Join the Conversation with Mobile Marketing

By: Dr Pieter Streicher, MD at BulkSMS.com

CAPE TOWN, October 7, 2010 - Around the world, people are increasingly conversing using
SMS, and making fewer and fewer voice calls, particularly in the youth
market. A recent Washington Post article looks at how the "texting generation
doesn't share boomers' taste for talk". Increasingly consumers are having
interactive and effective asynchronous conversations, even though they are
not in real time, via SMS.

So why, wonders Dr. Pieter Streicher, managing director of
BulkSMS.com, are so few companies really engaging with their customers via
this channel. He'd argue that still too often the mobile component of a
marketing campaign will be tacked on at the end, rather than being carefully
considered during the design process, and so the immense power of mobile
marketing is being stunted.

We know there is a rapid shift happening in how brands
interact with consumers: from one-way, top-down communication, to an ongoing
conversation between the consumer and the brand. Instead of broadcasting
messages, brands need to focus on listening to consumers. By giving consumers
a voice, brands have the ability to adapt their messages and products to give
their customers what they really want.

So it's clear, as a brand you need to join the conversation
with your customers who are talking to each other via 160 characters. But so
many mobile marketing campaigns are hinged on a once-off response from the
consumer, with very little thought given to how to continue engaging with
them.

Once a trusted personal relationship has been developed with
an audience, the brand is in a powerful position to start soliciting feedback
from clients on a range of topics, including: their experience of the service
provided, their suggestions on improving the product or client
recommendations on how to use the product. Input can be responded to directly
or published online and shared with the brand's wider community. Loyal brand
ambassadors can be identified and rewarded, by seeing their ideas implemented
or via gifts or other benefits.

So for instance, a food-related brand could also offer a
series of free recipes via text instead of simply running a "text-to-win"
style competition. This ongoing engagement gives the consumer a compelling
reason to opt into the communication, and allows the brand to build a trusted
relationship with the consumer, and then benefit from feedback and input from
a loyal customer base. (If anyone thinks you can't deliver recipes in 160
characters or fewer, take a look at twitter.com/cookbook). Likewise a
sporting brand might offer customers a free weather service via text for
customers on the go, and a financial services company could provide free
market information in real time.

Typically an SMS engagement needs to be triggered via another
channel, for instance a TV ad, display ad or a billboard. This is why it is
so important that the mobile marketing component be considered at the outset
of a campaign, while it is being designed, in order to ensure this ongoing
engagement. In fact, Streicher maintains that mobile marketing is the key to
elevating a marketing activity from an isolated campaign to an ongoing
conversation with customers and potential customers, via a medium of their
choice.

Other benefits of the mobile phone as a marketing channel are
that these devices have become such an essential part of many people's lives
and even part of their identity (think of the popularity of customised
ringtones and logos). Studies show that people would rather forget their
wallet at home than their mobile phone. In addition, the cost attached to
sending an SMS protects the channel from the deluge of spam that we
experience via email.

The flipside to these benefits and the trust you can build up
via this personal device, is the potential to do your brand massive damage if
you get it wrong. Make sure you adhere to legislation and best practice
around opting in and out of databases. Tell your customers what they are
signing up for and then deliver on that promise.

The message is clear for brand owners: your customers want a
conversation via a medium of their choice. Make sure your marketing team or
agency has the skills, experience and understanding of the mobile space to
design this engagement from the outset. It is the businesses that strike up
the best conversations that are going to be the most successful in growing
their customer base.

About BulkSMS.com

BulkSMS.com (www.bulksms.com/), a division of Celerity Systems
(Pty) Ltd, has been in operation since 2000 and is headquartered in Cape
Town, South Africa. BulkSMS is a leading wireless application service
provider offering bulk SMS messaging solutions to large and small businesses,
public benefit organisations, and individuals. BulkSMS.com has a global
market presence, including Europe, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the
United States of America.

BulkSMS offers two-way bulk SMS messaging, premium rate SMS solutions and
supports mobile marketing campaigns to further an organisation's SMS
communication needs. BulkSMS flagship messaging solution is the BulkSMS Text
Messenger, an application that allows clients to quickly deploy an SMS
service from a computer.

The company is a member of the Wireless Application Service Provider
Association (WASPA) and the Mobile Marketing Association.

For more information on BulkSMS's commercial messaging services visit
www.bulksms.com. For direct enquiries email sales@bulksms.com or
contact BulkSMS telephonically on +27-21-528-3420.

For direct enquiries email sales at bulksms.com or contact BulkSMS telephonically on +27-21-528-3420