5 reasons to position yourself to take advantage of the global mobile messaging revolution

Mobile messaging is taking off globally, with large numbers of US mobile phone companies and corporations coming to the party.

Predictions for text message volume growth for 2010 range from 2.316 billion messages per year by Gartner, 2.827 billion messages per year by Ovum, and 3.173 billion messages per year by Portico Research.

Just in mid-June, Sprint Mobile Media Network began giving marketers and advertisers the opportunity to reach its millions of wireless data subscribers through web-based advertising programs.

Clickatell has also announced that it will boost promotions for CNN’s Breaking News Alerts beginning in June. This contract requires Clickatell to deliver CNN’s Breaking News Alerts promotions to mobile phone users across 600 mobile networks in 200 countries. Consider the vast reach this deal allows CNN, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Are you positioned? The question I would like to ask the small business owner, especially the internet marketer whose potential customer base is not restricted by geography, is: where do you fit into this trend?

Are you strategically positioning yourself to be part of the mobile messaging revolution or are you still not convinced that you need to explore other avenues of communication?

Perhaps you read the part where I mention the mobile messaging activities of Sprint and Clickattell and thought “that’s for big corporations! I don’t have that kind of budget”.

The thing is, you could expand your customer relationship management and marketing reach through mobile messaging, while operating within your means.

I’m not quite sure what kind of services Sprint will offer to small business operators, but Clickatell already offers small customers a web-based managed service designed especially for smaller customers.

Offering online managed bulk text messaging services to smaller businesses on a budget is how the company was first established. The service is now global and can be accessed by online marketers anywhere, anytime.

[And this is where I mention that I don’t work for Clickatell, and am I in any way associated with the company, so I gain nothing from mentioning their services. The reason I am familar with the company’s offerings is because I report on its activities as a Messaging editor.]

I’m sure there are plenty of other bulk messaging companies in the US all willing and able to provide a fully managed service that you can approach for more information. The problem is why should you even bother exploring this avenue?

let me count the ways 1. More mobile phone subscribers than Internet in the U.S

One third of the world’s population (more than 2 billion people) already uses a mobile phone. Also, in the US, there are more mobile phone subscribers than Internet subscribers.

CRMDestination.com says there are more than 229 million mobile phone subscribers in the US “Owned by a staggering 76% of the US population, mobile phones are more ubiquitous than the Internet and more readily available” says Joseph Salesky, CEO of ClairMail and the article’s author.

“Just as the Internet began as a means of communication and evolved into a channel for customer interaction, the mobile phone is also moving beyond voice communication and is poised to change the landscape of customer interaction. Salesky writes.

2. Users who are already used to texting Users do not even have to get used to this method of communication. Sending text messages grows exponentially year after year.

A recent study shows that Americans sent 48.7 billion text messages in the last half of 2005, more than double the number sent in the same period in 2004.

3. Reach your customer anywhere I know that the concept of a marketer being able to reach you anywhere scares some people. In fact, I’m one of those people who prefers to monitor incoming communication, and I’ve been known to turn off my cell phone for days on end (when I really need to decompress).

But many users carry their mobiles everywhere, which means they can still access your communication and choose whether to reply or not. WAP-enabled phones even allow subscribers to access the Internet directly.

4. Transactions enabled Banks are slowly rolling out mobile banking, which allows a customer to respond to an offer by simply sending a short text code in response. So your customer no longer has to be at their home office or at work to accept your offer and pay for it.

5. Good backup for email communication A multi-mode messaging system allows your customer to choose from multiple ways to communicate with them. You can send the first message to the main communication tool (email, for example) and, if the message is not read within a specified period of time, forward it to another communication channel (for example, mobile phone).

While this service is typically used for emergency services and by banks to confirm customers’ identities during online transactions, a small business owner can also use the tool wisely when running limited-time promotions.

If the prospect has authorized you to contact them via mobile as a secondary communication, you can make an offer at least twice, while still allowing a customer not to miss out on a good deal because they were out of town and didn’t check email. a couple of days.