The fact is traditional print advertising is becoming less effective; direct mail is very expensive; newspaper readership is in decline and the cost to place a newspaper ad hasn’t changed; and people are skipping airwave commercials more than ever.
The bottom line is more people are relying on the Internet and Wireless Devices for information about products and services and this number grows daily.
Cell phone penetration in the world now exceeds that of the internet. The proliferation of mobile devices (including cell phones, Blackberries, personal digital assistants, etc.) during the past 15 years has been so rapid that it makes the previous acceptance of the personal computer — and the Internet — look sluggish. About 80% of the world’s population now has mobile phone coverage, and 90% will have coverage by 2010.
Did you know?
- there are over 300 million mobile subscribers in North America
- 75% of new cell phone buyers cite ‘text messaging’ as the ‘most important’ feature on their device
- text messaging has surpassed talk from 13-44 year old cell phone users
- text message use is approaching nearly 70% of subscribers, 5 times that of mobile web and mobile search
You may be asking what does this mean for me?
It means the time has come to make Mobile Marketing and Time-targeted Text Messages an integral part of your company’s advertising campaign.
Major brands are shifting significant resources to marketing via mobile phones. According to an independent survey of 50 brand name companies, 89% of brands will use Text (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging to reach their audiences by 2009. By 2012, over half of the brands expect to spend up to 25% of their overall budgets on mobile marketing efforts.
Here is an example of how a restaurant franchise could apply Text Message marketing to drive traffic to their business:
The business has 7,500 cell phone numbers in their database. They send out 7,500 Text Message Promotions on Wednesday at 10:00 AM that reads like this:
“Wednesday is Rib Day. Visit any (your business name here) & receive $3 OFF our mouth watering World Class Ribs. U will be glad u did!”
What is the Return On Investment?
In this example:
• Cost for 7,500 Text Messages sent $900
• Response rate is typically 10% = 750 customers (plus friends, so at least 1,500 customers, or more)
• Average sale = $50 per table (750 x $50)
• Total revenue generated for all locations = $37,500.
A $900 investment in “Time-targeted Test Messages” results in $37,500 in sales and potentially, a few new customers to their business.
These promotions can be anything you want…so use your imagination.
Keeping existing customers and reaching new customers in your local market is vital to your continued success.
Whether you are an independent Merchant, a Franchise, or a large Corporation, your business can now communicate instantaneously with large groups of people at anytime and anywhere via their cell phone.
And best of all…it is paperless!
