Is Marketing Going Mobile?

Is Email Becoming a Thing of the Past?

Does your business utilize email marketing as a way to communicate with past, existing, or potential clients? Most of us, whether it’s a truly effective marketing tool or not, will answer yes to this question. Email marketing has remained strong throughout the decades, proving to be a great way to reach out to various groups of people. However, just like many forms of communication, email marketing’s glory days as an effective, relevant element may beginning to fade.

98% of text messages are read, compared to a whopping 22% of emails, and that’s if your email makes it past their spam folder. With the rapid move towards mobile, how can your business is taking the correct steps to a truly effective, mobile marketing strategy? The 21st century consumer needs to have three things to feel targeted and spoken to: intimacy, urgency, and purpose. With these three things, your business can find the best marketing tools, and join the modern world’s business conversations.

INTIMACY:

Emails are largely known as the less intimate form of communication. For example, you most likely emailed an HR department about a job interview rather than texting them. Why? Professional communication has taken place through the email platform for decades, it’s what people know and are familiar with. For those same reasons, however, email has quickly developed an impersonal stigma. While millennials deeply care about a businesses’ stance on social issues, philanthropy, and customer service, when it comes to reaching this market, there’s a vital need for a personal touch.

The generation that marketers now work hard to target has a simple catch: a push strategy has quickly changed into a pull strategy. Businesses used to use email to push messages and news upon masses of people. But now businesses use a millienial-geared strategy that applies their knowledge about their desired audience to gain interest. A mass message simply will not speak to a 21st-century consumer or fit the intimate, mobile platform.

URGENCY/EASE:

If your business miraculously makes it past a customer’s junk mail, you’ll find your second obstacle is that of reach. It takes roughly three days for an email to be seen and possibly opened compared to the 3-minute open time of texting. Nowadays, it’s common knowledge that emails are often either too long, irrelevant, or unnecessary. Staggering statistics continue to support the productivity and likeability of SMS texting. For example:

90% of consumers would rather receive offers from vendors through text.
64% of consumers prefer to text a business than call the business.
9 out of 10 searches on a mobile platform lead to action with more than half leading to actual conversion.

Mobile communication is fast, it’s specific, and it’s easy. On average, the response rate of texting is 60 times faster than that of email. We’re a busy group of people with constant stimulation and distraction, opening a long, dense email has become too much of a time-eater and therefore, may not see the light of day.

PURPOSE:

A key difference to make in order to remain safe from the “annoying-factor” is that you may not be a massive brand and therefore, texting may be better suited for your needs as a small business. Take Nike for example, if you continually received updates on various promotions, sales, and news, irritation levels naturally increase as your phone is bombarded with the irrelevant information you simply do not want taking up valuable gigabytes. Take note and be purposeful about what messages you send, when you send them and to who you send them to. This will prevent you from crossing the fine line of becoming a nagging, non-stop voice that your customer may tune out.

**It’s vital to note that mobile marketing can be used inappropriately and harm your business. Be vigilant as to when, why, and how you text your customers. For example, if your business makes contact with a customer before physical communication, the likelihood of conversion decreases by 39%. Mobile marketing is the new and improved way to reach clients, however, it is a delicate tool that must be strategized and perfected.

Statistics provided are pulled from the websites below:

https://onereachcontactcenter.com/high-demand-for-customer-service-via-text-message/https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white_paper_c11-520862.html https://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/