It seems no matter where consumers go, marketers are vying for their attention. On the road, billboards and posters are everywhere. In stores, signs tell them which products to buy. Even in their own homes, they are subjected to online, television and direct mail advertising. Because of this advertising overload, many Americans have learned to tune out unwanted messages.

Because smartphones are relatively new to the scene, however, many marketers are finding success leveraging these devices as advertising tools. This will be especially the case this holiday season, as more consumers leverage these devices to research products, source discounts and locate nearby stores.

MobileMarketer reports that 46 percent of consumers plan to make holiday purchases through their smartphone this year. This highlights the importance of a brand's mobile presence, if not a full-blown mobile campaign.

"Given that one out of three U.S. consumers is armed with a web- and app-enabled smartphone and those that aren't are equally savvy with text, brands and retailers are likely to pull out all stops to get in front of this increasingly discerning audience," said Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor on Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily.

As the source notes, getting heard this holiday season will be especially difficult. By utilizing a multi channel approach, small businesses will be better able to promote their products and services.

This is particularly the case with mobile marketing. Considering few businesses are leveraging the emerging platform, marketers should be sure to use check-in promos, apps, quick response codes, text messaging and any other mobile marketing strategies.

"What can differentiate the smart marketer from the run-of-the-mill is effective use of mobile as a marketing destination and also as an enabler for other retail and marketing channels," the news source added.

As recent comScore data notes, not only is the number of American smartphone owners growing, but they are also utilizing their devices more often.

Nearly 85 million Americans owned smartphones in August, which is up by more than 10 million mobile subscribers since the beginning of the year. Over the past three months alone, the number of consumers using mobile web broswers and apps has also grown by 2.3 and 3 percent, respectively. Currently, 42.1 percent use the mobile web, while 41.6 percent downloaded apps.