Mobile marketing is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones, feature phones, tablets, or any other related devices through websites, e-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile applications.Karjaluoto Heikki and Leppäniemi Matti, "Factors influencing consumers’ willingness to accept mobile advertising: a conceptual model", Int. J Mobile Communications, Vol 3, No. 3, 2005, p. 198. Mobile marketing can provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services, appointment reminders and ideas.Leppäniemi, Matti, "Mobile marketing communications in consumer markets", Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Marketing, University of Oulu, 2008, p. 21. In a more theoretical manner, academic Andreas Kaplan defines mobile marketing as "any marketing activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly connected using a personal mobile device".Andreas Kaplan (2012) If you love something, let it go mobile: Mobile marketing and mobile social media 4x4 Found, Business Horizons, 55(2), 129-139 p. 130.
SMS marketing
Marketing through cellphones SMS (Short Message Service) became increasingly popular in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send wanted (or unwanted) content. On average, SMS messages have a 98% open rate and are read within 3 minutes, making them highly effective at reaching recipients quickly.Is SMS Marketing Right For Your Brand? 6 Things to Consider “Salesforce”, Retrieved 2018-04-03
Over the past few years, SMS marketing has become a legitimate advertising channel in some parts of the world. This is because, unlike email over the public internet, the carriers who police their own networks have set guidelines and best practices for the mobile media industry (including mobile advertising). The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has established guidelines and is evangelizing the use of the mobile channel for marketers. While this has been fruitful in developed regions such as North America, Western Europe and some other countries, mobile SPAM messages (SMS sent to mobile subscribers without a legitimate and explicit opt-in by the subscriber) remain an issue in many other parts of the world, partly due to the carriers selling their member databases to third parties. In India, however, the government's efforts to create the National Do Not Call Registry have helped cellphone users stop SMS advertisements by sending a simple SMS or calling 1909.
Mobile marketing approaches through SMS have expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia as a new channel to reach the consumer. SMS initially received negative media coverage in many parts of Europe for being a new form of spam as some advertisers purchased lists and sent unsolicited content to consumer's phones; however, as guidelines are put in place by the mobile operators, SMS has become the most popular branch of the Mobile Marketing industry with several 100 million advertising SMS sent out every month in Europe alone. This is thanks in part to SMS messages being hardware-agnostic—they can be delivered to practically any mobile phone, smartphone or feature phone and accessed without a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection. This is important to note since there were over 5 billion unique mobile phone subscribers worldwide in 2017, which is about 66% of the world population.The Mobile Economy 2018 , Global System for Mobile Communications Association, Retrieved 2018-03-22
In the present day, the mobile phone has become focal and essential. Mobile technologies facilitate business opportunities connecting businesspeople and consumers at all times and places. Due to this, digital marketing has received more focus, and mobile marketing is one of the newest digital marketing channels under consideration. Digital marketing permits communication of information regarding the features of goods consumers like without the need for consumers to go to an actual store.
SMS marketing has both inbound and outbound marketing strategies. Inbound marketing focuses on lead generation, and outbound marketing focuses on sending messages for sales, promotions, contests, donations, television program voting, appointments and event reminders.
There are five key components to SMS marketing: sender ID, message size, content structure, spam compliance, and message delivery. SMS marketing campaigns are commonly used for promotional offers, customer updates, and appointment reminders.
Sender ID A sender ID is a name or number that identifies who the sender is. For commercial purposes, virtual numbers, short codes, SIM hosting, and custom names are most commonly used and can be leased through bulk SMS providers.
Shared virtual numbers As the name implies, shared virtual numbers are shared by many different senders. They're usually free, but they can't receive SMS replies, and the number changes from time to time without notice or consent. Senders may have different shared virtual numbers on different days, which may make it confusing or untrustworthy for recipients depending on the context. For example, shared virtual numbers may be suitable for 2-factor authentication text messages, as recipients are often expecting these text messages, which are often triggered by actions that the recipients make. But for text messages that the recipient isn't expecting, like a sales promotion, a dedicated virtual number may be preferred.
Dedicated virtual numbers To avoid sharing numbers with other senders, and for brand recognition and number consistency, leasing a dedicated virtual number, which are also known as a long code or long number (international number format, e.g. +44 7624 805000 or US number format,An Example of Formatting Phone Numbers in the US e.g. 757-772-8555), is a viable option. Unlike a shared number, it can receive SMS replies. Senders can choose from a list of available dedicated virtual numbers from a bulk SMS provider. Prices for dedicated virtual numbers can vary. Some numbers, often called Gold numbers, are easier to recognise and, therefore, more expensive to lease. Senders may also get creative and choose a vanity number. These numbers spell out a word or phrase using the keypad, like +1-(123)-ANUMBER.
