Mobile phone use for internet business, applications and penetration into the consumer market is huge and growing daily. Millions of ordinary people and businesses are using them for keeping abreast of developments or just to stay in contact with online friends as a consequence these devices are becoming (if they already are not) a basic necessity in todays society.

As a business, if you are looking for a new cost effective means of promotion then you must utilise the potential of mobile phones and mobile marketing. Right from small business owners to large corporates, everyone is now using this media for their business promotion. One important tool in this arena is SMS. SMS is a cost effective way of promotion. In this article we will see how a simple short message can become an effective source of revenue generation for a business.

Pros and cons of SMS marketing

SMS is a cost effective means of getting your promotion across as you need to send an SMS only once and the end user will read it as an when he wants to, so it is better than making a call where the user may not be always available. On the top of that it is a two way communication when customers start responding. The results of SMS campaign are easily measured from tools such as delivery reports.

From a marketing point of view, an SMS campaign can be an effective viral marketing tool as one user forwards the SMS to others and helps create a buzz. A lot of tools such as MMS and WAP push technology can be used to add creativity to the message through audio, videos and pictures.

A SMS can also let people send inbound SMS requests to your company. These requests could be for added information, purchase requests or service requests. All of the above activities helps in increasing your customer database.

The biggest con of SMS as a promotional tool is technical faults like delivery failures, in addition some customers may perceive them as spam so it is important that your SMS campaign give due consideration to this issue by allowing users to opt out as and when they want. This can easily be covered by setting up proper policies for content development.

Approaching an SMS campaign

There are some simple steps to be taken for an effective SMS campaign. First of all you must thoroughly understand your target customers by getting information about their age, demographics and their general behaviour. Their behaviour must be captured to know how they access SMS and the timing when they are most probable to read the SMS.

According to the target audience, you can finally generate the message content. If you can provide any additional benefits in terms of promotional offers then your message will be more effective.

Apart from above points, you should try to make SMS an interactive tool by engaging your potential customers through a pleasurable or unique experience with a value proposition. You must provide a communication channel and channels of action to engage them. And always remember not to spam.

Tips for an effective message content

Just as in online marketing keywords are used for effective content generation so to is the case with SMS marketing, which also involves the use of a keyword and short codes. A short code is a special 5 or six digit phone number which is unique to your business and recognized by all customers. Customers send messages on this number an example of a short code is 80001.

Similarly, a keyword (s a unique phrase that a customer uses to interact with you. The keyword you choose might highlight a product or service your internet business provides i.e. your are an insurance company who might use the keyword claim. So keywords are paired with short code to send a message from a customer to you.

Advertising your short code on all your current marketing material will expose your business to more consumers. These consumers can in turn send SMS requests to your short code which allows you to grow your database.

Thus, we have seen that you just need to be creative enough to get attention using a few words. It is quick and crisp. Lot of businesses are reaping the benefits of SMS campaigns by reducing their advertising costs and increasing their reach.

So, if you are looking for cost effective publicity using Mobile Marketing, get a shortcode and mobile marketing advice through an Internet Business Coach or internet consultant or let us set up a campaign for you. Right now we are offering great UK rates and free advice on how to get more business using SMS, just fill in our contact form.