SMS Marketing Campaigns Make Good Sense for Retailers

When major retailers adopt SMS marketing campaigns to drive sales, I think it's a sign that mobile is becoming part of big brands' overall marketing strategies. JCPenny recently used mobile marketing to run a campaign promoting Easter fashions. By tying the promotion in with a holiday and making it time-sensitive offer, the retailer increases the likelihood that customers will make a decision to buy in a timely manner.

SMS messaging, or text message marketing, was also used by this company and worked well because it included a link to the company's mobile website. The page the link pointed to was one that featured Easter dresses. I can see that the entire campaign was not only simple, but also focused on a single event (Easter) and item customers would be interested in buying (dresses).

The other thing that made this campaign a good example of a successful text message marketing effort is that it anticipated the customer's needs. The business SMS message provided basic information about the promotion and how long it would run, and how the customer can buy the product.

This approach is also a good choice because SMS messages are much more likely to be opened by the recipient than marketing e-mails. With some text messages resulting in a read-through rate of 90 percent (as opposed to ten percent for e-mail communications), this type of SMS mobile marketing campaign is a winner for retailers.

Christmas Day Mobile Device Activations Up 300 Percent

Is Christmas Day the time for turkey, presents, and mobile device activations? I knew that modern consumers are embracing mobile technology, but even I was surprised to discover that mobile activations for iOS and Android were up a whopping 353 percent.

During the first 20 days of December, between 1.3 and 1.8 million activations were processed each day. On Christmas Day this number skyrocketed to 6.8 million activations, which works out to a lot of people receiving a mobile device from Santa this year.

What does this mean for business owners? Now that we know that there is a pool of mobile device users who are ready and willing to embrace this technology, retailers and other businesses will be doing whatever they can to take advantage of this fact to boost sales.

I can see that this can only be a good thing as long as mobile retail sites are user-friendly and can provide consumers with the information they need to make a decision and get checked out quickly and conveniently. The name of the game here is make it easy for customers to do business with a particular company. They want their transactions fast, easy, and available to them whenever they want. The impressive number of mobile device applicant activations on Christmas Day speaks to this fact and retailers must be ready to respond appropriately.

Happy Holidays from the 3Seventy Team!

Wishing you all the best this holiday season & a great start to 2012!

- Your 3Seventy Team!