As smart and mobile phones have become ubiquitous in recent years, mobile SMS marketing has developed as an important new channel.
And with just cause. Compared to email marketing, SMS has a staggeringly high open rates as the chart below attests. While a good email campaign can deliver open rates of around 20 per cent, SMS messages have an almost perfect delivery rate at close to 100 per cent.
And user response times are almost two and a half thousand times times according to a new paper titled “Mobile Marketing: A Prescriptive Guide Fortified to Build Stronger Marketing” from Oracle Marketing Cloud.
The Guide argues that the low cost and flexibility make SMS marketing ideal for businesses.
“SMS is lightning fast, literally putting your message into subscriber pockets or purses seconds after you send. The average time for all mobile carriers and SMS services is less than seven seconds from send to receive.”
(Chart: : Consumers expect a more imemdiate experience.)
The authors note that almost every SMS sent is opened (and read), whereas only a fraction of emails sent are read. “When a subscriber feels that friendly buzz in their pocket or hears that Pavlov’s Dog tone signaling a text message, they always look. In some cases, text messages are automatically opened, where emails aren’t. Subscribers have a choice to open your email.”
A number of tips are offered for marketers thinking developing an SMS campaign;
• Posing your message as part of a questionnaire or poll encourages your target audience to read more closely and become an active participant.
• Offering up a toll-free SMS reply option is an extra incentive for users to engage with your brand.
• And including a link to an entertaining video or images with more details about your promotion encourages users to investigate further.
The Guide suggests there is a higher efficacy for SMS relative to email “Consumers can get thousands of emails a month. Empowered by the technology at their desks and in their hands, consumers can fast-forward, delete, or tune out any messages they don’t like.”
SMS offers a way to reach these consumers where they miss (or avoid) other traditional messaging mediums.
This article originally appeared at www.which-50.com
