For me, SMS is a half way interaction. You can write and be written back, all without being disturbed in the middle of an important meeting. If you come to master the words, you can express almost anything through text, with the advantage of being able to retract any words written.

SMS is fast and cheap and doesn't depend on the Internet connection. It never forces you to set up an account. Text moves a simple mobile owner in the middle of a messaging mass, making him/her part of this community, without any fuss.

This was just a short review for why I text daily. I'm sure there is more data out there, some of it may not be as optimistic. Keep looking closely. You will surely find some info that you haven't read before.

New reasons to adopt or dump an SMS marketing strategy, can turn up after answering these general questions:

Is SMS dead?

OK, it's a bit harsh, but makes sense : are social media users and smart phone buyers still interested in simply texting? Well, no. In spite of all the applications available out there, people just love texting and the fact that texting can be done on any type of mobile. SMS would be dead if it wasn't for the advantages provided by the P2P ( person to person) communication. 79 % of the total US mobile subscribers used their smartphone and non-smartphone devices to send text to another phone, shows this study conducted by comScore MobiLens :

Invasive or effective marketing?

I've started with describing how great text messages are. It is time to write about those bad SMSes that annoy me to death : usually advertising some joke of a concert or asking me to text back in order to receive a super prize. They're usually both invasive and non-effective as I get annoyed by the sender and never buy or follow the advice. Here's the two main issues to be solved before sending a random marketing text:

-  make sure the receiver has signed up for receiving marketing data through SMS ( so you won't be invading someone's privacy)

-  make sure that the user knows what she/he will receive- the type of data that you will be sending ( prospects never ask for candy and settle with getting trucks in return)

As long as these two requisites are met, you can safely send SMSes to your subscribers. One other advantage of delivering interesting, asked for data is that texts are usually resent easily to other users interested in the matter, with no extra-cost for the initial sender, your firm.

Figure it out

- 6 Billions SMS messages are sent in US every day

- 4,5 billions spam messages were sent last year in the US

Have your say!

Are you feeling annoyed or pleased by advertising SMSes? What are the best marketing text messages you have ever received?