What are the most effective features of SMS marketing? Why would a company choose it over other forms of mobile or traditional marketing?
One of the biggest advantages to using mobile marketing, specifically SMS, is the cost. It is appreciably less expensive than traditional broadcast and print marketing methods, and it reaches consumers much more directly. No other marketing method can reach people as quickly and directly for such a small investment.
Consumer engagement is higher with SMS than with other types of marketing. Even email, which is also inexpensive and direct, does not generate the same level of consumer engagement because unsolicited emails are often deleted or marked as spam. Plus email messages must wait for the consumer to actively access the account before the ad message can be opened. With SMS, a text alert can reach a consumer instantly. Most text messages are read within only a few minutes of receipt, and since SMS is permission-based (no unsolicited messages can be sent), businesses are assured that their marketing message is being reached only by interested and likely consumers.
Programs that run SMS campaigns have tracking capabilities that let businesses know how successful their SMS campaign is. OIR, for instance, offers a suite of analytics that assists our clients in gauging all aspects of their SMS campaigns. Our sms marketing application can track keyword effectiveness, thereby letting a client know which of the various advertised keywords generated the highest or lowest responses. Our application can also track which subscribers belong to which carrier; this information helps determine the demographics and phone types that are subscribing to a campaign. With voting or contest campaigns, our application can keep track of how each subscriber voted, and this data allows the client to better segment the subscriber list based on the expressed interest or preference, which, of course, improves future marketing efforts.
The use of short codes (5- or 6-digit numbers to which people text keywords) is becoming so common, why can’t a company just get its own? Why use an outside marketing firm?
Getting your own short code is a more complicated process than you might think. Short codes are not like phone numbers, which anyone can request from the phone company and begin using immediately. Short codes are governed by the Common Short Code Association, and they can be leased to businesses that want to run an SMS campaign. However, before you can start sending and receiving text messages, you need to work with an application provider (AP) to enable this. In a nut shell, the AP then works with the carriers, the CSCA, and their system to get everything working with their application. It can take up to 4 months after applying for the short code to actually execute the SMS campaign. Short codes are also very expensive, costing thousands per year per dedicated short code. For these reasons a shared short code like the ones OIR offers can save businesses a ton of time and money. Our clients are able to utilize our short code and launch their SMS campaigns without any wait.
Do you find that consumers are reluctant to join advertisers’ mobile campaigns because they believe they will be charged high text messaging fees? Can you explain how text-message marketing affect users’ cell phone bills?
It’s actually the other way around. Most consumers are eager to join a free SMS campaign. Because consumers are the ones opting in and out, they have the control to stop messages at any time. Premium SMS campaigns (the ones that people get billed for) have extremely high consumer resentment, with many customer refunds and high complaint rates. It’s important for both premium and standard rate campaigns to set consumer expectations from the beginning by making it clear what the costs are, if any, how many messages will be sent, how frequently, and how to opt out.
AT&T recently announced an end to their unlimited data plan for new customers, and many people expect other carriers to follow suit. How do you see the phasing out of unlimited data plans affecting mobile marketing?
Data and bandwidth should always be a concern for anyone trying to target mobile devices for marketing. Mobile platforms are not as powerful and typically run on slower networks. This must be factored in to all aspects of mobile content (banner ads, mobile apps, MMS campaigns). Personally, I don’t know how long AT&T’s move to do away with unlimited data will last. It is a policy difficult to maintain if they want to stay competitive in the USA and the rest of the world.
How effective do you think web banner ads are? What is the most cost-effective way for a small or mid-sized business to utilize web banner ads?
Web banner ads (WAP) can be extremely effective—as long as they are well targeted. There are some tools out there that help with this. AdMob.com, Quattro Wireless, Google Adwords, Google Local are all great tools to run your own campaigns—even small businesses can take advantage of them. Businesses don’t realize that a lot of mobile search starts with Google, so making sure a company’s Google local account is setup correctly is extremely important.
While the number of people who use the mobile web is growing, a lot of people are still reluctant to surf the web from a mobile phone, citing poor user experience and too few sites adapted for mobile. How important is it for a company to have a site specifically adapted for mobile? What are the important features?
It’s very important for a business to have a mobile site. People interact with a website differently on their phones than on a computer. Keep in mind some important differences: mobile devices lack a traditional mouse, the screen is considerably smaller, and 9 times out of 10 the user is doing something else while navigating the site (shopping, dining, standing in line, etc). Mobile site visitors have a very distinct reason why they are there; they want or need something specific, so it’s in the business’s best interest to make directions, pricing, and contact information direct and easy to find.
Sites that use Google Analytics can see what content mobile visitors are trying to locate on their non-mobile site. Using this data is a good way for a business to discern typical customer needs and then begin building a mobile site with that data in mind.
Business owners who understand the importance of mobile seem slow to actually pulling the trigger and executing a mobile site. Yes, there are additional costs involved with building mobile content, but the payoff can be enormous.
