Gales Network • Brand building from the inside out

August 2008

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
Text Messaging May Be The Next “Word of Mouth”

The Big Ideas Topic: The Big Idea behind connecting your brand with your audience using text messaging is your ability to “reach out and touch” whenever, wherever.

At Issue: Text communication is a powerful marketing tool. However, as Brands access consumers’ personal space they must tread carefully to develop a trusted relationship with their audience, or risk the loss of brand loyalty. True word of mouth marketing is built on relationship.

The Big Ideas View: Capture that cellphone number!

Used to be you stayed connected with your customer through their physical address to build a one-way, one-to-one relationship. Name, Street, City, State Zip (the whole postal nine yards.) Big pain. People (especially Xs and Ys) moved regularly and were hard to keep up with.

Enter email. Big improvement. You only needed to collect a couple of pieces of info: Name, Email and maybe Zip. Email was a two-way communication solution. Not real time, but closer to it than the post office (what isn’t?). Then the world became more wired, email connectivity became cheaper and multiple email addresses became common. Humans, being human, tend not to be great about de-commissioning old/unused email accounts, or keeping peripheral contacts (like Brands) informed about new addresses. So the two-way communication benefit quickly became one way and didn’t always connect.

The latest, and perhaps most enduring communication touchpoint for any Brand is a cellphone number. Not for voice calls (they are sooo 2006), but for text messaging. The primary small screen texting technology is SMS (short message service). It has several advantages over physical and email touchpoints. It is the most widely used data application (74% of all mobile phone users are texting in addition to talking). As a single data string of ten digits, a cell number is easier to collect than a street address or email. It is two-way communication that enables an immediate response. It is real time (little or no lag time between send, receive and read.) Text is less intrusive, as it is enabled by permission. Messages have a higher open rate (up to 95% by some reports) than email, because they are short and cellphones are more accessible than computers 24/7. Additionally, cell numbers are becoming more permanent, eliminating a lot of database maintenance. It’s recently relatively easy to move a number between carriers. And with nationwide service in most calling plans, it’s not a big deal to have an “out-of-town” cell number, if you move.

Two watershed events have improved the viability and momentum of texting as a mainstream branding tool, the Summer Olympics and Presidential election. Senator Obama’s campaign announced his choice for running mate to his faithful via text. Regular messages deliver campaign news, solicit opinions and build one-to-one relationships with constituents. NBC sent targeted Summer Olympics updates by text to their newsfeed subscribers.

Several companies offer SMS services and its multimedia variant MMS. Mozes, Textmarks, Waterfall Mobile, HipCricket, SinglePoint and others let Brands of all sizes and categories (artists, products, politicians, organizations) collect cell numbers and communicate with customers; build relationships, provide product information, solicit feedback and transact business.

While there will always be a place for touchpoints like physical mailing addresses and their digital cousins email accounts, SMS has improved on both and is paving the way for consistent, more powerful connections between Brands and their audiences.

Nice touch, huh?