Mixed in with the hundreds of news articles I received this week was one that especially caught my eye: Retailers shouldn’t ignore text messaging when crafting m-commerce strategies. The reason it stood out is because I fail to remember the last time we spoke about our good ol’ friend, SMS, here at Life in Mobile. I guess we have been too busy talking about the newer, sexier technologies, such as QR codes, apps and mobile websites.
The fact remains that text messaging is still the most widely used application in the world. There are over 187 billion text messages being sent each month here in the U.S. And while we all want to stay ahead of the marketing curve, differentiate ourselves from our competition and prove our prowess in utilizing today’s most cutting-edge technology (all good things), we must also keep in mind what works and is good for business.
The article quotes David Geipel as saying, “Text messages are direct, conversational and interactive, something that is not always true about other forms of mobile engagement,” which I believe is very true. Another true benefit of text messaging, from a sales perspective, is that it is directly tied to the consumer who is texting, meaning their actual phone number. As such, if you implement a text message marketing program in your advertising to engage consumers, not only can you give them the information they want in a concise and direct manner, you can get the information you want: a lead with a phone number and topic to call back immediately.
As sales professionals, that’s really what it’s all about: creating opportunities in which we can engage with a client or buyer. Text messaging allows us to do that. In addition, it is a phenomenal complement to today’s sexier technologies, like mobile websites and apps, because you can embed links within text messages that drive consumer traffic to those destinations.
While it’s easy to get caught up in looking for the next best thing, it’s important not to forget about the things that work best. Text messaging is widely used and provides great benefits to consumers and marketers. If you haven’t made it a part of your mobile strategy, you should consider how it can bolster what you’re already doing.
Seth Kaplan is president of Mobile Real Estate ID.
For more information, please visit www.mobilerealestateid.com.
