What do you guys think of companies using text messaging for marketing?

whateverpedia

10 years ago

If it's an opt-in list, I don't see any problems with it.

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David Beroff

10 years ago

Surely you measure response rates on the coupons. What do your own numbers say?

Or do you represent the texting company?

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AbellCane

10 years ago

Originally Posted by David Beroff

Surely you measure response rates on the coupons. What do your own numbers say?

Or do you represent the texting company?

Don't represent the company. I don't think we have statistics on how many people actually use the coupons, but our numbers round up that 90% of people read the message, but I'm not sure how that compares the the percentages of email/snail mail.

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David Beroff 10 years ago

Originally Posted by AbellCane

I don't think we have statistics on how many people actually use the coupons....

I think we've just identified how you can start improving your numbers!! Step one is to measure them! Not sure how you arrived at that 90% figure if you're not measuring.
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JohnMcCabe

10 years ago

Originally Posted by AbellCane

Don't represent the company. I don't think we have statistics on how many people actually use the coupons, but our numbers round up that 90% of people read the message, but I'm not sure how that compares the the percentages of email/snail mail.

Okay, here's where you start actually earning your money.

Work with your client to find out how many coupons actually get used. They should be able to dig that out of their POS system pretty easily. Take a dime store calculator and figure out coupons redeemed divided coupons sent.

Do the same thing with an email offer, and with a snail mail offer.

Now you have a baseline which measures your market and your offers.

Anything else, including specific answers here, will be anything from a pure guess to a generic statistic picked up somewhere.

Or, if that's too much work for you, try the Direct Marketing Association for some generic stats.

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havyhavy

10 years ago

Did you know that 99% of mobile phone owners have text messaging?

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David Beroff

10 years ago

OK, I'm confused. I'm still not sure if the OP is representing the company to which they link, but in any case, if legit, this thread seems like it actually belongs in the main subforum, (which is where it started, I think). Why would moderators move it to OT?

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DenniseTan 10 years ago

IMO, it is a very effective way of sending ads and coupons to your subscribers. Some people don't have the time to check their email, so there is a somewhat low chance of getting your ad or coupon seen. Receiving ads and coupons via text message is also more convenient.
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Roadturn

10 years ago

Looks like your tool has analytics, Abell.

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SueLec

9 years ago

I work for a mobile engagement solutions provider. We completed in-depth research earlier this year on all of our customers mobile promotions - we sell only to retailers who send text messages and mobile coupons to their customers via SMS, email (desktop of mobile), mobile web, mobile app, online shopping cart, and Passbook. Our customers saw the following mobile offer redemption rates:

- email: average between 2-4%
- Customers who subscribe to an SMS marketing list: average between 3-10% and as high as 13%
- Customers who receive offers in a retailer's mobile app: average between 8-10% and as high as 16%
- Customers who subscribe to more than 1 channel (e.g., email and SMS): average between 15-25%
- On-demand promotions where customers text-in a keyword to a retailer's shortcode to receive an offer: 30-50% and as high as 85%

There's no question that SMS is more effective than email. However, there a lot of factors that go into creating a good SMS campaign such as the quality of the list, message copy, offer, and when the message is delivered.

Hope this helps.

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Sid Hale

9 years ago

Hey Sue,

First, thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by SueLec

Our customers saw the following mobile offer redemption rates:

- email: average between 2-4%
- Customers who subscribe to an SMS marketing list: average between 3-10% and as high as 13%
- Customers who receive offers in a retailer's mobile app: average between 8-10% and as high as 16%
- Customers who subscribe to more than 1 channel (e.g., email and SMS): average between 15-25%
- On-demand promotions where customers text-in a keyword to a retailer's shortcode to receive an offer: 30-50% and as high as 85%

I'm sure there are some here who would question your numbers, simply because of who you represent, but I'm willing to accept those at face value.

However... you've drawn conclusions without sharing sufficient data to support those conclusions.

There's no question that SMS is more effective than email. However, there a lot of factors that go into creating a good SMS campaign such as the quality of the list, message copy, offer, and when the message is delivered.

To truly determine which is more "effective", it's necessary to know:

the number of recipients (opt-ins) on the email lists vs.the number of recipients on the SMS lists,
the age of each of those lists
the frequency of new opt-ins to each list
the rate of opt-outs to each list, and (very importantly)
the frequency of mailing/texting to each list.

