LOL- Your Business Doesn't Text?
by: crlamb
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Word Count: 403
Starting with the advent of Rock n Roll, our nation's business leaders miss the coolest trends, and all the opportunity they bring to our existence over and over again. One such revelation is already happening; we're steeped in it actually. It is text messaging or as my nerdy alter ego would refer to it, SMS (Short Message Service). These are messages under 160 characters in length that can be transmitted from a mobile phone.
Considering there is something like 20 billion (with a B) text messages sent in the US monthly, you would think someone would take notice.
My firm does a lot of work in the Intelligence arena, (web and data) and the Holy Grail of requests is consistently, "How we get all those mobile customers and their numbers? We know that trends are making cell the primary contact medium." My answer - ask them. You have the web, and the ability to connect to these "thumb thumping" consumers through SMS servers. Ask them for their number, but be sure to have a great reason. How hard is that? Loyalty programs, discounts, contests, opinions, referrals, etc. Ifm just a nerdy coder, but I am sure a seasoned marketer could expound on those obvious options.
Japan is so far past us in the use of SMS for media and marketing. They have bestselling books that were launched through texting, a technology bridge built in 2000. While we were worried about 4 digit date fields (Y2K reference for those who forgot) the Japanese were driving trends.
A study of various SMS campaigns revealed that SMS campaign return something like 60% response rates and 95% read rates. OMG, direct marketing is a marveled success at a 3% response rate.
So now I ponder, who will be the first among us to embrace this technology and make us all say, "Wow"? I'm not talking about spamming a new frontier; I mean a true value proposition. The optimistic side of me thinks that perhaps small business will use this and other viral techniques to steal market share from the huge Blue Chip corporate elephants. The pessimistic side thinks, no and dreads the idea that perhaps it will be a big business or government agency to launch presidential voting campaign or DMV renewal over a mobile phone using SMS and the chances to be great will be dashed.
TTYL.
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About the Author
Craig Lamb is a co]founder and serves as Chief Information Officer at pm&l, inc., a software development firm in Rochester, New York dedicated to improving business efficiencies and reducing cost through process automation and intelligence. PM&L offers complete service in the areas of custom software development, data management and administration, business intelligence implementation, and technical consulting. With employment of proven development processes and project management services we have serviced hundreds of clients since 1998. pm&l have service partnerships with Microsoft and Business Objects. Craig has over 15 years experience in Information Technology leadership. He is a respected leader who has demonstrated the ability to build and motivate teams and promote a business culture that delivers exceptional results.
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