Top ten mobile marketing tips by Mark Brill

Mark Brill CEO of txt4ever and chair of Mobile Marketing at the Direct Marketing Association and a regular speaker at industry events gives his top ten mobile marketing tips.

1. Get a response. Use SMS when you are looking for an immediate and high response rate. Whilst email is lower cost, only 25% are opened, compared to 95% of text messages. Response times to an SMS are also faster, usually within 1 hour.
2. Use an SMS shortcode. Including a shortcode in advertising campaigns has been shown to increase response rates. In car advertising the uplift is over 10%
3. Give an offer. Most marketing wisdom will tell you that an offer is important. This is particularly so with SMS, as it is such an immediate channel.
4. Provide a simple call to action. Many people make the mistake of having a call to action that is too complex. For example ‘register on our website’ sent in an SMS is too much. Making it simple and easy: ‘call us now’ or ‘reply to this SMS’ is likely to have the best response. The harder you make it for the customer, the fewer the responses.
5. Target your audience. The mobile phone is a highly personal medium, so the better you target your customers the greater the results. For example, a retail store will get the best results by promoting a specific store nearest to the mobile recipient.
6. Make it personal. Personalising a campaign can bring higher responses. For example, rather than offering a general discount, give the mobile user a voucher that can be redeemed.
7. Timing is everything. As SMS is so immediate, the time of day is crucial to the success of the campaign. Studies have shown that mobile phones are used most between noon and 6pm. Although it depends on the product, the best time to send a marketing campaign is mid-late afternoon.
8. Respond quickly. People’s memories are short when it comes to mobile marketing. Respond quickly once they have opted in to a mobile campaign. An auto response is essential for a shortcode, and follow up messages should be within a few days.
9. Gain the users trust. Make sure that you clearly identify your company, and provide an opt-out route. This is a legal requirement, but including a STOP shortcode in the SMS makes for the best practice (txt STOP to 871234).
10. Use a clear opt in process. Whilst it is acceptable to send either service messages or marketing messages to customers for similar products, without their prior consent (soft opt in), this is not always the best practice. Make it clear that you intend to send marketing messages, and send an SMS to ask them to opt in.

Tips Provided by Txt4ever.com Bulk SMS, Web SMS and Mobile Marketing

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