I figured it was about time to write a little bit about text message marketing for small businesses. Every once in a while it seems that there is something that many people start saying is the "next big thing".  The whole idea of sms marketing, or mobile marketing for small business caught my eye so I decided to do a little bit of investigating .

I had looked at the concept a while back and found the companies that were offering this type of service were poorly lacking in their ability to get the concept across to all of the small businesses across the country.  Even though that is no longer true, the thing it seems is that there are very few salespeople actually "taking it to the streets" and telling small business owners about the incredible effects that this type of advertising can have on their bottom line.

Every business owner who has done any kind of advertising knows how difficult it can be to get customers in the door.  What is especially hard is to reach the younger crowd.   The 18 -34 age group has grown up differently with technology than even those who are as young as 40.

Here are the facts about text message marketing for small businesses to know.  And take advantage of.

A recent eMarketer study noted that 66% of 18-44 year old adults said they were somewhat likely to try mobile coupons. 31% said they would be willing to give their mobile number in exchange for mobile coupons. When you reduce the age range to 18-34 year adults, the number jumps to 50% willing to receive coupons on their mobile phone by giving their number to a business.

Great.  That is all good and fine, but what exactly is a "mobile coupon"?

When I first heard the term I pictured having to have one of those fancy smart phones with some sort of printing device in order to print out the coupon and take it in to whatever store I wanted to redeem the coupon with!   Nothing could be further from the truth.

What mobile coupons are all about is simply having a customer that voluntarily signed up and receive text messages from you with your  latest offers.  That's it!  That is what text message marketing is all about.

From the Moto Message Blog :  "Being able to target 50% of your customers may not seem like much but when you consider redemption rates it becomes very attractive. Let’s compare this to email marketing as an example. Say you have a customer base of 1000 consumers on your email list and 500 on a text marketing list. Sending the same offer to each list will result in an average 3% redemption rate from the email list or 30 customers and an average redemption rate from mobile of 15% or 150 customers. Mobile marketing ROI is much higher even with a smaller customer list."

You can be sure that people's willingness to "opt-in" to receive coupons from just about any business will continue to grow.  One of the reasons that this is such a growing business is that it is so new.  Only 3% of people with a smart phone have opted in to receive text messages or mobile coupons from their favorite businesses.  Isn't it time for you to take advantage of such a young and growing market?

One of my buddies has written an excellent article about mobile marketing for small business.  The article and site in general provides information and resources for starting your own sms promotion broadcast, or text message marketing campaigns.