Branding with SMS

Benigno Millares
Tech Editor
2-15-2004

SMS offers marketers 160 characters of single color and single font text - not much by room to make your pitch by traditional marketing standards. Yet SMS has proven to be a surprisingly powerful branding medium.

What are the reasons for this?

• SMS is a personal and direct medium.
• Marketing activity on this platform can take advantage of the unique relationship between an individual and their phone.
• The message can is targeted by time of day/week, and location.
• Messages are optimized for relevance to the recipient's demographic.
• Messages are viewed in an uncluttered environment (no conflicting messages to compete with).
• Campaigns are permission-based so recipients have opted-in to receive your message.
• The consumer ultimately makes the decision to view the marketing message.
• All of the above factors combine with the very uniqueness of this medium to achieve high levels of recognition. A relevant and personal SMS campaign is very memorable.

Recent studies show that on average, SMS is 50% more successful at building brand awareness than TV and 130% more successful than radio. And SMS marketing increases positive brand affinity by an average of 18%, and, in best results, by 35%. But most importantly, the same research shows mobile marketing boosts consumers inclination to purchase by an average of 36%, having a direct impact on your bottom line.