Do we remember the days of pen pals? How about sitting down at the dining room table to write checks and mail bill payments? Believe it or not, circulars and newspapers were the only source of manufacturer and store coupons. Those days are long gone. It all started with the widespread use of the internet and free email accounts. Instead of mailing addresses, businesses started collecting email addresses to stay in contact with customers. Now, even email marketing can seem antiquated as most people do not check their emails as often as they once did. However, a large majority of people who have mobile phones may not check their emails but they are definitely checking text messages.

 

Text message marketing is the next big thing in marketing. It's simple. It's inexpensive. It's fast. It's effective. We are living in a time where mobile phones are considered a necessity. Text messaging is the primary means of communication in younger generations. People are deleting hundreds of unopened emails on a daily basis but will read every single text message almost as soon as it is delivered. Only 65% of all emails are actually opened and read. Only 48% of emails sent to a mobile device are read. But a text message will be acknowledged. In fact, over 99% of all text messages are read. With statistics like these, using text messaging as a marketing tool is an intelligent choice.

 

With text message marketing, businesses are able to gather mobile phone numbers from existing and potential customers and communicate with them using the convenience of a text message. This method of communication guarantees that the customer will receive your correspondence and can choose to take action or easily forward the communication to someone who may find a better use for it, called a referral. The benefits to this type of marketing is that a large number of people can be reached with a 99% chance that the information sent will be read and this can be done for a very low cost.

 

There are many text message marketing products available. These products are usually a computer program that captures a mobile number when a keyword is sent to a short code. For example, keyword "free" is sent to short code 12345 from mobile phone number (123)555-9876. The text marketing program will capture and store that mobile phone number. Now the program user can program text or sms messages to mobile phone number (123)555-9876 whenever there is any information related to "free". The message will go out to all user who texted the keyword to the shortcode. Simple and effective.

Flyers. Circulars. Newspaper advertisements. All means of advertisement that has been effective for years. With an increase use of technology and mobile phones, marketing using text messages is becoming the way of the future.