Text Marketing

[Scootek]

Hello All,

I am fairly new here. I just wanted to find how people view text message marketing. Do you view it like spam?

Good or bad?

[Scootek]

OK. Let me put it to you like this. One side of our business is laptop repair. When people give us their laptop to fix, we often communicate with them via text or email. Now say, if we would to do a follow up text to all customers in a years time to market a PC or laptop health check, would you consider that a bad thing?

[angienewton]

Yes, I would consider that a bad thing unless of course you have them opt in to a mailing list otherwise it's considered unsolicited.

[deniseoberry]

I think this would be a fairly easy transition for you since you communicate with your customers via text. Just ask them to opt in to receiving occasional special offers and notices via text. And then (like email marketing) don't abuse it.

Mobile text marketing is going to be one of the next big waves. I've signed up with a service called TextMarks to deliver messages and I also have opted in to some company's programs. It might work for you too.

[Engage]

Now say, if we would to do a follow up text to all customers in a years time to market a PC or laptop health check, would you consider that a bad thing?

Whether it's a bad thing in a philosophical or legal sense is less the issue than whether your customers think of it as a bad thing.

As you can see here, some will, some won't.

Perhaps you could offer a $10 discount on the lap top repair if your customer agrees to give you permission to email them in the future.

If they don't go for it, it wouldn't be wise to mail them anyway, because they may then become a negative word of mouth machine for you.

Here's a simple rule I use for my list hosting service.

All subscriptions to all lists are by confirmed optin only. Period. End of story. No exceptions.

Clients can't import lists, or add subscribers manually. It's not just a policy, it's physically impossible to import or add subscribers.

Keep it simple, keep it clear, keep it consistent, keep it legal. That's my suggestion.

[brownnataly21]

I thinl it's still conidered like spam. Of course I speak about myself as a common customer. I don't usually read all this as some of them contain viruses.

[Engage]

Educate me please. I love computing, but am not interested in mobile devices. I don't even have a cell phone.

What is the culture of mobile devices? Would users typically view any commercial message that arrives on their mobile device to be spam, even if they signed up for it?

Here's an amazing fact. Did you know that over 90% of all email messages traveling the Internet are spam? No kidding, it's true.

Is the same true for mobile devices? Or will it be soon?

[Joe Micheal]

Text Message Marketing can be very successful when done properly. It’s a great way to communicate and interact with your customers. SMS is still a relatively uncluttered and spam-free marketing channel. It’s also the one form of communication that many people are tethered to 24/7.

A research report I read in the New York Times said that “97 percent of all SMS marketing messages are opened (83 percent within one hour).”

I hope this clears up any ambiguity.

[Engage]

Well, we've been down this road before.

I created one of the first list host / ezine ad agencies in 1996. In those early years, email was in much the same position as texting is today.

The email medium was very popular, spam was in it's infancy, and users welcomed emailed newsletters with enthusiasm (to a degree almost inconceivable today).

The users of my service built large lists quickly, and easily sold expensive advertising in their ezines, everybody involved was happy, very happy.

We've progressed steadily from those Garden Of Eden days to the present reality, where it is literally true that over 90% of all email traffic on the Net is spam. No kidding.

It looks like this same story is now poised to unfold on your mobile device.

I've seen this story already, and will pass this time. Don't even own a cell phone.