December 17, 2011
Mobile Text Message Marketing
Article by Michael Clough
One of the coolest and most exciting things I’ve ever seen in the last few years, besides the Internet itself, is Mobile Text Marketing. Where else can I get a message from my favorite restaurant telling me about this great new dish they have or a special on a great steak that I enjoyed last week?
It’s because I “opted in” allowing them to send me updates on what they are offering. And for them, they are keeping in constant communication with one of their loyal customers who loves to eat!
Or, I can receive a message from a store that carries my favorite brand of shoes, clothing and shirts. Plus other stores that carry household items that are necessary to daily living (groceries, etc).
And I also can receive these alerts from my Concert Promoter, Car Dealer, Mechanic, Day Spa, Realtor, Hair Stylist, and a host of other services that I use. The possibilities are endless.
Mobile Marketing is by far the quickest and most popular way to increase your businesses revenue in an instant! This is the marketing of the future and the future is here!
Mobile Marketing is a direct link for all businesses and organizations to be in constant direct contact with consumers at all times. It is estimated that over 84% of all Americans now carry a mobile device with them at all times. The market place has gone mobile and billions of dollars of products and services are purchased with mobile devices constantly, and will increase exponentially.
Not to mention, if you own a local business, you can text all your customers with specials, discounts, events, happenings or any other relevant news pertaining to your company. This is all “permission based” marketing and your customers will have “opted in” to receive these texts.This type of marketing gives you a leg up on your competition.
97% of all text messages are opened and done so within 20 minutes! Emails are dwindling down now to a 19% open rate.
So, who needs Mobile Marketing?
RestaurantsFast Food / Pizza, BurgersDoctors/ DentistsRetail Shops – AllCar DealershipsSpas and ResortsReal Estate ProfessionalsEntertainersConcert VenuesGolf CoursesChurchesSki ResortsPolitical CampaignsCharitiesSchoolsFinance ProfessionalsCelebritiesCoaches and ConsultantsCasinosAuthors/ PublishersFitness TrainersNight ClubsAntique CollectorsTravel AgenciesAnyone with Repeat CustomersANYONE doing a promotion
The Mobile Text Marketing platform is very popular for repeat customers, however I am seeing uses across all genres.
With this marketing, you have the ability to greatly increase sales the exact same day that your message is sent. Very often new sales can be at your door in under an hour or you can even market to customers already use your business. It is a fact that new mobile messages are read in an average of 14 minutes while the average time for someone to read an email is 7.4 hours.
If you were doing coupon marketing, your customers would have to wait until they are in front of a computer to read it, then go home and print out the offer to bring it in to redeem it. With this type of marketing, the customer just has to show the message to the business to redeem the special being offered.
You along with 4.3 billion people worldwide have mobile phones. 87% of all Americans own a mobile phone. 68.7% are frequent text users. 96% of ALL text messages are OPENED.87% of text message are opened within the first hour.1.58 trillion text messages were sent in the USA last year. That’s tripled since 2007.
53,084 text messages are sent every second.
This is why Mobile Text Marketing will explode in the next several years, and why you should position yourself to cash in on it now!Fact: People are now shifting over to Mobile devices instead of relying on their computers and laptops. Email is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Not totally gone, but not as important anymore.
TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING GLOSSARY
This glossary is a handy reference guide for the business owner who is interested in text message marketing. If you are sick of slick sales rep talking over your head, or being frustrated trying to decipher sales material, this glossary is for you.
It will break down some of the common terms associated with text message marketing. This will allow you to more easily understand any promotional materials you are checking out.
Text Message: A text based electronic message sent from one mobile user to another mobile user. There is usually a limit of around 160 characters.
SMS: Stands for Short Message Service, it is another name for text messaging.
SmartPhones: The new style of cell phone that offers mobile users advanced capabilities. This often means personal computer type functionality.
Opt-In: In text message marketing, this term means that someone has willingly added themselves to “Your List”. This is usually done by texting a keyword, to a short code number.
Your List: This is your list of people who have opted-in. In text message marketing this will be a list of mobile phone numbers from the people who have joined your list. This is who you now can directly market to.
Permission Based: Permission based marketing is based around the general concept that you first get people to give you permission to market to them through the opt-in process. This increases your return on investment, and customer satisfaction.Keyword: In text message marketing this is the term that people will text to a certain number to join your list.
Short Code: Short codes (also known as short numbers) are special telephone numbers, significantly shorter than full telephone numbers, that are used for text message marketing campaigns. This will be the number that people text the keyword to.
Subscription Based Pricing: This is a pricing structure that text message marketing vendors use. This method is based on the number of subscribers and usually includes unlimited messages.
Message Based Pricing: This is a pricing model in which you will be charged per message you send. It usually works out to pennies a message. Opt-In Offer: This is the offer that you use to entice people to opt-in to your list. For most business this will be some sort of freebie, coupon or discount.
Characters: When text messaging, this term means all of the numbers, letters, symbols and spaces of a text message. Anything you input is a character and most text messages are limited to around 160.
Analytics: Your text message marketing vendor should provide you with some kind of reporting system that will give you an idea of how your texts are being sent, opened, how many unsubscribes etc… These tools are sometimes known as Analytics (Metrics as well)
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard for electronic mail (e-mail) transmission. This is a much slower and less reliable way to send text messages.
SMPP: The Short Message Peer-to-Peer (SMPP) protocol is a telecommunications industry protocol for exchanging text messages between yourself and your list. This is a much much more effective choice when text message marketing.
Provider: This is the company or vendor who provides the back end and technology for you to run your marketing campaigns.
Carriers: Carriers are your cell phone providers. Some providers only work on certain carriers. An example of a carrier would be Sprint in the US, and Bell in Canada.
Blast: A blast is when you send a message to everyone on your list. This can be an update or an offer designed to get people in the door.
http://MobileTextMessageMarketing.net
Michael Clough is an expert article writer and SEO specialist.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Incorporates QR Codes & SMS Into Services
The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the US and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate ( www.jenningssocialmedia.com ).
Read more on MarketWatch (press release)
