Mobile SMS Marketing: 11 Big Reasons to Adopt

SMS Marketing is the newest, fastest and easiest marketing platform yet. It is also among the most effective and affordable. Despite this, mobile SMS marketing has primarily been used only by big brands, which have been the quickest to adopt and master the medium, while smaller businesses have lagged behind. That is now beginning to change; even the smallest businesses are wising up!

Though mobile marketing is growing fast, but because it focuses on a context where other mediums can’t reach (a personal phone), it doesn't displace these other mediums. To the contrary, it integrates so well with email, print and web apps that it increases the use of those channels. 

It would be a mistake to ignore the growing importance of SMS-based marketing. It would also be a mistake to buy into the hype and assume SMS marketing will “kill” other forms of marketing.

With that small caveat in mind, here are some of the biggest reasons to adopt and integrate a mobile SMS marketing platform into your marketing mix.

1. It's mobile. Yeah, no duh, right? Yet mobile SMS/text is so much more agile than any other form of communication that it deserves special mention. This means SMS is the best medium yet to organise groups OFFLINE. Remember how Egyptian protesters used Twitter to mobilise street demonstrations against an oppressive regime? They weren't doing it on their laptops. For you and me, mobile represents a new avenue of opportunity to get loyal customers together ad hoc for sales and events. Some real magic can happen when they start to bump into each other and talk.

2. It's instant. We realise emails and telephony are also sent instantly, but we aren't talking about the speed of transmission. We are talking about the speed of feedback, the speed of intelligence. Mobile users are much more likely to open and respond to a text IMMEDIATELY than with any other medium. This makes it extremely useful for up-to-the-minute market research and feedback.

3. It's personal. People only give out their mobile numbers to trusted individuals. Via SMS, you are really connecting to a single individual person, which eliminates the risk of message misfire. This heightened element of trust is a delicate and valuable relationship that brings both high risk and high rewards.

4. It's affordable. Not much investment is required to produce a 160-character text message. Big businesses have been capitalising on this for a while, but SMS marketing is affordable enough for small businesses as well. SMS does not require traditional advertising, it is targeted, and each message costs pennies while delivering much higher than average response rates.

5. It works. Mobile search happens when people are actively looking, like at-the-store-ready-to-buy actively looking. Most mobile searchers buy within 24 hours, and response rates average 10-30%.

6. It's growing. When something does the same thing faster and cheaper, it is only a matter of time before it becomes dominant. Some complexities remain which hinder the rate of adoption, but the increasing number of smart phone users and web app developers are speeding up the growth process.

7. It’s extensive. Almost everyone has a mobile phone, even many without land lines or email. Besides that, you can reach almost everyone at nearly any time and any location, which no other medium offers to a comparable degree.

8. It’s highly viral. Messages can spread easily, and when they do, they spread extremely quickly.

9. It’s exponential. With SMS, you convert broadcasts into relationships, which serve as a foundation for the next broadcast. In other words, your ROI goes up the longer you use it. Couple this with the speed of SMS, and your benefits can become exponentially exponential. The level of data you can collect means even a big business can tailor messages to a personal level. 

10. It's two-way. Similar to email marketing, but unlike advertising, SMS enables conversation. This means you learn about customers while they learn about you. When the conversation flows both ways, so does the value. This enables fast and affordable information gethering at the same time as marketing and promotions. 

11. It’s easy. Easy to make, easy to send, easy to collect feedback. It's just a matter of getting started. That is where ReachTEL comes in.

On review of this list, the value of SMS seems painfully obvious. Yet it is equally painful and obvious to realize how little we have realized the potential of SMS marketing. Learn more at our SMS marketing page or contact live support.