Scams, unwanted subscriptions and badly worded or uninteresting text are the ugly side of SMS marketing. But the potential of mobile marketing to reach consumers effectively has been underused because of the medium’s negative reputation. Done well, mobile marketing offers potential customers useful, personalised information to inform their spending choices.
In South Africa and Nigeria, nine out of 10 adults own a cellphone, the same ratio as in the USA. Across the rest of Africa, phone ownership rates are almost as high. In its 2015 mobile phone research survey, Pew Global reports that two-thirds of the phones owned in Africa are basic models that don’t have Internet access, and their owners use them predominantly to send and receive text messages.
So the best way for marketers to reach the 1,1bn people living in Africa is to use SMS. But how can they do it well and redeem the marketing potential of the medium?
To reach a large audience, companies need a creative approach to make their messages distinctive from the deluge of information that consumers are exposed to on a daily basis. One thing working in mobile’s favour is that phone users always read their text messages. Even if it’s quickly deleted, people will always first read a new message, which gives marketers a captive audience.
Phone usage trends show that phone owners check their phones regularly and usually open SMSes within 15 minutes of receiving them. So in a short period after the message has been sent, it gets read and users have the option to respond immediately; to engage with the subject matter or to opt out of further communications.
The personalised nature of phone-based messages is another advantage of SMS marketing. Receiving a message on a phone feels more personal than seeing the same news on a forum that is intended for mass audiences. Mobile also allows companies to give personalised discount vouchers and special offers to reward loyal customers and attract potential leads.
The efficacy of mobile campaigns is easy to measure as each message being opened and replied to is recorded. When this feedback is available to companies, they are able to further refine their campaigns and increase their success rates.
The high cost of many forms of advertising can be a barrier to small and medium-sized businesses. Television commercials, for instance, work only for nationwide campaigns and can be prohibitively expensive for some companies. The beauty of mobile marketing is that strategic campaigns can be run on small budgets, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
It’s also a great mediumto test campaigns without needing a big research budget. And even companies that have existing successful campaigns should continually make use of the easy measurability of mobile to check their messaging is still effective.
Another excellent aspect of mobile marketing is that it allows for highly localised campaigns. Using tools like Hudlr, demographic information about an audience can be used to target people within a kilometre of a particular business to advertise news or products linked to a single location.
Indiscriminately sending thousands of mobile messages might yield some success, but mobile campaigns can achieve much better results with demographic and geographic targeting. Database analysis divides markets into demographic segments, so that message campaigns can focus on the best possible leads. When this technique is combined with geo-targeting (sending SMSes or e-mails to people based on their demographics and location), campaigns become exponentially more effective, and can be done at a lower cost than sending mass messages.
As an example, if a luxury men’s watch brand wanted to announce an exclusive in-store promotion, it could use geo-targeting to send an SMS or e-mail to men over the age of 30 with an income above a certain amount and who live within a 10km radius of the shop. Similarly, a supermarket offering a two-for-one special on milk and bread would target individuals over 20 years old, but would limit the reach of its message to people within a 2km radius of the store.
With geo-targeting, mass marketing can be carried out with regional differences, so that the right person in the right place sees the right message, resulting in successful and cost-effective campaigns. A national company is able to run campaigns offering a discount on one product in a certain area and another product in a different region, depending on what sells better in each location. It’s this that puts mobile marketing ahead of other forms of advertising.
Another consideration for companies that are interested in using mobile marketing is the imminent implementation of the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act. POPI regulates the storage and use of personal information. Marketers can meet the requirements of POPI by partnering with companies that have POPI-compliant geo-targeting tools.
Big take-out: Despite previous misuse of the medium, SMS marketing can work well for both marketers and target audiences, as long as the people who will find a company’s marketing information most useful are those who receive it.
