Evolving Perceptions on SMS Marketing From Spam to Personal Connections

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Packet Media

Enterprise House, Block F4, Trentham Business Quarter, Bellringer Road, Trentham Lakes South, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 8GB

www.packetmedia.co.uk | 0800 652 3461

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Introduction

It is probably fair to say that SMS is one of the most contentious communication channels available in the modern marketplace.

Of course there are many die-hard advocates of SMS as a business tool, and the fact that 3.2 billion customers subscribed to SMS campaigns globally in 2012 stands testament to its power.

However, the take-up of SMS marketing and customer service technology among those businesses who have never tried it before is still hindered by misconceptions, distrust and a lack of education around viable applications.

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One such Misconception Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, one such misconception is that consumers and clients do not welcome SMS marketing messages; that they see these messages as annoying spam; that use of SMS marketing can make your customer-base feel alienated and eventually leave you altogether.

This certainly can be a worry if the target audience is receiving unsolicited messages, too many messages or information which offers little or no value. But done correctly, SMS can be a game-changer for forward-thinking businesses.

One such Misconception

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SMS Marketing and the LawContrary to another common misconception, SMS marketing is not illegal, nor does it reside in a ‘grey area’ of the law. There are clearly defined legal requirements with regards to providing and respecting opt-outs and ensuring that the consumer has been given the relevant information and options relating to their subscription.

So long as the target audience have opted-in based on an informed decision about what you are offering, there is no barrier to SMS marketing.

Guidelines for mobile marketers

Adequate NoticeMobile Marketers must inform the user of both marketers’ identity or products and services offered and key terms and conditions that govern an interaction between the marketer and the user’s mobile device.

Choice & ConsentMobile Marketers respect the right of the user to control which mobile messages they receive. Mobile Marketers ask for and obtain consent by obtaining an explicit opt-in from the user for all mobile messaging programs. Mobile Marketers must implement a simple termination (opt-out) process so that the user can stop receiving messages, and users must be able to exercise their opt-out choice from any message.

SecurityMobile Marketers must implement reasonable technical, administrative and physical procedures to protect user information … from unauthorised use, alterations, disclosure, distribution, or access.

Customisation & ConstraintMobile Marketers ensure that mobile marketing reflects broad customer expectations in any applicable national marketplace.Mobile marketers should target and limit mobile messages to that which users have requested.

SMS Marketing and the Law

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The Stats behind the Facts

The Stats behind the FactsThere were similar fears around legality when email marketing reached its pinnacle and these have been assuaged through extensive research and practice. The learning curve for perfecting SMS marketing should be much shorter than for email marketing as it is a very similar channel.

Recent surveys indicate that, on the whole, consumers like to receive marketing texts:

This clearly shows that, despite all the bad press, most people actually feel that they could benefit from receiving SMS messages just so long as they have control over their subscription.

With 98% of SMS messages being read by their recipients (as opposed to 22% of marketing emails) in an average of 4 minutes and being responded to by around 48% of recipients (a similar survey showed that only around 4% respond to email marketing) SMS is well-deserving of a strong focus in your multi-channel marketing.

68% of people surveyed said that they would be happy to receive SMS messages

with special offers and discounts.

A similar survey on email marketing showed that only 37% said they would like to receive

the same via email.

49% of people surveyed said that they would opt-in for SMS marketing messages

from a company they know and trust.

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Why You Should Opt-In

Whenever wherever Firstly, almost everyone has their mobile phone with them all the time; whether they are at home, at work or even at the gym, their mobile phone is with them. This means that you can connect to your target group directly any time of the day wherever they are.

Cost-effective SMS marketing is one of the most cost effective form of advertising. A text costs pennies to send and anyone with a solid grasp of the English language can write them: You do not need to employ a copywriter or specialist marketer, saving you money on wages and marketing all in one go. The time it takes to produce an entire ad campaign can be reduced to mere minutes rather than the weeks it could take for ad copy to be written and proofed and set into email or paper format which also has to be fully designed.

Measure successSMS marketing is a good way to measure the scope and results of your other marketing channels. If you place a “text-to-action” on all of your newspaper, direct mail and television adverts, you will know in real-time which advertising is reaching your target audience and which is not producing an acceptable level of engagement; allowing you to extrapolate projections for R.O.I. By promoting online channels such as websites or social media profiles in SMS messages, it is also possible to drive measurable web activity from offline media.

Why You Should Opt-InPutting these statistics aside, there are many other reasons why companies should properly utilise SMS marketing.

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Why You Should Opt-In

Highly targetedWith outbound SMS marketing you only reach the customer/client base that you have a positive relationship with, which means you are only paying to market to people who have opted-in and are likely to respond to your advertising. If done properly, this is a highly targeted form of advertising with campaigns that can be tailored to specific customers to produce greater redemption rates and assemble lists to generate immediate sales each time you send a new SMS advertisement to them.

Short and to the pointSMS messages are short. This means there is no space or need for filler material. The customer receives the information they need/want without superfluous text that they need to decipher before understanding what the message is actually about.

SMS alerts for customers or staffSMS is perfect for confirming details with customers or indeed with internal members of staff. A text message is unobtrusive but, equally, is not likely to be ignored and forgotten altogether before action is taken. For example, the NHS use SMS to confirm patient appointments; although a business could just as easily use SMS to keep sales teams informed of diarised appointments while they are out on the road.

