The Future of Text Message Marketing (TMM/SMS)

Marketing fads come and go. In a highly connected, technological world, it's hard for small business owners to know if the latest trend in customer contact will really live up to the hype. Text message marketing, also known as cell phone or mobile marketing, isn't a fad - it's an excellent way to communicate with customers on their own terms.

According to an article published on GearLog.com, more than 250 million Americans (82.4 percent of the population) subscribed to a cell phone service in 2007. CNET.com reports 5 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide in 2010. Those numbers reflect the fact that many people own more than one cell phone, but they're still astounding statistics that sound a lot like hype.

Your small business doesn't actually have 250 million potential customers, unfortunately. However, 82 percent of your customers probably do have cell phones, which makes text message marketing a sensible and cost-effective way to advertise. Customers and prospects welcome timely text messages with relevant information and irresistible offers.

When you compare mobile marketing to other types of advertising, it wins hands down. Newspapers? They're going out of business as readership keeps plummeting. Television? It can be hard to motivate customers to visit your small business when they're comfortable in their living rooms. Radio? Your prospects are listening while stuck in Send me One Million FREE Guaranteed Visitors ">traffic or on their way to someplace else.

These methods of advertising are extremely costly when you make a final count of prospects who came to you because they read or heard your ad. That's if you can figure out that a particular ad was the motivation for their visit to your business. Tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns can be difficult, but text message marketing gives you real-time information and you can easily see the impact of those short texts.

In addition, customers don't "opt in" to other advertising methods, meaning they may or may not be listening. With SMS mobile phone marketing, your prospects choose to join your list and choose to stay on it because they can opt out at any time. When you put the customer in control of how they receive your advertising messages, you know they're interested in hearing from you.

The new technology of text message marketing is the future of advertising. Reaching customers instantly using their preferred communication method is simply smart business. It's far better to have a few thousand really good prospects than 250 million who have no idea who you are or why they should listen to your ads. Once you've seen the amazing effectiveness of your TMM campaigns, you'll be wondering why you didn't try it before.

Resources:
"U.S. Cell-Phone Penetration Tops 82 Percent" from GearLog.com - http://gearlog.com/2007/11/us_cellphone_penetration_tops.php

"Cell phone subscriptions to hit 5 billion globally" by Lance Whitney of CNET.com - http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10454065-78.html

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