JL Forums

I started a business selling mobile marketing via cell phones through bulk SMS services about 4 months ago and so far the results are incredible. Still, I dont see a lot of people really using the power of instantly sending messages to their list. It boggles my mind, and maybe because people dont really understand it or it seems complicated and expensive.

What do you think? Do you use text message marketing to contact your list of customers and if not do you plan to?

Just to be clear.. mobile marketing is essentially any marketing activity where a mobile device is the advertising or communication medium of choice.  With mobile marketing you can communicate with hundreds of people at a time in a fast, personal way using Bulk texting or Short Message Service (SMS). Businesses or individuals can also connect by sending photo, voice, and video texts via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). You can advertise your message in other channels simultaneously by sharing that information with social media syndication to reach your entire customer base.

Also, with email people often have "spam" accounts they use to sign up to offers. With mobile you just simply don't have that, so the ROI is obviously much higher for that reason as well. Anyways I just get hyped up when I talk about it because it really is so powerful and I wish more people understood that. I hope others will contribute to this discussion.

Have a good day!

Jon, the idea is to add it as (optional) to your sign-up lists. Even a tiny fraction of people can make a difference. For example 100 people who are highly responsive can boost sales more than 1000 people who really dont care. It's one of those trends on the rise.

Meg, excellent point. I think thats where people get confused with what my company does. With our system your customers MUST MUST MUST Opt-IN and every message says reply STOP to remove yourself. That is something I hear a lot and really I get that, I dont want crappy spam messages myself. In fact we make our clients sign a form that says they are not using spam lists if the import a list to our system.

The idea we had is to offer businesses or marketers the option to create lists of people who really are interested in a company or person in the IM sense. Not to send random messages to some scraped mobile list.

If people used our system to do that I would ban them. :p Anyways thanks for telling me your concerns. I can address them more properly in my ad copy.

Eliot and Meg, Spam messaging does already happen sadly. Email spam everyone's gotten so used to and yet not all companies/individuals spam their lists. I would guess most people are on Jon's list here and the reason is.. you have that trust and rapport. That is what I am trying to do with my clients.. essentially we are going to be like a "mobile marketing" version of Aweber. A service others can use to legitimately send messages to their list with spamming activities being prohibited and bannable. Does that make sense?

As with most opinions listed, I do not agree with mobile text messaging.  I happened to be a victim of one, and not only did I feel like my privacy was invadied, my mobile phone bill was $20 extra.  This is going to extreme.  At least for these days and times.

I looked into this when it first came out and I think it really is the wave of the future.  However, if someone is on a cell phone plan where they pay for each message, then it is a BIG problem.  One thing I did find out doing my mobile marketing research is that Americans use their cell phones less for buying things than other countries, especially Japan.  I'm 68 and gave up my land line.  Now my husband and I use only the cell phone.

Spam is a problem with mobile marketing.  I'm already getting "spam" calls on my cell phone, as well as "spam" text messages.  The double opt-in and the easy "Stop" message are good, but they have to find a way to stop the spam.  Maybe a "no spam" call list.