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SMS Marketing - finding customers through mobile marketing
By: Stefanos Cunning, Sat Mar 18th, 2006
SMS Marketing – finding customers through mobile marketing
The mobile phone has revolutionised everyday life as well as the
way we do business. A less well-known fact is that it also opens
up fantastic opportunities for interaction between companies and
their customers.
The following statistics clearly demonstrate the fantastic
take-up of Text Messaging, or SMS (Short Messaging Service), in
the consumer market:
-Over 20 billion text messages were sent in the UK in 2003
(Mobile Data Association) -Over 25 billion text messages were
sent in the UK in 2004 (Mobile Data Association) -Expected
growth for 2005 to reach 30 billion text messages (Mobile Data
Association) -56% of direct marketers are planning regular SMS
use this year (Forrester)
Over the past few years, text messaging has become by far the
most popular mobile data service, and mobile marketing has
established itself as an attractive medium in terms of entry
cost, response rates and interactivity. We will see it become an
increasingly important element in the communications mix in the
future.
SMS as a Marketing Tool
For marketers SMS opens up completely new opportunities.
Provided recipients have actively opted-in to a service or
promotion, an SMS campaign is very well received. The results
speak for themselves: recall rates of 60-90% and response rates
of 5-20% are often achieved. This is why SMS is becoming
incredibly popular to use as one of the many components in an
integrated marketing campaign. Still, this medium is very much
in its infancy, and the sky is the limit. The following factors
will drive the future growth of mobile marketing:
-Further adoption of text messaging among older age segments
-Introduction of further content and services available only on
mobile phones (ring tones, alerts, logos, pictures etc)
-Introduction of new standards and formats that offer a richer
user experience and further interactivity (MMS with colour and
sound, polyphonic ring tones etc)
The bottom line is, mobile phones are becoming an integral part
of the social fabric. As such we strongly believe in the power
of mobile marketing!
Case Studies
An East-end Pub using SMS to market theme nights
A small east-end pub wanted to increase the turnout to their pub
during week. So they decided to create theme nights for both
Tuesday and Wednesday. During the weekend they had membership
sign-ups to the SMS TXTing service.
Using a web-based interface, the pub owner would prepare a text
message the night before the event and send it to his database
of members, usually offering a 50% off discount if the member
would show up with that text message. It proved a great success
with 27% of those who received the text message showing up at
the pub.
A London-based security company – Off-site SMS timesheets
A London-based security company, wanted to centralise and
automate their timesheet system for all of their off-site
security officers. At each site a supervisor was provided with a
mobile phone with an allocated monthly amount of SMS text
credits.
Using SMS technology, the supervisor would text a keyword and a
badge number for each security officer as they arrived on site.
This SMS text message was sent to a central database which
updated the individual security officer’s timesheet. As each
officer left the site at the end of the day, the supervisor
would again text a keyword with the badge number to the provided
number. This cut the entire process of timesheet collection
(sometimes taking 48 hours) to 0 hours as the database provided
the administration with a live feed. This process also ensured
that records were accurate and never lost.
A London nightclub news website – provide daily what’s on
tonight SMS Textback Service
A London nightclub news website wanted to provide their members
with the ability to find out what bars and nightclubs were open
on any given day, without having to browse the website as well
as convince bars and nightclubs to advertise on the website
Using reverse billing and textback, the website provided its
users with the ability to find out this information. Users would
text a particular keyword in their mobile handset and then send
this message to a defined short code (i.e. 83999). A set amount
was then immediately deducted from the users phone either
pay-as-you-go or from their monthly contract. The user would
then receive an instant SMS message with all of the particular
nightclubs that were open that evening.
By using this type of advertising the website was able to
increase its sales for advertisers on its site by 40% in first
quarter alone.
2cast4 – SMS artist textback service for casting/booking
application
2cast4, an application service software provider for agents in
the media and advertising industries working in film, television
and photography, wanted to provide casting agents a fast and
efficient way to communicate with their artists in order to find
out if they were available for castings.
By using a combination of Web and SMS technology, 2cast4 leads
the industry in casting solutions. Casting agents enter all of
the casting job details into a database and then query the
database for artist matches based on set criteria. Then those
short-listed can be sent an instant SMS message. The casting
agent only enters the message once, but it is personalised and
sent to all of the relevant artists. Upon receipt of the SMS
text message, the artist simply replies to the text with either
yes or no. The message is then routed back to the database and
updates the records immediately. This solution provided the
casting agents with time/cost-saving efficiency while ensuring
accurate records.
A digital media company – Multimedia via SMS and WAP
A London-based digital media company wanted to provide their
users with the ability to choose from several different media
and by sending a text message to a given short code (i.e.
83999), an automatic WAP service message was sent back to the
user for them to download the file (i.e. MID, MP3, 3GP).
Using a web interface, the digital media company was able to
upload their media files straight to a web server, while also
storing the file information in a database. All SMS requests,
WAP service messages and downloads were tracked by the database,
as were user information like mobile number, mobile network,
mobile handset, WAP IP address, file requested, file downloaded,
and date. Through use of this tracking system the digital media
company was able to compile important user marketing information.
Conclusion
Mobile marketing is a new addition to the media mix, with great
opportunities for direct interaction with customers and
cost-effective data collection. Leading brands have adopted this
medium and the number of companies actively using mobile
marketing in their marketing strategies is growing rapidly.
Selecting a supplier that understands the medium as well your
requirements is key to success - we hope that this overview will
help you to make the most out of this exciting media channel.
For further information and case studies from your industry,
please see www.unilabplus.com, www.i-multimarket.co.uk or
contact Stefanos Cunning at Unilabplus Ltd London office.
About the author:
Director of Unilabplus Ltd, a London-based online business
management software house.
