Bullet Business

Earlier this month, an article mentioned that mobile messaging is past puberty and is now the homecoming queen. It has managed to become a major force in mobile marketing.

It added that the art of messaging is a real talent. Getting it right is difficult, but if done properly, revenues will swim in.

Citing an example, the expert mentioned: “Click to win USD 2000 – 1 in 10 win”. This plays on the laws of probability chance and gambling. For the price of USD 25 – it  might just be worth the risk.

Overall, it is not just about the ability to text an advert. It is also about the ability to enforce interaction.

Such viewpoint clearly signifies that mobile messaging is being increasingly used as a marketing tool. According to the Mobile Advertising Report, published by Limbo and GFK/NOP research earlier this year, text messaging remains the dominant data service used by US consumers. In the third quarter of 2008, more than 160 million consumers used text messaging, more than in 2007.

Texting offers immediacy

Even businesses associated with social gambling and betting in the UK are showing signs of embracing such services. Companies such as Txtlocal, which are working on such campaigns, term SMS to be highly effective in relaying last minute messages in a push to get customers through the doors.

Recently, the company highlighted that 75 percent of people check their text messages immediately, and text is a highly viral marketing tool capable of going far beyond initial recipients alone since “it’s common for people to forward text news and promotions onto their friends”.

It has also recommended that businesses should concentrate on using mobile to build databases of consumers who have opted in to receive targeted offers, alerts and information from marketers.

Few of the benefits, which such form of marketing offers, include brand awareness through customised messaging and mobile interactivity, driving revenue-boosting behaviours through timely messaging, and timely and relevant market research for improving products and increasing customer loyalty

Operators, information portals and other companies in the gambling sector, all of which tend to have a sizable database, are utilising mobile text message marketing to share information about their products, tips and other services.

For instance, uk-bingo.net, a white label online bingo site, has decided to use an SMS-based system to send balance alerts and other marketing messages to its existing users.

Commenting on how mobile as a communication channel is being used currently, Michael Brady, CEO of Business Betting Ltd, the company behind UK Bingo, says there is a mid-term window of opportunity to communicate via SMS before customers rapidly become immune to such intrusive communication.

“In an environment where marketers find it increasingly difficult to get customers to open promotional emails, there may well be scope to communicate short messages about an online service via mobile. Balance alerts, jackpot alerts and time-limited prizes are three areas which are clearly suited to a more instantaneous communication tool,” said Brady.

He added, “However, there is often a disconnect between the message and the capacity to then act upon that message. The true power of mobile communication will be realised when the customer can act upon the message impulsively and instantly through the device they receive that message on.”

Overall, mobile marketing offers unique targeting abilities that are incomparable to traditional promotion and advertising media. It has made rapid progress, proving to be an effective method of direct marketing.

The industry points out that text campaigns are appropriate today for marketers with tight budgets who are looking at getting back to basics. Mobile offers a cutting edge opportunity to drive a better bang for a marketer's buck. Significantly, texting offers immediacy. This form of communication has a stronger call-to-action.

There are numerous benefits, especially in terms of personalisation, for a sender, be it for personalised sender name, importing custom information and mail merging this into a text message to create unique personalised texts, delivery reporting, customer profiling and email notifications along with many other features.

Also, the technology or systems, which support such services, offer an option to manage unlimited number of campaigns and keywords, creation of automated outgoing messages for each keyword, and strict opt-in/opt-out compliance.

While text messaging campaigns can attract impressive results, there are also challenges inherent to the channel. Limited character space, the need to capture a consumer’s attention with only a few words and the need to be interesting in such a small space can pose issues for marketers.