SMS - It's a no brainer!
I was recently asked "Taking cost out of the equation, if you had to choose one, based on performance, response rates and return on resources invested,which would it be?"
NUMBERS DON'T LIE
The statistics speak for themselves:
100% Opt-In
90%-97% Open
Read Rate 87% Read with in the hour
20% Redemption rate
23% forward message to a friend (i.e. it goes viral)
Twitter doesn't even come close to these stats. The reason why is that you can follow or be followed by thousands at no real cost. Therefore the quality of those "follows" is really suspect. To be honest twitter is going the way of email marketing. Yes it can be effective if done right, but most people don't have the time, skill or resources to do it right. In our practice we find that most small businesses don't have the patience to build a "quality" email or twitter list. It's too easy to "cheat" and build large lists that have, at most, a 10% open rate (the average is much lower than that at around 5%) and the conversion rates are in the 2-3% range. Do the math it's pretty scary.
IF I WRITE A TWITTER POST IN THE WOODS DOES ANYONE HEAR IT?
It's so easy to "follow" someone on twitter that most people never read the messages. In fact, I beleive that most of the "followers" never intend to read the tweets. They are just trying to buidl a following themselves. Email marketing results are similar because most people have multiple emails - some of which are dedicated to Opt-In lists and are never check, forget about being read.
SIZE MATTERS - BUT IN REVERSE
So far it seems that SMS may result in a smaller list because customers are not that quick to give up their only mobile number to opt-in. But when they do it's because they really want to hear from that company or want to receive the specials that are promised. Of those texters who recall seeing some form of advertising while using text-messaging, 45% say they have responded in some way. In short the quality of the interaction is much higher through SMS.
ALL ABOARD
Of course this will change over time and then some new technology will take its place. Get on board early while the results are still great and always be ready to move on. You can no longer afford to ride the same race horse for a long period of time. That is the nature of marketing in the information age.
Recent Comments