COMING TO AMERICA! – Pay attention US Merchants !
Text SMS marketing rules in Europe and Asia. It is the paramount method for merchants to contact customers anytime, anyplace. People simply do not leave home without their cell phones, so you always have access to them with mobile marketing.
Text message marketing (a.k.a., "mobile marketing") is targeted, personal, immediate, and time-effective communication. Unlike e-mail marketing, which people tend to despise and regard as invasive, SMS is not viewed as Spam because people must ask for the information in the first place. It is information that people have requested and are happy to receive. Most people think of text messages as fun and informative.
In addition, mobile marketing is far more effective than online marketing. Online click-through responses average between 3-6 percent. Mobile marketing campaigns achieve as high as 80 percent response in Europe. Why? Mobile marketing occurs anytime, anywhere. The consumer requests and receives the message and can then act on it immediately. It's personal and immediate, and the audience is interested and motivated. In contrast, Internet marketing is limited to a time and place. The consumer must receive the waiting message and then act on it. It's impersonal and remote.
SMS subscribers have grown from 26.4 million in 2003 to an expected 785.5 million in 2007. Teens in the U.S. are sending about 1.6 billion text messages a month. Does this suggest a ready market? By the end of 2008, there will probably be in excess of 80 billion text messages exchanged globally. Capitalizing on this technology will separate many from their competitors.
Powerful application scenarios
The limitation of SMS is the 160-character size of the message. To get around this, it is possible to text a reply that contains a URL that links to a mini-Web site with more information and "buy" links. An example will help clarify this.
Say that a realtor places a For Sale sign in front of a property and attaches a box to the sign containing flyers with information about the property. Unfortunately, neighborhood kids take all the flyers, and when real prospects come by, there is no information available. If there were a text message strip on the bottom of the sign, the prospective customer could send a text message and instantly receive a reply with links to pictures of what the house looks like inside and all the specs. Not only that, the realtor now knows who the prospects are and how to contact them. Even better, the realtor now has a good idea about the price range, type of house, neighborhood, and size requirements of the prospect and can call them about comparables or text message the info to their cell phone.
Mobile phones are the future of marketing...
I doubt if there is a phone sold today that will not do text messaging. However, the real test is whether a phone is Web-enabled. Some phones are incapable of true Web browsing and some have limited capabilities and can only access a few carrier-specific Web sites. Some phones do not let you connect to hyperlinked Web sites. If that describes your phone, get rid of it and get a Windows Mobile device at your earliest convenience so that you can take advantage of the full potential of SMS.
Text messaging lets you quickly send and receive information, make reservations, make contributions, send money, receive money, make money, and save money. SMS is a powerful way to target consumers on the move because it goes where the customers are. Most consumers find the novelty of SMS fun and engaging. Compared to the efficiency of SMS, e-mail will become the "snail mail" of the electronic age. Texting will soon become the preferred marketing method for large and small businesses. Bill Gates predicts that mobile phones are the future"-"not laptops, and not Pocket PCs. As this future unfolds, mobile marketing will expand accordingly.
FootNote: Timothy S. Hillebrand, Ph.D., president of Synergetics International, is an archaeologist and a credible mobile technology enthusiast who enjoys writing archaeological adventure novels, traveling, and working in his Japanese garden. He is a blogger and the Windows Mobile editor for Handheld Computing Magazine. He has contributed hundreds of articles and reviews to various publications. He offers a workshop for the legal profession on how to become e-legal, e-literate, and e mobile in today’s market.He contributed to the information note here.
TEXT MESSAGING IS GETTING MORE AND MORE POPULAR even in the fast food industry see below !
(Copy and paste the links below into your browser)
http://www.sthelens-dominos.blogspot.com/2007/09/text-ordering-comes-to-dominos-st.html
http://www.papajohns.com/sms/#
http://gizmodo.com/346007/pizza-hut-starts-text-message-delivery
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9909076-7.html
