top priority for us is to make sure our Members are well-informed about the status of their accounts," said Frankie Duenas, Chief Technology Officer at Cabrillo Credit Union. "AT&T Messaging Toolkit service offers this capability and helps us reach our Members with the information they want, when and how they prefer it." For companies that need to develop websites specifically designed for viewing on a mobile device, AT&T Mobile Web can help. AT&T can work from the ground up, or optimize and format an existing website.