Categories: Articles

More On Marketing To Mobile Devices and SMS

I got this comment/insight from Edward Sattaur of Jam Mobile a while back (sorry for the delay) regarding my post, Marketing To Mobile Phones With SMS:
“Marketing to mobile phones has been conducted since my previous firm Wysdom brought it to life in Canada in 1999 with a web-based alerts service called web2pcs. Now that the carriers have it together with inter-carrier text messaging, it represents a real opportunity to connect with an audience on an intimate level. What really needs to be understood by marketers is the importance of promoting the service on a number of different channels in order for it to be effective. The medium is still in its infancy and in order for it to get off the ground there is a heavy requirement to educate. This whole space is being defined as we speak. Kudos to those colleagues of mine who are out there evangelizing the medium. That same effort must be put into building solutions that truly benefit the user in order to get him/her to Opt-In.”
I think Edward is right at a top-level view. The main component that’s still unclear is what will be a compelling enough message to make customers opt-in and continue to benefit from it. Do we really want our mobile devices ringing and buzzing with marketing messsages? A flash-in-the-pan campaign may bring immediate results, but will it result in more loyalty and raving fans?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.