SMS Marketing – Advantages and Disadvantages

With almost every person in this country carrying a mobile phone today, SMS Marketing has become an increasingly popular mode of marketing tool these days. With a single message being used to reach out to the entire customer base, it is one of the most cost effective and easiest form of communication which is being used increasingly by marketers today.

SMS means Short Messaging Service and contains messages of 140-160 characters in length. Since the messages can be sent quickly to a large set of people, SMS marketing has become a very powerful tool for advertising and marketing your products / services in today’s world.

Though SMS Marketing is being used by more and more business houses as a preferred mode of marketing tool, this mode of communication has several advantages as well as disadvantages which I am highlighting below :

ADVANTAGES

Ease of Reach

SMS Marketing enables you to use a single message to communicate to your entire customer base in one go itself. Thus, instead of contacting each customer personally, you can distribute your advertising message and reach out to several customers with a single click.

Personal Communication

SMS has become the most popular mode of communication today with most of us using it to communicate with our friends, family and acquaintances. Unlike an email or a newsletter, nearly every message that is sent on a mobile phone is read by the receiver. Being an extremely personal mode of communication, you can establish a direct contact with your client and build your business relationship further.

Cost Effective

SMS Marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to reach out to your customers. With the reducing SMS prices in India and a single message being used to reach out to all customers in one go, it helps you reduce and optimize your marketing budgets to a large extent.

Time Saving

Being an instant mode of communication, you can reach out to their customers whenever you want. Moreover, it is also possible to track the delivery of the sent messages immediately, thus reducing the overall campaign time.

DISADVANTAGES

Spam Messages:

Bombarding users with repeated advertising messages on their mobile phones can cause more harm than good. Mobile phones are very personal items and some people do not like receiving marketing messages on it. Such frequent spam messages can irritate the users who can develop a negative attitude towards your company and can adversely affect your company’s reputation.

Short Character Limit

With messages being limited to 140-160 characters, it becomes difficult to create an effective message within such short character limit. Moreover, additional information in the form of hyperlinks may not always be received properly by the user’s phone.

Opt-in Lists

Many a times the users register their mobile numbers with a Do Not Call Registry, which means that they do not want to receive promotional SMS from companies. Since these users have not opted in to receive a promotional message from your company, ethically you cannot send them a promotional SMS. This limits your customer base to some extent.

While the above are major disadvantages of using SMS as a marketing tool, yet many marketers still prefer this mode of communication to their customers and prospects.

Source: http://www.atuljain7.com/sms-marketing-%E2%80%93-advantages-and-disadvantages