2% of a list of 100,000 recipients is a much bigger number than 13% of 25 recipients.

All of the factors you listed for creating a good SMS campaign are also important for a good email campaign. I'm guessing that your customers email lists pre-date your involvement in their marketing and didn't have the benefit of your participation/training when those email lists were created.

I'm a big proponent of SMS marketing, but you would do the members here a much greater service if you provided even more detailed statistics.

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SueLec 9 years ago

Hi Sid,

Thanks for your reply. You make some very good points.

I'm not sure how to respond to your questions regarding the legitimacy of the data I presented other than to say...

First, by no means is this intended to be self-promotion. I fully understand the nature of this forum and am only interested in sharing what I have learned regarding mobile promotions.

Second, the data was compiled from SMS lists that are as small as 10,000 opt'ed-in users and as large as 4+ million users. These are very large lists from retailers who do a lot of mobile promotions (in addition to email marketing).

Based on my experience, the barrier of entry for email marketing is a lot lower than SMS marketing. But, we have found that there is significant payback if SMS marketing is done well (and you don't have to be a big box retailer with the ability to spend millions of dollars on marketing to create productive SMS promotions).

In an earlier post, DenniseTan makes a valid point that SMS is a relatively new channel, compared to email. Consumers who opt-in to SMS marketing lists are typically very engaged customers, probably more so than customers who have opt'ed-in to an email marketing list (to your point regarding list quality). It should also be noted that any good SP, whether email or SMS, will routinely prune lists keeping them current.

Third, I'm happy to share the white paper that describes the results in more detail. Since I'm fairly new to the group, please let me know what is the easiest and least self-promotional way to do it. For example, I can provide a link to our website where you can sign-up and download the white paper. If you put (WF) next to your name, I promise you will not be added to our email marketing list. Or, is there someplace that I can post relevant sections of the white paper? Other ideas for sharing more detailed information?

--Sue
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Roadturn 9 years ago

Good stuff, Sue. Thank you.
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essmeier

9 years ago

I don't think much of anyone using text messaging for any purpose. Don't like the medium, and find it a nuisance.

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hagendazz07

9 years ago

There are so many people using smartphones all the times nowaday that I'd say it's a good idea.

As people have mention previously in order to know which one is better, text msg or email you would need to measure both and compare the results.

Joel

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madstan

9 years ago

Annoying as hell especially when they send them everyday.

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Greg guitar 9 years ago

Originally Posted by madstan

Annoying as hell especially when they send them everyday.

Did they force you to sign up? Did they not allow you to opt out? If that's the case, you have legal options.

If the answer to both questions is no, then you're just complaining for the sake of complaining.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people come to a marketing forum to complain about being marketed to; usually by people who they could take a lesson from.

This particularly applies to the WSO section. I haven't looked much for some time, but when I did, it seemed that in nearly every thread, there were people complaining bitterly about being presented at checkout, with OTOs, implying that it was akin to fraud; they thought they were done buying, and the seller had the gall to present them with an upsell offer.

Warriors who complain about being sold to just don't get it. You can learn from these people instead of complaining. The reason good marketers use upsells is that they know most of the money comes after the main offer, and if you don't have anything there, you're throwing away one of your biggest opportunities; the people who are most likely to buy from you are those that just did, and they are still getting what they came for, but you are offering an add on, a supercharged version, or something complementary. Many people find them incredibly valuable, and take the offer; they are in use because they work.

By the same token, people who send you daily offers by text are doing it because it works and they make money at it. A restaurant that sends out daily specials via text can double their lunch crowd with people that are glad to have received a discount, free drink, or whatever. Its a win for both sides. Its even a win for those that like to complain, because it gave you one more excuse to do so.

People complain about every form of marketing, but if you complain about it in a marketing forum, then you're just here to waste time when you could be learning something that could make you money.

Of course, if you think marketing is bad, then you won't feel very good about making money from it, and it might prevent you from doing so. In which case you'd do well to find another interest and abandon marketing forums altogether.
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Marx Vergel Melencio

9 years ago

AbellCane,

Originally Posted by AbellCane

I work for a small company and we send out a weekly text message to shoppers who signed up for our list. Instead of a traditional mailing list we use ... to send out messages advertising things like sales and coupons. Do you guys think this works better than email/snail mail?

