When talking about mobile marketing, this is a very young advertising method. This really started back in the early 2000s. Many companies were collecting cell phone numbers but did not really know how to use them. At this point, more people than today still had landlines so telemarketing and advertising was still more focused upon this particular avenue.
Messages truly began to hit home because of Short Message Services or SMS for short. Now any company that gets your number can send a message most times but it has to comply with certain guidelines that are set by each of the phone carriers. This can help ensure that you, as the sender, are in compliance with the carriers so that people do not see your message as invasive.
When talking about mobile marketing as a strategy, you will want to use a list that you create yourself usually. This could be something that you incorporate into the way that you deal with your customers. They could potentially sign up online for messages to be sent or as a finishing part of a dialogue in a customer interaction. This can be a way to touch your customers more frequently and in a very inexpensive manner.
One thing to keep in mind is that it may not be helpful to buy a database of cell phone customers when thinking about mobile marketing. Some cell phone companies will sell their database. Many cell phone users may find this to be intrusive and you may lose future customers as a result. It is hard to estimate what the response rate on this will be as well. This has been stopped by some cell phone companies by refusing to sell the list or creating a double opt-in. With this, it takes two yes’s from the customer before you have permission to send a text message. This can be a good way to validate your customer base and that your customer base has truly raised their hands to say they are interested in this medium of communication.
Each customer will respond to different communications. Some respond to mail, some will respond to newspaper ads, and others will respond to phone calls. This can help bring back part of your customer base that is unresponsive to your other communication attempts. It is estimated that an average of seven percent of individuals will respond to a text message. This is far higher than many direct mail pieces where a company often is thrilled to receive a three to five percent response rate. Mobile marketing can be very effective for your company.
You could even use this as a special way to reach customers about a sale not open to the public. This can be beneficial because the return rate between message and action is significantly shortened unlike with mail when you have to process and wait for it to be delivered.
Think through mobile marketing as a way to develop more business and provide more value for your customers. It can be an easy way to reach people and you could receive sales quickly for a special event if things are slow within the business.
