Today I received a release from mBlox indicating that their research shows that 38% of UK retailers have used SMS in a campaign, whilst another 36% are using a mobile site when reaching out to consumers. Chairman Andrew Bud said: “As other mobile technologies seek consumer acceptance, the ubiquity of SMS makes it the ideal medium for retailers to enhance the consumer experience.”
I couldn’t agree more.
SMS has a central – critcial – role to play not only in mobile marketing via mobile websites, but also advertising, promotions and coupons. Of course, apps often take the headlines, and rightly so in some cases given the innovation, the usability and aspects such as location based services.
But apps won’t achieve mass market penetration whilst smartphones are in the minority. That’s where SMS comes in.
It’s not just for mobile marketing though either.
Mobile ticketing, right across sport, entertainment and transport (check out buses in Sweden) is a case in point. Mobile banking though is such an obvious use case: how easy to get a regular SMS just with your balance or last transactions? Equally it’s not just SMS that counts here – apps and web have their roles and banks need to have a multiple approach to make life easier for their customers. But it’s SMS that will make mobile banking – even at its simplest level of alerts – most widely available and used.
The recent report on CNBC World Business confirmed that mobile is at the forefront of changes in European banking: as Kate Russell says: “Not all personal service needs to be carried out in person. What matters is that customers feel the service is tailored to them. Banking by text on your own phone is both personal and extremely handy.”
Tags: mBlox, mobile banking, Mobile Commerce, mobile coupons, mobile ticketing
SMS is critical, in fact, I’d argue it is more critical than voice. So why is that we have such a closed ecosystem in the US. It’s amazing that Public Knowledge’s petition has not been decisioned. http://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/text-message-petition
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Hi Jonathan
Absolutely – and I’m sure the number of uses will only increase in the future!
Regards
Howard