FireStarter: Mobile Madness, how can it benefit your business?

Mobile Madness, how can it benefit your business?

It’s been just over twenty years since the most loved and hated device first took its rightful place in the pockets of everyone we know. They have come a long way from a suitcase with phone attached to slim, small and staggeringly convenient. Mobile phones are considered as personal as your wallet and in most cases, much more valuable.

The early years…

I still remember running to red phone boxes during my formative years in the UK. Trying to let someone know I was running late, trying my best to ignore the smell while stuffing twenty pence into the slot. Few of us now arrange exact times and places to meet, nowadays we “approxi-meet” – calling at the last minute to arrange when and where.

Mobiles make time more convenient, flexible and elastic

There’s no doubt, mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives.

It’s the first truly personal medium – always held, always on – opening up many new opportunities for marketing…

Growth

It has the power to reach as much as 89% of the population of Australia, and has the fastest growth and unwavering support of any media.

SMS (Short Message Service) or texting has had a phenomenal effect on the population, a recent study found that as many as seven out of ten mobile users in Australia prefer to send or receive a text than use make a voice call. This willingness to send and receive SMS gives organisations a foot in the door and more than enough room to influence a decision.

It is important to leverage the strengths of SMS to succeed in your efforts so your message has to be;

Personal
Exclusive
Immediate
Convenient
Functional
Engaging

It’s personal

The mobile phone is a far more personal environment than a letter box or even an email inbox and should be treated as such. Anyone using the medium must take care to offer real value within their messages and ensure the message is relevant and of a higher quality than direct mail.

SMS campaigns can be targeted and controlled by a tighter set of demographics such as time, location, lifestyle, interest and context. Mobiles do not attract the high volume of commercial “junk mail” and stand out more as a result.

Novelty?

Advertising via SMS is still considered a “new” media and as such is fresh and even a novelty to the consumer in some cases.

Most importantly, text messages can be replied to in just about any environment and in just seconds. They are also automatically stored to be dealt with at a more convenient time or even passed to large groups of friends if the offer is relevant, creating a real viral component to any marketing campaign.

A recent study showed that on average one in four promotions were forwarded to a friend, if acted upon, the cost of acquiring those customers is actually zero!
Regulation

Electronic marketing or eMarketing, as it has become fashionably known, accomplishes its best results when your target audience requests the information or offer from you. Randomly sending messages to any old list will eventually get you in hot water. The correct process is known as the “opt-in”, once a potential customer has opted in they have expressly given their electronic consent for you to contact them. You can even send them a message and ask for them to confirm this subscription by replying to the message. This is known as the double opt-in and is smiled upon by the newly formed Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Their site is a mine of information http://www.acma.gov.au

Currently standard SMS is reasonably unregulated with the exception of Premium SMS. Premium SMS is for all intense and purpose a micro billing mechanism. You HAVE to opt-in and give your digital permission to accept Premium messages and the charges attached. These messages can reverse bill your mobile phone account, currently a maximum of $5 per message. Also bear in mind that messages can be paired, each one attracting a charge. Needless to say this method of promotion has its abusers and it’s champions, unfortunately we rarely hear how the champions are doing. We tend to only hear about the 16 year old who ignored the warnings, then premium texted their way to a $500 phone bill in a single month and that the parents are outraged at the provider.

New income stream

Big Brother is probably one the best known Premium SMS users in Australia as they really get behind the promotion of this with a constant call to action through each painful episode. About 3.2 million viewers voted to evict housemates in Channel 10’s Big Brother and the network expects an increase in response rates of about 20 per cent in the next season. At a revenue share of approximately 22-25 cents per message in Channel Tens favour, that’s quite a bag of change.

There are a number of SMS enabled companies out there offering tools and utilities for mobile marketing. Look for the providers that can provide a total solution. SMS is just one slice of the eMarketing cake, find a service that combines SMS, email and a database facility in one easy to use system and you’ll really make your mark on eMarketing for your business in the easiest and safest way possible.

Digital Nomads

We have become digital nomads, sending and receiving, tapping on the keyboards of the latest SMS enabled devices at work, at home, in the supermarket check-out line, even in traffic and on holiday. Amazingly, we’ll happily pay more and more for the privilege.

As this mobile mammoth marches on, one thing is certain – we’ll still “tut” our disapproval when someone on the bus announces that they’re ‘on the bus’.

Interested in looking at an SMS campaign for your business? Contact us on 1300 13 89 31 to find out more...

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