![]() The growing popularity of mainstream wearables such as the Apple Watch, which collect detailed user data, will no doubt trigger an explosion of notifications and offers. Wearable technology is already proving effective in the healthcare space, for example, linking asthma inhaler usage with air quality reports to send users alerts. “But if reminders are too frequent, people stop listening and become annoyed.” Wearable notifications: unmissable or unbearable? For instance, SMS reminders to young diabetics to take their insulin on time considerably reduced instances of hyperglycaemia and produced significant cost reductions for the NHS. As Brill explains, service-driven SMS can work well. “When you get it right you get a much higher response rate than email, where the opening rates are under 20%, but if you get it wrong people are much quicker to get annoyed.” “If SMSs are sent too often or at inappropriate times, they become irritating and opt-out rates increase,” Brill adds. The critical success factors are frequency and timing. “SMS marketing is contextual and the business case is not always thought out as carefully as it should be,” says Brill. As the CMO survey findings indicate, however, it is easy to get SMS marketing wrong. The fact that SMS is personal and immediate means that it is the best way for brands to engage. “People don’t share phones and we use them to communicate with family and friends – which is why we read SMS messages, while emails are increasingly filtered.” “Mobile is different from any other platform because it is unique and intensely personal,” he says. Mark Brill, a mobile strategist and senior lecturer in future media at Birmingham City University, has advised brands on SMS marketing campaigns. People use smartphones to search for and purchase products and services. When respondents were asked to rate the performance of their company’s mobile marketing activities on a scale from one to seven, where one equals poor and seven equals excellent, only customer engagement scored above the halfway mark delivering a brand message, customer acquisition, customer retention, sales and profits all fell below average. The survey found that mobile marketing campaigns have had surprisingly limited success. In a recent article for Forbes, Christine Moorman, director of the CMO survey, highlighted findings that showed spending on mobile marketing was set to increase 160% over the next three years, notwithstanding questions around performance. However, many SMS marketing campaigns target potential rather than existing customers and here the outcome seems less convincing, although advertisers remain optimistic. ![]() Textmarketer’s clients include retailers that have experienced an uptick in sales following SMS special offers sent to recent customers informing them of seasonal sales, for example. ![]() Furthermore, smartphones enable advertisers to access data about their customers, such as location and purchase history, and to interact directly with them to provide information and offer deals that may drive sales. An infographic on the site states that 71% of British consumers own a smartphone (Google) and 96% of UK adults go online via a mobile (Office for National Statistics). This is supported by statistics from Textmarketer’s website, including a quote from Frost & Sullivan research that 98% of all texts get read. According to Fever, 90% of marketing text messages are read within just three seconds of being received. The obvious business benefit of SMS is its immediacy. However, as is illustrated by a recent news story, you only have to forget to tick a box once to be inundated with calls and texts promoting products, services and charitable donations. Organisations are required by law to obtain individuals’ specific consent before sending them direct marketing by any electronic means or sharing their contact details with third-party organisations. The Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) has a checklist of the rules surrounding electronic marketing. SMS marketing is covered by the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. So, are robots wasting our limited human time? The rules However, you can screen calls and texts, cancel unwanted push notifications and alerts, set different ringtones for people you want to hear from, opt out of receiving mass texts, register with the TPS (telephone preference service) and other “do not contact” lists, although that does not stop calls from anonymous numbers. You can’t just switch off your phone as you risk missing calls and texts that you want to receive. Read more Are robots wasting our limited human time?
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