Is bulk SMS marketing effective ?
After reading a recent article by the BBC on Indian Telecoms regulators restricting the number of SMS messages sent in a day to 100 texts due to mobile phone users having to deal with receiving dozens of marketing and advertising SMS messages. I wanted to find out if people use this method of marketing and how end users (mobile phone users) respond to this form of marketing especially as a BtL are a supplier of SMS services.
According to the article ‘many people have complained that they feel harassed by calls and text messages from tele-marketers trying to sell everything from credit cards to real estate even belts for weight loss.’ The article also sparked a bit of a discussion in the office as my sales team said it’s a common problem if not used correctly and legally by marketing companies. As the discussions expanded, it became apparent that their respective clients used the SMS service for much more than just advertising messages. For example, two common uses were to remind about appointments or to inform the end user something was ready for collection i.e. prescription, car, takeaway etc.
I would be interested to know your thoughts whether you’re a provider, marketer, business user, or end user (mobile phone users)who receives this form of advertising what are you views on SMS marketing or as a medium of passing information as described above.
