Text Marketing |

Thank you so much for those who were able to join us this morning for Jason Cohen’s presentation on Text Messaging. There were great questions and discussion on the how’s and why’s of this emerging marketing tool. Jason’s presentation is up on Scribd for those who want to share it with others or for those who perhaps missed the event.

The Baltimore Chapter of the AMA is excited to welcome Jason Cohen, owner of MobileScoops, to speak about the buzz of mobile marketing. Specifically, with text messages, the advertising is received in real-time; the open rates are astronomical and the redemption rates beat any advertising medium out there – including email (take THAT Groupon!).

View this document on Scribd

Please check out the events section for other upcoming events!

By now, you have probably heard of text message marketing (AKA ‘Conversational Marketing’, ‘Mobile marketing’, ‘text marketing’, ‘short code marketing’, and ‘SMS marketing’), the newest tool in the marketing tool box. An overwhelming majority of us send text messages. In fact, a recent Pew Research Center report states that 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages and 87% of teens use text.

As ubiquitous as it is, texting has thus far mostly been utilized in a peer-to-peer capacity, with the exception of the occasional spam. But savvy advertisers are paying attention as this medium has many other possibilities. Thus, the rise of text message marketing… the use of a popular and personal medium to send advertising messages to an opt-in audience.
And so far, the numbers are astounding…

292 million wireless subscriptions in the U.S. (CTIA)
1.81 billion SMS messages sent this year (CTIA)
90% of text messages are read within three minutes of delivery(mobileSQUARED)
Recipients eventually read more than 99% of all text messages. (mobileSQUARED)
10-30% redemption rates within the TextMeUSA network (take that email!)

A new report written by mobileSQUARED defines Conversational Advertising (aka text message marketing) as “the agreed messaging-based communication between the consumer and a brand to deliver consumer benefits”. The report forecasts that text message marketing will represent about 8% of total mobile marketing messages in 2010 but by 2015, it will be the dominant model in the marketplace, commanding 72% of revenues for total mobile marketing messaging.

Interestingly, many advertisers are currently focusing on building apps for smart phones and ignoring text message marketing for now, which might prove to be detrimental as smart phones currently make up less than 30% of the cell phone market. Gowri Shankar, CEO of SinglePoint, a mobile advertising agency, states “Those who believe that apps are the optimal way to advertise on mobile should consider the limited reach of the medium. In contrast, text messaging is applicable to all…”. A recent study conducted by mobileSQUARED revealed that 50% of Americans would welcome text message advertising if they have opted in to receive it. So the obvious question is… Why build a mobile app that can only reach 30% of the mobile audience when you should be building a mobile number database and reach 100% of the mobile market – at a far lesser cost?!
So, let’s break it down locally… There are nearly 6 million people in Maryland and 85% of them have cell phones. If half of them opt in to receive text messages from advertisers, that’s 2.5 million people waiting to receive advertisers’ messaging via text messages… in Maryland alone. If you are a marketer, you should like these numbers.

By: Jason Cohen, Head Honcho at MobileScoops – www.mobilescoops.com – a text marketing service. Jason can be reached at – jason@mobilescoops.com - further questions.