Why Mobile SMS Text Marketing not E-mail Marketing?

With over 1.8 billion mobile connections worldwide, mobile marketing has now become a particularly effective device to marketers for promoting their brands in multiple ways. With growing population of mobile phones and decreasing usage expenses, SMS (text message) is becoming a powerful proposition for direct marketers who till now trusted emails and letters alone. Very often comparisons are drawn between effectiveness of Email and SMS (text messaging). On face of it, Email seems to have a natural benefit of being less costly than SMS. A slightly deeper study reveals that being close-to-free is now the main reason for Email loosing all its relevance when it comes to being effective.

Emails get blocked: An internal study revealed that most individuals have more than three Email accounts. Some of these accounts have become inactive as these receive only unsolicited SPAM. Various companies have set up extremely effective SPAM filters which block marketing mails and if not blocked by SPAM filters these land up in the Junk folder of the recipient. The marketing mails which are still able to make it to the Inbox are quite likely to be deleted from there without the recipient even taking a look at the subject matter.

SMS are always read: Now compare this with a marketing message sent as an SMS. A small element of cost associated with SMS has prevented it from being too widely used. SMS are easily personalised and are always read prior to they get deleted. Recipient sees the SMS immediately on receiving it and the impact and retention of the message is much higher than any other medium. SMS is not ignored and one may be almost fully assured that once a message lands on a phone it’s going to be seen, read and retained at least for quite a while.

SMS cover all buying segments: SMS unlike E-mail are pushed on mobile phones instantly. An E-mail user might not fetch his mails for some time, particularly when he’s using numerous accounts. In context of marketing also cellphones cover a much larger and wider segment of potential buyers of items and services than E-mail. Some of the significant segments, with substantial buying power, which get neglected by E-mail are house-wives, elderly people not very technology savvy, etc. Mobile population is much larger than regular Email customers.

The following is the comparison of email and SMS marketing:

Reach

Email: Internet customers
SMS: Mobile users

Cost per transaction

E-mail: Low
SMS: Medium

Access

E-mail: Home and work
SMS: Everywhere

Impact

E-mail: Low
SMS: Medium to high

Personal

E-mail: No
SMS: Yes

Synchronous

Email: No
SMS: Yes

Viral

Email: Yes
SMS: Yes

Conclusion: Mobile marketing is a new addition to the media mix, with fantastic opportunities for direct interaction with customers and cost-effective data collection. SMS-based marketing is more influential and has much higher penetration than Emails. A serious campaign, either for a brand building exercise or for short term promotions, can rely much more on SMS than Emails. Choosing a SMS marketing technology partner that understands the medium as well the needs is the key to success.

Source: http://internetbasedbusinessarticles.com/56730/why-mobile-sms-text-marketing-not-e-mail-marketing/ by Aikednea Johansen on 4th August 2011

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