Partner Article

The power of SMS vs MMS Marketing

The saying “a picture paints a thousand words” has never been more apt than in the world of MMS Marketing. MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Marketing offers a whole new world of possibilities - particularly in marketing applications. Just to give you an idea of the difference, regular text messages are limited to 160 characters or about 140 bytes of information, whereas multimedia messages allow for almost unlimited text characters and a much greater allowance when it comes to size.

But, while MMS opens up exciting new possibilities for marketers, there are some clear drawbacks. These include; intrusion if irrelevant content gets sent to consumers as well as cost since MMS messages are much more expensive to send ‘in bulk’ than SMS messages.

MMS Marketing is also reliant on data limits and requires a compatible smart device. For businesses both large and small, running campaigns where MMS is simply not appropriate or is cost prohibitive SMS is still very much the answer.

Here are six factors that make SMS an effective approach in your marketing strategy:

• SMS marketing is still a great channel for both engaging with and building loyalty among your customers. By offering customer promotions and information about the businesses whenever your feel the need, your customers or, indeed, your clients will feel appreciated. This also ensures that they are being kept the main focus of the business.

• It’s also one of the fastest marketing tools and, it’s effective! As a marketer you are able to reach a large number of people all at the same time. This will ensure that the right message is getting into the hands of the right audience and at the right time. Customers keep their mobile phones on hand all the time, making it easy to communicate your message to them.

• SMS marketing is also an inexpensive method of communication in comparison to traditional marketing. It will help your business to tighten your budgeting belts. Libraries, for example, are now cutting back on post and are using SMS as a form of communication with their customers.

• Communication is key to building any long term relationship and SMS marketing can be of great benefit when building on these relationships. Messages are personal from your business to its audience. So, why not make them feel special? As well as simply informing them of any sales/promotional offers or, letting them know their delivery is ready, let them in on the secret sale or, send a simple thank you message after a purchase. These simple tips will immediately help to build brand confidence and ultimately loyalty by letting your customers know you care in an easy, fast and reliable way.

• Engaging with your customers in this way will also help generate effective ‘word of mouth’ to not only engage further with existing customers, but also drive new business to your company. If you have something of value to offer customers, or even a different more personalised approach than your competitor, say, the message will no doubt spread through to family, friends and colleagues. Word of mouth is a powerful tool and SMS helps promote this with instant communication.

• A major benefit of SMS marketing is the potential it has when you integrate it into any of your marketing campaigns. Social media and traditional media are not always the most effective way to reach your customers on time and more SMS messages are opened responded to within 3 minutes compared to email. You can integrate SMS with other marketing methods and get the message straight to your customers.

Depending on the marketing message you want to spread, you need to ensure that you select the right tools to do the job. Certainly, if you want to send simple information updates, the best way is to send an SMS with a clear message and even clearer call to action that will motivate customers to take action. On the other hand, if you want to promote some product or service, you can use MMS to visually present your offer. Whilst the option for MMS marketing is very appealing, SMS still offers the best value for money regardless of business size. With research by Dynmark showing the opening rate of SMS messages at a whopping 98%, SMS still provides the best all round marketing option.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matthew Winters, Chief Executive Officer at Veoo .