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Mobile Marketing-Positives & Negatives.

Written by: Mark Michuda

Article Overview: After all the buzz about mobile marketing, lets take a few steps back to evaluate the positives and negatives.

Mobile Marketing-Positives & Negatives.

Businesses are always seeking innovative ways to communicate efficiently and effectively with customers in order to maintain good customer service and to increase sales. While postal mailing, phoning, and most recently emailing have been utilized as methods of communication from businesses to its customers, a new communication star is emerging, known commonly as “text messaging” and also known as short message system (“SMS”). Text messaging has typically been utilized peer to peer (consumer to consumer), however now businesses are starting to adopt it as a way to communicate information that is time sensitive and relevant to a customer’s specific interests. The advantage of text marketing is that the message arrives instantaneously on the receiving party’s cell phone, thus it is able to broadcast up-to-the minute information that is delivered in real time yet is not disruptive or obtrusive to the receiver since the message can be read and/or responded to at the receiver’s convenience and does not require audible dialogue. Broadly, it’s all about the “psychology” of text messages. They reach people wherever they are, at any time of day or night. That gives it a sense of an intimate communication—“the message is right here in my pocket”—which can be further enhanced with a targeted campaign that appeals directly to the consumer. And, due to its very nature, text messaging is viewed with a sense of urgency to which email can’t compare. Mobile phones are with most people almost 24 hours a day and thus the ability to deliver the message directly to the receiver is done with great confidence that the message will be received instantaneously. An example of how a small business can utilize text messaging in a marketing communiqué might be as follows: (This example message from a restaurant to a customer in its customer base who has opted in to received notices from the restaurant regarding specific interests, such as notification of tonight’s specials): Dear Mark…We are offering our all you can
eat pasta menu tonight at 20% off from 5 to 7pm. Please join us tonight! And an example of how a small business can utilize text messaging in a customer service communiqué might be as follows:
(This example message from a drycleaner to a customer in its customer base who has opted in to receive notices from the drycleaner, such as notification of when the dry cleaning is ready to be picked up): Dear Mark…Your drycleaning is ready early. It is ready to be picked up now. We are open until 7pm tonight. Come by anytime to pick up your order! The value of these customer contacts via text result most importantly in increased customer satisfaction, brand allegiance and increased sales, and efficiency. The infrastructure to deliver TextHub’s messaging service is already in existence and ready to be utilized for the TextHub messaging system. All that is required is a computer and internet connection at the business location to send the messages. And all that is required from the customer’s standpoint is a cell phone and permission to receive messaging from the business. Certainly, nearly every small business owns a computer and internet connection, and penetration of cell phone ownership among consumers exceeds 85% in the U.S., and even higher in Europe and other locations around the globe. And while the original primary use of a cell phone was intended to send and receive phone calls, today text messaging is the fastest growing use of the mobile device. Over 12 billion text messages are sent and received in any given month and a new report from Portio Research forecasts a healthy future for text messaging which continues to be the “star of the data services show” with traffic volumes that continue to confound all predictions. By 2012, global SMS traffic is estimated at 3.7 trillion messages. A recent Nielsen Company report (March 2008) indicates that of 58 million mobile subscribers who received ads on their mobile devices, 51% indicated they responded to the ad, 26% of which responded specifically by text (SMS) reply, an incredibly high response rate. Most consumers keep their cell phones with them at all times and over 90 percent of all text messages received are read. We are exiting the “early adopter phase” of text message communication and entering a phase of text messaging as status quo. As testimony to the robust nature of text messaging communication today, U.S. Federal Regulators approved a plan on April 9, 2008 to create a nationwide emergency alert system using text messages delivered to cell phones. Moreoever, in specific test marketing campaigns, Dunkin Donuts text messaged coupons direct to customers who opted in to receive the special offers and store traffic in the text area increased by 21 percent. Similarly, Moosejaw, a retailer of outdoor gear and apparel, recently instituted a text messaging communication campaign with its customers in which two thirds of the customers receiving text message notices from Moosejaw responded.

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Article Tags: cell phone, confidence, convenience, customer base, dialogue, good customer service, intimate communication, marketing, methods of communication, mobile phones, new communication, psychology, real time, sense of urgency, short message system, small business, text messages, text messaging, time of day



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Some of the tools of the trade and a few of the concepts that will be featured in this Mobile Marketing 101 series are: Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Bluetooth, Wireless and Infrared Mobile Internet and Social Media Mobile Applications Mobile connectivity not only enables people to connect to the Internet via a cellular telephone, PDA or other gadget, but also consolidates the different communication channels in a simple, yet effective, medium. Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer - and easy enough for almost any age group to understand and engage with - Mobile Marketing really is a streamlined version of traditional eMarketing.
Re: Mobile Marketing - Top 10 trends in the mobile application in 2012 What is most interesting to us mobile marketers is what lands at # 2 and # 3 spots on his list. "Mobile Search", "location-based services," and also, the place n. # 8 is our favorite of my "mobile advertising." last round after this morning's location based on 1020 funding Placecast poster supports the thesis that when it comes to phones, people expect to be able to discover things around them. That makes sense - after all, what good is a mobile device if you can not access the information you need right now? Gartner reports that location services will be "one of the most disturbing in the coming years." Gartner predicts that the LBS user base of 96 million global growth in 2009 to more than 526 million by 2012. "His value to the user high is the result of its ability to meet a variety of needs, ranging from productivity and fullfillment target social networking and entertainment." Mobile Search, which Gartner says is a fundamental purpose "to drive sales and marketing opportunities in the mobile phone," now just need the user experience. Once "the industry improves the user experience of mobile search to get people back again," Gartner predicts it will be the third most popular application in 2012. Getting to # 8, mobile advertising is no joke. Total spending on mobile advertising in 2008 was $ 530.2 million, which Gartner expects to grow to $ 7.5 billion in 2012. "Mobile advertising is an important way to monetize the mobile Internet content, applications and offering free services to end users. The mobile channel will be used as part of the largest advertising campaigns in various media, including television, radio, print and outdoor, "says Gartner. Here's the full top 10 types of future mobile applications, according to Gartner: 1. Money transfer 2. Location Based Services 3. Mobile Search 4. Mobile Browsing 5. Mobile health monitoring 6. Mobile Payment 7. Near field communication services 8. Mobile Advertising 9. Mobile Instant Messaging
Re: Mobile Marketing - No doubt on this.Mobile marketing seems to be a good business now although very few amount of people have knowledge about this.
Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing is on pace and it'll engage a reputed image soon. Online shopping is based on PCs and Laptops at the present time but soon it will also be popular for mobile phones.
Re: Making Money in 2010 - What's Next? - Mobile contents will sell more this year. Cell phones are now replacing our laptops and PC. You can do virtually all thing you do on your pc on your cell phone now or smart phone.


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