SMS Marketing

The Direct Mailing Group can also offer targeted opt-in SMS marketing data. Marketers have rapidly identified that mobile marketing is a media that allows direct, personalised, interactive and targeted dialogue between brands and consumers via text messaging.
As with other direct marketing mediums, marketing via SMS can increase sales and have a positive effect on customer relationships.

Industry Statistics on SMS Marketing and Text Message Marketing

• Recent text figures reveal that over a billion messages were sent last month. Britons now send 45 million text messages each day across the four UK GSM network operators compared to just over 32 million sent in June 2001.
• Mobile text messages prompt on average a response rate of between 5-28% compared with direct mail rates of 2% (NOP)
• 81% of 13 year olds and over have their own mobile (ChildWise)
• The average student spends £28 per month on their mobile phone bill (Mobile Youth)
• The over 55s is the fastest growing group in terms of mobile messaging, with 1.3 million now texting compared with just over 1 million a year ago (Egg and Mori)
• The mobile messaging market in Western Europe will be driven by MMS and is set to reach a value of $20 billion by 2004 (Gartner Dataquest)

What is the future for mobile phone marketing?

"By 2003) 56% of direct marketers will adopt the SMS medium and will turn to SMS marketing providers to assist them." Michelle de Lussanet, analyst Forrester Research

The mobile is a lifeline and ideal lifestyle accessory of the youth sector. More than 36 million (about 80% of the population) in the UK aged over 12 own or have access to a mobile phone. The highest penetration (93%) is among 20 - 24 years olds. SMS or text messaging has added a further dimension to the attractiveness of mobile phones for the youth market. 'Txtng" is now a recognised cultural phenomenon, with its own spiky, vowel-free, onomatopoeic language a lingua franca in its own right. SMS is opening new avenues for marketing directly to the target audience in a personalised and entertaining manner.

However, in order to be successful, mobile marketing campaigns must be delivered effectively.

• Targeting: Campaigns must be targeted and tailored to the audience. People view their mobile phone as an extremely personal accessory. The make of phone, the choice of fascia colour, its smallness,its ringtones; owners see this as an extension of their personality - as is evidenced by the ostentatious cradling of mobile phones in any public space. Therefore messages sent to consumers via the phone must be extremely relevant to them.
• Permission: Mobile transactions - be they calls or text messages - are also very personal exchanges, and, unlike email, are largely disassociated from work. It is peer-to-peer communication in its purest form. Any kind of unwelcome intrusion into this personal space would run a very strong risk of immediately eroding the brand. Thus, permission-based marketing is not only a best-practice methodology but also the only realistic strategy in the use of mobile devices as a marketing channel. All consumers receiving messages should have explicitly indicated an interest in receiving such messages. Similarly, in view of the peer-to-peer nature of the channel, effective communication must respect this, and capitalise on the potential intimacy that such a relationship can afford.
• Value added: The communication must be relevant which means it must have an inherent value for the consumer. This can take the form of entertainment or exclusivity.