Why SMS is the Next Big Thing in B2B and B2C Communication

Why SMS is the Next Big Thing in B2B and B2C Communication

Over the last decade personal communication has undergone a revolution. Today, landlines are quickly disappearing; more than 1 in 4 homes already rely on cell phones alone. Originally, the cell phone was the evolution of the pager, a practical tool used by professionals to stay connected and on the grid. Then moms got involved, wanting to keep track of their kids, and BOOM - revolution. Quickly, everyone from middle school and up had a cell phone.

Today, with the advent of text messaging and smartphones, cell phones have become an extension of their owners. Rarely out of reach - if not rarely out of hand - mobile phones have become the gateway to social lives and more. Without a doubt, the cell phone has become the quickest, most reliable, versatile and personal way of connecting with an individual, and businesses have certainly taken notice.

The focus of marketing is to find the most effective way of getting the brand or the product into the minds of the consumer. For decades companies blindly poured large cuts of their budgets into print ads, television spots and telemarketing, only to get a very small return on their investment. The Internet opened the doors to many new possibilities and got marketing agencies thinking creatively.

Email marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click and Social Media Marketing were all creative new ways to connect with customers. The Internet changed marketing by providing quantifiable data for analyzing ROI and tweaking ad campaigns, and by forcing marketers and companies to provide value in their marketing messages. The Internet crowd wasn’t looking to be sold; they were looking to be informed and/ or entertained.

For years, SMS or text messaging, has been a tool employed by cell phone users to send quick, short, informal but personal messages to friends and family. As marketers learned while experimenting with Email and social media – informal, personal and to the point really works. If you think about it, social media and text messaging have similar roots – short, informal messages to people you know.

The text message floats in a happy medium between Emails and phone calls. A phone call can be intrusive and is immediate. It must be answered at that moment, and if the recipient is busy, an unknown caller will surely be told off. An Email sits in the recipient’s inbox until they log into their account, and can be buried by other messages and possibly disregarded. Email has become a complex and formal vehicle for communication. With Emails from family, coworkers, businesses colleagues, SPAM and Email offers, the unknown sender often gets ignored.

With a text message, however, the recipient is very likely to read it, and at a time that is convenient to them. With mobile marketing, your message is instantly in the palm of their hands. If you present them with value they can easily choose to act on it by responding. No lengthy explanations or sales pitches.

One benefit that SMS marketing shares with Email marketing is the ability to reach recipients in bulk. Personal phone calls are an expensive proposition when trying to reach hundreds, or thousands of potential or former customers. Considered a much more formal and professional form of communication, Emails can easily be overlooked. But that’s just the trick, the everyday consumer isn’t looking for professional or formal, they are more comfortable with a quick and colloquial message in a format they can relate to. Something personal.

An SMS gateway allows a business to reach hundreds of people on their personal phone at once via text message. It can take hours to craft a precise Email marketing message, and no matter how convincing it may be, it might still be ignored. A text message is typically 160 characters or less, meaning it will take far less time to create the message, and it is still a more personal and effective format of communication that is more likely to solicit a response.

In the business world, where time is money, SMS messaging also has great potential as a tool for communicating quickly between businesses and their partners, suppliers, vendors or employees. When time is of the essence, sending off a quick text message to a supplier in Texas, the shipping company in Minnesota, and your boss in New York will be much more efficient than Email or phone calls. Not everything has to be formal and lengthy, sometimes the ability to respond, communicate and take action in a second’s notice can make all the difference. 

In this era we live in, inundated with information and communication, a business should look to vary their marketing strategies and communication practices to give their products and their business the ability to reach clients and colleagues as quickly as possible. Mobile messaging is both personal and efficient, and surely everyone that you want to reach has a mobile phone that they use throughout the day. Yes, you should certainly keep your Adwords and Email campaigns going, but consider adding SMS to your stable of marketing tools.