Mobile phone marketing, otherwise known as digital marketing, is the newest evolution of direct promotion. Direct promotion has always been chosen by businesses as a specialized and focused way of reaching new consumers and, with the popularity of cell phones, SMS marketing has risen in usage. Mobile marketing is perhaps best defined as the practice of advertising products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a fast, appropriate, personal and economic way.
The most common form of digital marketing is SMS marketing, which has expanded very quickly in Europe and Asia. It is predicted that several hundred million promotional messages are sent through SMS every month in Europe alone. SMS stands for ’short message service’ and is a communication form unique to mobiles where a short message can be quickly sent to any cell holder. As well as sending information to consumers, advertisers can often encourage consumers to participate in promotional and brand publicity promotions by encouraging consumers to SMS a specific number at an event in order to enter a competition, to receive a prize or to have their SMS displayed on a multimedia wall at an event. All of these methods involves the consumer through the medium of SMS and creates brand exposure.
There are a range of other types of mobile marketing. One variation is sending texts via MMS, which is a multimedia version of SMS, allowing customers to receive MMS with color, pictures and video. There is also mobile web marketing, where brands advertise marketing objectives through websites accessed by cell phones. Advertisers often make innovative use of SMS marketing such as location-based services where customers are offered specific marketing and other network-related information and promotional information based on their whereabouts. With the multitude of methods and choices available to promoters, it is no wonder that a recent marketing survey found that 89% of major brands planned to advertise their products through mobile marketing by the end of 2008.
SMS marketing is an example of what is known within the industry as “push” marketing. The thought behind push marketing is that that the marketer has to send (push) the information to the customer in order for the information to be received. This is different to “pull” marketing, a passive form of promotion, where it is users who seek out the material from sources such as websites or blogs.
There are lots of advantages to SMS marketing. Primarily, the attraction is that this form of advertising can be personalized to the subscriber. This is the gold standard in marketing as it means getting the material specifically to the group it’s focused on, rather than wasting money on an broad campaign. The specialization allowed by this mode of promotions, which results in a more cost-effective campaign, is one example why a high return on investment is possible with SMS marketing. Another advantage of SMS marketing is the detailed tracking and reporting of users it allows. Through this medium, companies can track how many subscribers received their material and also access specific data about each consumer such as their name, their age, their demographic and where they’re located. This allows a marketer to raise profiles of their subscribers; data which then guides future promotional campaigns and, ideally, their success.
It is noted in the industry that push marketing, of which SMS marketing is a form, can help drive new cash flows and brand reinforcement if it is used correctly and sensitively. This is because it makes users aware of recent events that they may not think to enquire about already and the way a message is phrased, and even the fact that the material is being delivered by a innovative, hip medium such as SMS, can say a great deal about a brand and a business.
There are, however, some disadvantages to SMS marketing. Inherently, it must have a mechanism - the cell phone - to be able to send content. The company, as well, has to make use of specialized equipment and software in order to send the information to subscribers, which can involve sizeable costs. Another negative is the fact that SMS marketing is heavily regulated by the telecommunications industry in response to public disquiet about what data and promotions they get shown. Most Western nations have laws in place that require marketers to get the consent of subscribers before marketing content is received by them and must clearly give them with an ‘opt out’ option if they ask to stop receiving information. If marketers are discovered to be in violation of these laws, network providers can block marketing content by marketers.
As mobile technology improves, SMS marketing will certainly continue to rise in relevance.
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