The advertising campaigns and transactional messages sent and received as text messages for promotional purposes have long served as a marketing tool. Otherwise termed SMS marketing, this approach serves to communicate urgent offers, provide important updates and notifications to recipients who agree or subscribe to the communicated message.
SMS messaging is all over the place in our everyday life. The concept of SMS was a landmarking technology right from its design more than three decades ago. This simple development has evolved short for short message service and has now revolutionized how people and corporates communicate.
Where SMS and marketing intersect
SMS has become a rapidly growing part of efficient multi-channel marketing. Despite where it is today, it started from somewhere 32 years ago before businesses finally learned how to use this technology.
The concept of SMS was first developed in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert of the Franco-German GSM cooperation. Eight years later, Neil Papworth sent the very first text message wishing Richard Jarvis a Merry Christmas at Vodafone. Neil was a developer with the Sema Group Telecoms and had to type the message using a PC because mobile phones did not feature keyboards by then. Phones began to support SMS in 1993, paving the way for networks to begin offering person-to-person SMS a year later, and the rest is history.
For marketing techniques and approaches to remain effective, they have had to evolve. This evolution paved the way for new ideas instead of dwelling on traditional marketing tactics. SMS, being a reliable source of information, intersects with marketing because the short message service has facilitated the evolution of marketing by providing a faster, cheaper, and more remote means to reach a wider audience for marketing and promotional needs.
In the past, SMS would only serve as a means for manually sending information to customers. However, over time, and with the advent of new technology, there are provisions such as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that have facilitated sending SMS to many people simultaneously. Users can now use SMS messaging to send messages quickly through an automated process.
How SMS Marketing is still growing strong
Almost 60% of consumers have demonstrated their interest in opting into the SMS loyalty program of the brands with whom they transact. Almost every mobile user who participated in an SMS loyalty program has always felt that they are gaining value, which explains its growing popularity.
With this development, SMS marketing coupons have become a growing marketing accessory. They are ten times more likely to be redeemed than mail and newspaper coupons. There are very few chances for opting out of SMS marketing campaigns, which makes it a popular marketing approach among businesses and corporates.
Conclusion
While the evolution of SMS marketing is owed to technological advancements, the medium through which SMS’ are sent remains the same over the years. The technological revolution has influenced the establishment of different forms of communication channels to get the intended message to the target audience. SMS has remained the dominant marketing channel despite the communication channels being impactful upon the customer base.