The growth of SMS marketing has been incredible over the last decade and the benefits of SMS to business cannot be questioned.
There’s the reminder SMS I get from Hair Room or Back in Line Chiropractic each time I have an appointment. Great for business because it’s a cheap way to confirm appointments and reduce the costly no-shows.
As a Helly Hansen customer I’m also informed by SMS about store openings and VIP sale days. The promotions work! (see yellow arrow markers highlighting Helly Hansen purchases following SMS reminders).
So with mobile phones becoming smarter, the introduction of cheap data plans and the iPhone introducing a whole new batch of apps, my question is:
Is SMS marketing going the way of the Betamax? Is traditional paid SMS promotion in danger of becoming obsolete?
A new product for the iPhone called textPlus lets you send and receive SMS messages for free and also supports group chat. Then there are the micro blogging platforms (you may have heard of Twitter) that smart marketers are using to broadcast information and promotions relating to their brands. So with these emerging FREE micro blogging and messaging apps what is the future of SMS?
I’d love to hear from the SMS marketers out there. Why will SMS survive? What impact will free apps and micro blogging platforms have on the industry? Will the sky fall in on our SMS heads?
Great topic Slade!
Mobile marketing using SMS or Text messages is thriving and will continue to do so thanks to its simplicity, affordability, timeliness and adoption – practically everyone has SMS access with a mobile phone wherever they are.
Mobile communications also add that extra personal and proximity relevance when on the move, which cannot be matched by any other media channel.
There is definitely a place for FREE SMS marketing along side traditional paid SMS promotions and I believe both will continue to grow.
However, I believe only one can be truely relied upon for fully supported, sustainable, ad-free and reliable service from a business marketer perspective.
Looking at the bigger picture, there are some other things to keep in mind in the ‘FREE’ versus ‘Paid For’ debate.
Despite being FREE and having cool features, the reality is not everyone is or will use services from Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkeIn, etc or have the latest and greatest free iPhone application. Due to the rich media content, far fewer people are likely to access these services when away from their desktop computer.
Users of FREE social media services account for only a fraction of the people around the world who are already able to send and receive SMS messages from a standard featured mobile phone – anywhere they can get mobile access.
Last year an estimated 2.3 Trillion SMS messages were sent, which grew from 1.9 Trillion SMS messages the year before. SMS and Email are the global communications standards for messaging, with Telco volumes and revenues from SMS growing each year.
FREE messaging, social media or microblogging services tend to have a lower quality of service. For example, how often have you experienced slow response rates from a FREE service, lack of support or intermittent unreliable service like the “Fail Whale” on Twitter?
These FREE services are typically more cluttered with advertising to support their ‘FREE’ service. This can also detract from or dilute your marketing message and your brand when marketing via those services.
By their nature, FREE services tend to attract users with a smaller budget … like the FREE textplus service you refer to – where the majority of their users are teens or students. How many of those users have an authentic profile for accurate targeted marketing purposes anyway?
Despite this, I believe FREE and paid SMS marketing services will continue to flourish and have a very bright future.
When interactive mobile marketing is used in combination with campaigns across other media channels (such as social and online media), it provides more personal and relevant ways to deliver the right message at the right time to the right people via the right channel – right into the hands of your target market.
I found your question interesting — since, we’ve first developed Twitter product (with a new platform), but, are seeing the necessity of having an SMS equivalent. http://contentAI.com
SMS is instantaneous. Twitter APIs mean that @ and DM replies, even if automated, can take :90 seconds to send. “Threaded conversation” on Twitter (except on Windows Mobile apps) is terrible; where SMS can provide good back/forth.
That said, we also see how they work TOGETHER almost best. DM messages from Twitter to a User who has enabled DM to route to their SMS (integral to Twitter). Getting a Twitter DM message routed to SMS has some good legs to it.
But, it’s not “paid,” which was your question to begin with. The reality is “free” distribution solutions are going to replace anything paid. The payment will only be in the creative and app hosting.
SMS will remain a viable free platform for quite some time; though chat apps (google/talk) will make a major dent in traditional SMS.
My .02 cents.
Best
Eric
You’ve given me a lot to think about and Ben’s comments are fabulous. I do think that sms marketing is going to continue to evolve. When we look back over the trends of the past decade and how things have become more and more mobile, it’s quite amazing. Each day a new aspect is added or tweaked. Eventually, I’m sure sms marketing will find its way into the past like email marketing and the telecom industry; however, for now, it continues to be the top. We’ll see what happens.
Very nice post! I love coming to your blog for the reason that you often write well written articles. Thanks for sharing once again. I plan to adding to favorites this website. I believe I shall subscribe to this feed also. Until Next Time! ..
Hi, I think the short answer to your question is no. Since publishing this article SMS for marketing and SMS for business has continued to grow unabated. The interesting thing is that despite the solid growth of smart phones the growth of basic mobile technologies like SMS continue to grow with them.
The fact is that a basic SMS is still the most universal and quickest way to get a message to phones. Basically every phone accepts it and it is very cheap to send. I think the advent of Free SMS for consumers does not have a negative impact on SMS marketing, quite the opposite, it means that SMS is more entrenched as a communication medium and needs to continue to be adopted by business. Sure the cost may continue to drop away, but business will still need to access a quality bulk delivery platform, into the future if the SMS is free the product may not be (think email marketing).