SMS Messaging - Is Your Business Using It?

What is SMS messaging? Do you have a cell phone? Over 90% of the population uses them. Have you ever received a text message? Probably. SMS is an acronym, which stands for "short message service". An SMS message is a text message received on your cell phone.

Unbeknowst to me, my relatively new car was due for its first oil change. What brought that to my attention? The service department of the car dealership where I bought the car sent me a text message. I was very impressed by their marketing skills and immediately went and had my oil change.

SMS messages can be sent phone to phone (landlines excluded) or via computer. Corporate professionals are realizing they can reach a new type of clientele with this form of advertising. Think about it for a second. How often during the day is your head buried into a cell phone? If your like most people, pretty much all day long. In an elementary school, over 50% of the children carry a cell phone.

A New Form of Advertising

The older, traditional methods of advertising including television, radio, and newspaper are now competing with virtual, new age technology. We are definitely in a new age generation. Let's take a look at some statistics to see how effective SMS messaging can be compared to the competition.

1 - Studies show that text messages are on average are read within 4 minutes of receipt. What an effective response rate. Compare that to online email messaging with an open rate of 1-2%. Which do you think is more effective? Kind of a no-brainer, huh?

2 - Studies show that television and radio advertising receive an approximate 3% response rate. That medium of advertising may be effective in building a brand, but comes with a high cost of doing business. Hopefully the advertiser is providing a much desired, big ticket item to cover the high cost of television and radio advertising.

3 - Low cost of SMS messaging. According to studies, SMS marketing receives an approximate 23% response rate. If you have ever received a text message from an unknown source, chances are you did actually read it before deleting it. The cost of sending out text messages, when compared to newspaper, radio and television is minimal.

What are the benefits of SMS Messaging?

Without questions, the very first and most important benefit is, 'It's very personal'. When I received the text message from the car dealer service department, it was as if they were thinking only of me. How much more personal can you get in the advertising world?

Once the potential customer has agreed to receive your SMS message (they have opted in to your marketing list, so to speak), those customers can be targeted for special sales, coupons, upcoming events, promos, etc. This form of communication to your customer is powerful, personal, and gets results. Compare a sale promo sent to a customers cell phone via text message with a radio commercial offering a sale promo. Which do you think will have greater results?

The target marketing via text messaging is pin-point, where the radio blast commercial or the newspaper advertisement is to the masses and not target specific.

Don't forget the one factor that SMS messaging brings that traditional forms of advertising do not. It's called FUN. Social networking and marketing can be fun for both parties.

Having your company trained in SMS marketing is highly valuable. This form of communication and advertising is taking the world by storm.