Why not just create a mobile app, ask your existing and would-be subscribers to just download it, enter their emails and mobile numbers in your app, and start using it so as to conveniently get fresh lists of coupons, discount vouchers, sale offers and so on that are neatly organized based on product categories and targeted based on their current locations among other things, and have them set the app to notify them of new offers via app alerts, email notifications, SMS alerts (for priority offers), or a combination of these options, with priority for certain product categories that they want?

With this solution, you can:

** Track subscriber engagement and activity not just for app usage, but also for certain product categories and specific offers;

** Send out SMS alerts for priority offers (like offers from advertisers that pay you top dollar to advertise their offers across your subscribers as priority offers);

** Save up on outbound SMS costs;

** Do email alerts, app alerts and SMS alerts (for priority offers) as optional things for subscribers; and

** Compare email alert, app alert and SMS priority alert open rates, as well as number of subscribers who choose to be notified via email, via app alerts, via SMS (for priority offers), or a combination of these things ...

In a subscriber's perspective -- I'm in some local opt-in real estate SMS lists here in the Philippines because I invest in real estate as part of my investment portfolio, and I regularly get message alerts for various offers ...

This is good, but not when I receive messages for offers while I'm in the middle of some important things, because I need to check if it's something urgent from my contacts (and I get distracted most of the time). So:

What would be good is to have these SMS real estate alerts sorted out and separated from messages sent by my contacts (sorting out and separating messages from strangers would be another useful thing, though that's for another post); and

I think a mobile app for these local real estate alerts would do the trick for me ...

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TrumpiaTim

9 years ago

SMS mobile text messaging can be an incredibly effective tool with our customers at Trumpia most will see an open and read rate of 85% or higher when sending out their mass sms text message.

The key however is that because this is such an effective medium, you must first get customers to opt-in so with their permission you can contact them in the future to solicit your product or service.

Secondly, given such a high open and read rate with text messages, you must be careful in monitoring the content going out, if it's spammy or irrelevant it is likely that your subscriber will opt themselves out of your sms text club.

Generally speaking we advise most businesses to send out between 4-6 mobile text campaigns through out any given month.

With the upcoming holiday season I expect this number to spike up as you will see many retailers rely on SMS text messages to push their sales especially during Black Friday and Christmas.

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JenniferGiacoppo

9 years ago

As long as people have opt-ed in somewhere or subscribed and you are not spamming anyone through this process.

Keep it legit and honest.

Do it properly.

I have actually received information from my local stores that have sales happening at that time so it does work and

can be effective.

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Brent Stangel

9 years ago

you must first get customers to opt-in so with their permission

It's already gained a reputation with me of being the next haven of spammers. I routinely get them and have never once opted in. They are mostly porn type junk and I really need a spam filter on my phone.

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kimanierick

9 years ago

I think you are in a better position to tell us if it works judging on how it converts in that business. I think that messaging can work better than the email services. everyone uses the messaging service, it is easy to get to them and the recipient receives and reads the messages instantly unlike the emails which you might even ignore. the target customer also feels closer to the sender and there is a more mutual relationship between the two. Yes it works better.

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salegurus

9 years ago

Freakin hate sms spamers, never opted in to any txt list and I get txt spam all the time.

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Regional Warrior 9 years ago

Originally Posted by salegurus

Freakin hate sms spamers, never opted in to any txt list and I get txt spam all the time.

I Know here in OZ we have a do not call or text register so the spamers have a harder time now putting there shi# out there
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TBosch

9 years ago

Text message advertising is fine, just as long as it isn't spam lol.

If you have a legit method in collecting phone numbers from people then I say give it a try.

I don't think people will be prepared to buy through their phones, as with email marketing for the obvious reasons (people buying from their computer with credit card in hand)

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swamuluk

9 years ago

As a marketers , we regularly looking for innovative and ROI strategies always . there 10 reasons why SMS marketing is always efficient and good for Business. as smartphone users are increasing rapidly its become preferential to use.

1. Simple to use
2. Less Cost
3.Mobile Friendly
4. Eco Friendly
5. Less Cost
6. Lead generations
7. Keep in touch with customers
8. Personal
9. Customers Interest
10. Direct Reachability.

So SMS marketing is crucial in Business growth and consistency.

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What do you guys think of companies using text messaging for marketing?

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