Short codes Shortcodes offer very similar features to a dedicated virtual number but are short mobile numbers that are usually 5-6 digits. Their length and availability are different in each and every country. These are usually more expensive and are commonly used by enterprises and governmental organizations. For mass messaging, shortcodes are preferred over a dedicated virtual number because of their higher throughput and are great for time-sensitive campaigns and emergencies.What are the benefits of using a short code for your business? Clickatell, Retrieved 2018-04-04
In Europe, the first cross-carrier SMS shortcode campaign was run by Txtbomb in 2001 for an Island Records release. In North America, it was the Labatt Brewing Company in 2002. Over the past few years, mobile short codes have been increasingly popular as a new channel to communicate to the mobile consumer. Brands have begun to treat the mobile shortcode as a mobile domain name, allowing the consumer to text message the brand at an event, in-store and off any traditional media.
Short codes provide a direct line between a brand and their customer base. Once a company has a dedicated short code, they are able to directly message their audience without worrying if the messages are being delivered, unlike long code D.I.D.s (Direct Inward Dial, another term for phone number). Whereas long code texts face a higher level of scrutiny, short codes give you unrivalled throughput without triggering red flags from the carriers.
SIM hosting Physical and virtual SIM hosting allows a mobile number sourced from a carrier to be used for receiving SMS as part of a marketing campaign. The SIM associated with the number is hosted by a bulk SMS provider. With physical SIM hosting, a SIM is physically hosted in a GSM modem and SMS received by the SIM are relayed to the customer. With virtual SIM hosting, the SIM is roamed onto the Bulk SMS provider's partner mobile network and SMS sent to the mobile number are routed from the mobile network's SS7 network to an SMSC or virtual mobile gateway, and then onto the customer.
Custom sender ID A custom sender ID, also known as an alphanumeric sender ID, enables users to set a business name as the sender ID for one-way organization-to-consumer messages. Custom sender IDs are only supported in certain countries and are up to 11 characters long, and support uppercase and lowercase ASCII letters and digits 0-9.Brand Your SMS with A Sender ID SMSGlobal, Retrieved 2018-04-04 Senders are not allowed to use digits only as this would mimic a shortcode or virtual number that they do not have access to. Reputable bulk SMS providers will check customer sender IDs beforehand to make sure senders are not misusing or abusing them.
Message size The message size will then determine the number of SMS messages that are sent, which then determines the amount of money spent on marketing a product or service. Not all characters in a message are the same size.
Character Count Character Type 1 Standard GSM character 1 Space 1 Line Break 2 Escape characters (e.g. ^ € { } [ ] ~ )
A single SMS message has a maximum size of 1120 bits. This is important because there are two types of character encodings, GSM and Unicode. Latin-based languages like English are GSM based encoding, which are 7 bits per character. This is where text messages typically get their 160 characters per SMS limit.The Uncomplicated Guide to Concatenated SMS “Clickatell”, Retrieved 2018-04-03 Long messages that exceed this limit are concatenated. They are split into smaller messages, which are recombined by the receiving phone.
Concatenated messages can only fit 153 characters instead of 160. For example, a 177 character message is sent as 2 messages. The first is sent with 153 characters and the second with 24 characters.SMS Character Limit, Twilio, Retrieved 2018-03-18 The process of SMS concatenation can happen up to 4 times for most bulk SMS providers, which allows senders a maximum of 612 character messages per campaign.
Non-Latin based languages, like Chinese, and also emojis use a different encoding process called Unicode or Unicode Transformation Format (UTF-8). It is meant to encompass all characters for efficiency but has a caveat. Each Unicode character is 16 bits in size, which takes more information to send, therefore limiting SMS messages to 70 characters. Messages that are larger than 70 characters are also concatenated. These messages can fit 67 characters and can be concatenated up to 4 times for a maximum of 268 characters.
Number of SMS Maximum GSM characters Maximum Unicode characters 1 regular 160 70 2 concatenated 306 134 3 concatenated 459 201 4 concatenated 612 268
Content structure Special elements that can be placed inside a text message include:
UTF-8 Characters: Send SMS in different languages, special characters, or emojis Keywords: Use keywords to trigger an automated response Links: Track campaigns easily by using shortened URLs to custom landing pages Interactive Elements: Pictures, animations, audio, or video
Texting is simple, however, when it comes to SMS marketing - there are many different content structures that can be implemented. Popular message types include sale alerts, reminders, keywords, and multimedia messaging services (MMS).
SMS sales alerts Sale alerts are the most basic form of SMS marketing. They are generally used for clearance, flash sales, and special promotions. Typical messages include coupon codes, and information like expiration dates, products, and website links for additional information.