In the growing mobile marketing economy, brands and businesses are looking for new and innovative ways to engage the rising smartphone population through apps, QR codes, SMS, and location based advertising. While the creative factor may play more into the use of location based advertising and app designing, the focus of every mobile marketing agency should be one thing, and one thing only – an increase in the bottom line for their clients.
According to Nielsen’s February 2012 report, feature phone users make up 49.7 percent of total U.S. mobile subscribers. Using CTIA’s mobile wireless subscriber number of 331 million (December 2011), that equates to approximately 165 million subscribers, which is a healthy number. And according to Angelo Biasi, an adjunct professor for mobile marketing at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, “it is likely some of your customers and stakeholders are a part of that 165 million.”
“It is safe to say that when it comes to marketing to the widest audience of mobile subscribers with any one tactic, SMS messaging is king. With marketing success metrics of nearly 98 percent open rate (83 percent within the first three minutes) and up to 45 percent response rate, it is no wonder smart mobile marketers still consider SMS messaging as a viable tactic to reach all mobile subscribers.”
Yet if SMS and Text Message Marketing provide such a wide reach and high level of response, why is it still being overlooked in mobile marketing campaigns? According to Julie Roth Novack:
“SMS is an overlooked channel, it went out of favor a year or two ago with the growth in smartphones. In people’s minds, SMS is connected with feature phones but the fact of the matter is SMS is the No. 1 app on smartphones. There is this idea that because you are going after smartphone users, you don’t need SMS. [But] we have really seen a shift in the past six months, with [industry leading businesses] saying that SMS is a critical part of their strategy.”
It is this realization that is functionally changing the way industry leaders look at SMS and Text Message Marketing. It may be the most dated mobile marketing medium available, yet it is continually successful, and king of the hill, because of it’s wide reach and effectiveness. According to Kalin Kassabov,
“People are texting more than ever regardless of what type of phone they have. And even with smartphones, texting is still the No. 1 activity because of its easy user interface.”
So while your brand or business may be after captivating a mobile audience within a media-rich experience on their mobile device of choice, the main goals of mobile marketing are to increase customer loyalty and to create a positive effect on the bottom line by bringing customers in at times when you need them most. No marketing medium has been able to come anywhere close to achieving these goals in the way that SMS and Text Message Marketing has. While we believe in creative and engaging mobile campaigns, our frame of mind is singularly around one thing – bringing our clients more customers more often and showing them the effectiveness of text message and mobile marketing. But don’t take our word for it, give it a try today.