Customer serviceIt is more important than ever for businesses to get feedback from customers to improve products and services. However, that means the competition for the customer’s attention is fiercer than ever. Many companies use SMS to conduct surveys and generate research as well as offering incentives for such activity, in turn increasing customer retention.

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Success Stories - Dominos

The Charlotte-UNC Dominos franchise, located near the University of North Carolina, serves around 25,000 enrolled students. After some research, it was revealed that special offers via Facebook were their most effective marketing tool for the student market. The school’s basketball arena had always been the best place to promote the Facebook group, with each game attracting over 3,000 students.

Previously the company had advertised their web address, which redirected to the Facebook group,

on the big screen while the arena’s announcer read the message.

The Area Director realised that there was a problem with this approach: Who would make note of a website during a basketball game? Most students have smartphones but he felt that they were unlikely to spend time during a game to react to an advertise-ment; partly because of the huge demand for 3G or WiFi in the stadium, but also because their eyes were glued to the court and it would take too long to digest all of the messages effectively on a Facebook page.

However, they could easily send and receive SMS texts without too much disruption: When the game was finished they could review the text and visit the Facebook group.

To start with, they created a new ad for the arena dis-play offering a free pizza to anyone who texted “49ER” to 313131. They received the following response:

To get FREE pizza join our Facebook group at UNCCDominos.com once you join post a message (I GOT A TEXT) & you will get FREE pizza code Reply STOP 49ER 2 Optout

Success StoriesDominos

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Success Stories - Dominos

This resulted in close to 600 opt-ins and 350 students joining the Facebook group within 24 hours. A huge percentage redeemed the offer. Following this fantastic conversion rate, the franchise offered different deals such as discounted pizzas at every subsequent game.

Each time an ad ran, they saw between 100 and 200 opt-ins. Almost all of them also joined the Facebook

group to get the deal. By the end of the year the Facebook group had gained close to 2,000 fans. They had also added over 850 students to their SMS marketing list.

SMS Marketing was the perfect way to accomplish the franchise’s two main goals: growing their Facebook group and selling more pizza.

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Success Stories - Water Is Basic

This is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering the local leadership in Southern Sudan to bring clean water to their own people. Their goal was to easily show people who donate money to the organisation the results of their efforts.

This was difficult for an international non-profit organisation because they often had to rely on end-of-year mailers to keep their patrons updated. The US Coordinator for Water is Basic, wanted to alert their donors each time a new well was built. To do this, he sent emails and notated a Google map on their website.

However, he was looking for an instantaneous and more convenient method of getting their attention.

When a community church used text messaging for its youth group, Water is Basic took notice. As they began digging and completing their first wells in Sudan in the summer of 2008, they quickly put out a campaign inviting current and past donors to

“Text WATER to 313131 to hear where your money is going!”

They also posted a widget on their website for people to opt-in to the SMS marketing list online.

Within 4 months, approximately 150 donors had signed up for Water is Basic’s SMS messaging list. For a non-profit in its early stages with about 600 donors and counting, this is an astounding response rate of 25%.

Water Is Basic still uses SMS messaging to update their donors and supporters every time a new well is drilled in Sudan. This not only conveys information about the cause, but is also a weekly reminder that donated money is saving lives on a daily basis. This encourages people to donate more frequently, and to pass information onto their friends and family members. Many people appreciate the updates and even respond back to the messages with words of encouragement.

Water Is Basic

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Success Stories - Barclays PLC

Banking giant Barclays has 15 million customers in the UK alone. With the customer-base growing rapidly, it became apparent that maintaining a two-way dialogue was a potential obstacle to customer satisfaction in 2005/6.

The difficulty with banking is that security is para-mount and urgent messages are often genuinely very urgent. The question then was how to engage customers in a way where urgency could be added without broadcasting personal details in unsecure places. Email had previously been used to notify customers but spam filters often complicated matters and many times the customer would not check their emails often enough.

Due to its unique qualities, SMS was quickly identified as a viable option; faster than sending a letter, more permanent and persistent than a phone call and harder to miss or ignore than an email. Text messages are difficult to miss, as phones are checked much more often than email accounts and all texts are visible to the user.

The solution was to create a range of messages that identified an issue or urgent warning followed by a call-to-action requesting that the customer either call the customer service team or login to their online banking account.

Customer benefits included notifications of going overdrawn and potential fraudulent activity warnings.

This massively increased the customers’ confidence in the brand, placing Barclays in the number one slot on many customer satisfaction surveys.

Furthermore, suspicious activity was identified and acted upon much faster, helping both the customer and the bank to avoid expensive mishaps.

Barclays PLC

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Boil it Down

Boil it DownSMS has gained a harsh reputation - particularly in years gone by - and some of the stigma has remained. However, the evidence is stacked in favour of SMS marketing and customer service; even more so than for email marketing. As a regulated and transparent technology which has been identified as preferable by consumers, it is undeniably deserving of a central role in both inbound and outbound marketing efforts.

SMS marketing is the most cost effective way to reach a highly targeted audience

SMS marketing is the most cost effective way to reach a highly targeted audience with an amazing response rate. It encourages positive relationships with current customers and clients while easily promoting your brand to a wider audience. SMS marketing can be used successfully on its own or can be easily incorporated into multi-channel marketing strategies to maximise your reach and market penetration while, if used correctly, being unobtrusive.

Clearly SMS marketing creates a win-win situation for marketers and customers alike.

What next?If you’re ready to start sending

SMS or you want more information before you decide,

give us a call on 0800 652 3461 we’re looking forward to

hearing from you.

Questions about our Products and Services?

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