SMS Marketing - What are your thoughts?

[mobile-marketing]

Hi Everyone,

SMS Marketing and E-mail marketing are fantastic ways to communicate with the end customers.

However, this is only possible as there are no limitations or boundaries in between the sender and the recipient (except for your junk mailbox perhaps). I believe that these two methods of communications will be with us, for quite a while longer.

Why? Because they are at top level at the communications level, meaning pretty much everyone has an e-mail address and a mobile number.

My question to you? What are your thoughts on the matter from a direct marketing perspective. What method or direct marketing could take their place, in complete competition, and how do you see that coming about?

Obviously we have facebook and twitter, but what other methods or mobile applications that could take their place in the future?

[shivshakti]

Yes Email marketing is fantastic but you have to keep in mind some precautions but otherwise that is good.

[mobile-marketing]

What about forms of direct marketing? Are there any others, that you can see or know of which would take place of e-mail and SMS?

[goosemo]

SMS is awesome, I would take advantage of it while you can, you dont have to worry about inboxing or a spam filter yet

[ChrisTrack]

SMS is definitely a relatively untapped market at the moment. If you can take advantage of it and get in then you should.

I think that it will be around for a while, I do not see anything taking its place in the near future. But i do see the possibility of the two becoming one, such as your email becomes your phone number as gadgets nowadays are getting smaller and smaller and we are getting capable of stuffing computers into smaller and sleeker cases.

[WebOut]

SMS and E-mail Marketing are not actually new forms of Marketing. These are just recycled and re-branded, making it more sophisticated because of this fast-faced marketing industry. Both have its advantages and disadvantages. It is up to your promotional strategy which direct marketing method you will use. And please do not forget to integrate all your messages across all promotional materials.

[sylviaunlimited]

I think pinterest can be a strong upcoming contender. Pictures speak a thousand words and they have always been captivating. I believe this is what is making it soooo popular--the fact that a picture could be shared. As marketers understand how to use this more, pinning a postcard advertisement...it will be interesting what else will appear.

[GMF]

I hope you guys don't send mass sms to random numbers. Way to create hate and mistrust.

But when you send them to subscribers, that should be no problem.

[digitalrob]

Originally Posted by GMF

I hope you guys don't send mass sms to random numbers. Way to create hate and mistrust.

But when you send them to subscribers, that should be no problem.

I have to agree - when I got my new phone number it must have been on MANY of these SMS lists...and I got spammed a lot with random ads, extremely annoying AND I had to text "STOP" in reply to like 100 different places. Make sure your list is actually targeted at your market, and it would help if people opt in to receive it as well. Random spamming is bad IMO.

[BuriedAlive1]

Both are advantageous. But I think SMS is more advantageous in that you know the messages will not get caught in any spam filters. So your message has bigger chances of getting read by the recipient. In fact, many get people get subscribed (to a paid monthly service) whether knowingly or unwittingly because of text messages sent to them.

[GMF]

Originally Posted by BuriedAlive1

Both are advantageous. But I think SMS is more advantageous in that you know the messages will not get caught in any spam filters. So your message has bigger chances of getting read by the recipient. In fact, many get people get subscribed (to a paid monthly service) whether knowingly or unwittingly because of text messages sent to them.

So you are actually using sms scam services? Pretty unethical

[web3k]

SMS as a marketing tool?

Personally, I don't like it. SMS is the way I communicate to my social and private contacts, and only if I opt-in, do I want to hear from a business via SMS.

[MarkHeron]

Personally, I hate SMS marketing... especially when you're expecting important text then something completely irrelevant hits my inbox. I don't even know how they capture my number.

[hostplate]

I believe that SMS marketing will work for only some kind of industries which is directly related to the people life , like food , small cities shops . But for major online field like web hosting it does not work because of the target market .

You should find your target through the market then you can find out more about the different methods that will effect on your sales.

[PRLuv]

I'd like to spend a little money SMS marketing I think. Could anyone explain to me a little bit about how it works?

I have a site with a short domain name that sounds like a text message already, and smartphone users are definitely a target of mine.

I don't want to spend much. Just dip my toe in. Is there legal lists of numbers I can buy (how much for how many numbers)? What cost the service of sending out the text or ad?

Is designing a SMS advertisement difficult/expensive? I wouldn't even need many characters. "I'm at website.com, what about you?" sort've thing. Then it'll be up to the site landing page to make a conversion and get their email.

[suzzane_sh]

Direct marketing is good but sometimes it put a bad effects on end user when they recieve sms or call while they are busy on their work and in intenet marketing people used to find themselves for the product and then get the options.

[MarkHeron]

Direct marketing is always a gray area. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's honestly worth a try when you're just starting out.

[MrSS]

Oh SMS Marketing. We have previous topic about this, and my stand will be the same.
Mobile Marketing

[esprintguy]

In this kind of situation, do face-to face and personal interactions still have a place in the business strategy? Emails and text can be quite impersonal, and while effective, it isn't really the same as talking with your customers yourself.

[developers]

I personally don't like SMS marketing .