Three Critical Reasons You Need Mobile Marketing For Your Small Business

Let me ask you a question – How critical is a Mobile Marketing (aka SMS Marketing or Text Message Marketing) strategy to your small business?

It’s a crazy question right? 

Everyone knows they need to have a Mobile Marketing strategy… they need to have a website that’s mobile optimized.

You’ve read about the need for Mobile Marketing in online blogs and small business magazines.

Marketing consultants will march in to your office and help deploy a Mobile Marketing strategy – the heart of which is making your website mobile friendly.

Everyone says you need Mobile Marketing…  But let’s put that aside for a moment… and let’s discuss the WHY!

WHY do you want Mobile Marketing for your business?

At the heart of it, most small business owners know they need to start Mobile Marketing…. But they don’t know why.

In a word the answer is: Money!

Money aka “Profits” are the primary reasons for having a Mobile Marketing strategy.

That’s why you started your business – to make money.  That’s why you sell a product – to make money.  That’s why you do marketing at all – to make money.

And that’s what your Mobile Marketing strategy needs to do for you… It needs to turn a profit and put money in your pocket.

But you have thousands of marketing options these days… why focus on mobile marketing?

Three Facts About Mobile Marketing Most Pros Don’t Know

What follows are three critical facts that should convince you Mobile Marketing isn’t only important to your business… it’s Critical!

Here we go…

Fact #1 – The Average Smart Phone Owner Looks At Their Phone 150 Times A Day!

That’s the number one reason Mobile Marketing is so powerful.

If you remember nothing else, remember this… A study by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers found the average user checks their phone nearly 150 times per day.

Think about it…

If you can get your marketing message on the mobile phone of your prospect, you stand a very good chance of making a sale.

For example, Angela notes on Twitter, “Every Time the local pizza place texts me coupons… I cave in!”

You can see her tweet right here 

That’s Mobile Marketing in action!

But that’s not all…

Fact #2 – 94% Of All Text Messages Are Read!

That’s right… 94%

Compare that to email messages where you might get a pathetic 12% or 15% open rate.  With text messaging you improve your read rate by 500%, 600%, or more!

That’s better engagement any way you slice it.

It’s like having a direct line to the mind of your prospect.  If you send them the right message at the right time, you will get sales.  It’s that simple.

So with 94% of messages being read, that’s the end of it… right?

Not so fast… just getting a message read is important, but a bigger driver to your bottom line is getting your message in a prospects hand the moment they need your product or service.

This brings us to the next fact…

Fact #3 – Most Text Messages Are Read Within 3 Minutes.

Yes – Three Minutes!

That’s amazing!

Now, some business people would consider this a throwaway fact.  If 94% of messages are read, why do I care that they get read within 3 minutes of being received?

Consider email.

You might open an email hours, days, or WEEKS after being sent.  You do it… I do it… that’s why I always wait a week before measuring our engagement rates on email.

I know from experience sometimes as many as 20% of our email opens and clicks happen 4, 5, or 6 days AFTER the message is sent.

But think about what’s happening…

Your prospects aren’t engaging with your message in a timely manner.  If you’re emailing them about a time sensitive offer… or a one-time-only deal… they’ll miss it.

This is why I love Mobile Marketing…

You can run a special offer, and know the majority of your prospects will not only receive your message… but, read it in a very timely manner.

Remember according to mobile squared your text messages get READ in just 3 minutes!

How might you put this to work in the real world?

Imagine a pizzeria… they shoot out a text message on a slow day (like a Tuesday) and they time their message perfectly… they send a message at 4:54 pm to all the Mom’s on their text message marketing list saying…

“What’s for dinner? Don’t cook tonight! 

Visit Joe’s pizza shop and kids gets a free slice when the parents order a large pie! 

Call xxx-xxx-xxxx to place your order.”

What does that response rate look like?

Imagine all the Moms looking at their half-empty refrigerator… the kids are running around opening kitchen cabinet doors looking for snacks… and Mom’s wondering what to make the hungry kids.  Then she gets your message…

Do you think response rates will be high?

You bet they will!

You’re putting the right message (Don’t cook, we’ll do it for you) in the hands of the right prospects (Moms with kids) at the right time (as everyone’s trying to figure out dinner).

At the heart of it, this is the power of Mobile Marketing.

This is why Mobile Marketing will drive bigger profits for your business… and put more money in your pocket.

Is that all there is to Mobile Marketing?  Of course not!  Like any marketing platform or system, it’s got its nuances.  There are best practices and a whole bunch of rules.  You’ve got to set up the system the right way… and of course get people on your list.

If you’re in charge of marketing for your small business, consider adding a Mobile Marketing arrow to your Quiver.  It’s not meant to replace all other marketing channels, but it’s an easy and cheap way to augment you overall marketing strategy.