Why you can’t ignore SMS marketing any longer

Where email failed to hold audience attention, SMS marketing might just succeed.

Recent research by HubSpot indicates that most 12-17 year olds are moving away from email usage, towards SMS, instant messaging, and social media. There was a 59% drop in their Web-based email usage over the last 12 months. If most teenagers prefer to communicate with text messages, social networks and instant messaging, then email marketing doesn’t achieve as much as it used to. SMS marketing is looking like the new best thing.

While SMS marketing could fill the gap for teenager communication, HubSpot also claims that “web-based email usage has been on the decline among ALL Internet users under the age of 55.” So SMS marketing isn’t just for teenagers.

This is not to deny the role of email, but to point out that SMS marketing deserves a place in mainstream marketing practice, along with social media marketing. SMS marketing has two main advantages over traditional marketing forms. The first is that its platform is a preferred mode of communication for customers (this why Facebook advertising is successful too).

The second reason for SMS marketing success is that it communicates more closely with the consumer. The ‘one-way’ transmission model of communication is outdated: successful communication operates in dialogues, not monologues. So SMS marketing, like social media marketing, works because it makes exchanges between organisations and publics as easy as possible. When publics can send an SMS to an organisation and be heard, SMS marketing becomes invaluable to all involved.

SMS marketing is not a ‘silver bullet:’ it can and should be used in conjunction with other marketing channels. It has to be well-planned to be effective. Above all, it still needs to stick to marketing best practice and offer value to the customer. That 59% of teenagers who turned away from email communication won’t necessarily care about SMS marketing today, but as HubSpot put it, “today’s kids are tomorrow’s customers-and they’re probably not going to be reading your email.”

Source: http://www.malaysiaarticles.com/2011/04/21/why-you-cant-ignore-sms-marketing-any-longer/ by Andrew Campbell on 21st April 2011

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