The transition to 4G represents a significant leap in the capabilities of mobile technology. From just about anywhere, mobile users can transfer extraordinary amounts of data in next to no time at all. This has allowed for the introduction of more powerful applications that had previously been thought unsuitable for mobile purposes. With all this change and development, where does it all leave SMS though? Is the simple and reliable messaging service that has served us so well for more than 15 years finally at the end of its life?

Despite its age, the use of SMS has increased dramatically over the last few years. While there are now signs that this is slowing, it is still a leading source of revenue for mobile providers. It is estimated that in the United States alone, it brings them over $25 billion of revenue annually.

4G, however, has changed the landscape and as a result, a number of challengers SMS have emerged. Instant messaging services are one of these that are becoming increasingly prevalent amongst those using smart phone technology. Applications like Apple’s iMessage and Blackberry messenger allow users to communicate through internet connections rather than mobile networks. As a result, they don’t incur any message charges which makes the standard 11 Cent cost for sending a 160 character SMS message look like a relic of the past.

The reason SMS has not been overtaken though is its widespread usage and lingering popularity. Lacking the ubiquity of SMS, mobile messengers generally only allow users to communicate with others using the same application. Therefore, when all else fails, it is still SMS they turn to if they really need to get in touch.

In spite of 4Gs emergence and the opportunity to explore new forms of communication, until a medium is able to achieve genuinely cross-platform and widespread use, the supremacy of SMS will not be challenged. SMS therefore will have a continuing and important place in the 4G world.

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Online shopping was one of the key innovations of the early 21st century. However, it is fast being challenged by the rapidly increasing prevalence of mobile retail. eBay has fast emerged as a leader in that field. While not yet accounting for the bulk of transactions that go through its system, mobile retail is certainly something that will be a key to its future strategies.

The increase in eBay’s mobile sales has been staggering. In 2009, worldwide sales amounted to $600 billion. For 2010, that figure was $2 billion. With markets such as the United Kingdom a key part of this, eBay has gone to great pains to secure its position at the forefront of mobile retail.

Since the inception of mobile shopping, eBay has continually been looking for ways to innovate and streamline the consumer experience. Predominantly, it does this through applications that aim to simplify the process of buying and selling. Notably, the ‘Selling’ app it released in 2010 reduced the time it would take to list a new auction to under a minute while other apps have looked to encourage the use of localised transactions. eBay’s reach has also grown considerably and recently, it announced that it would be releasing the first app that can be used by the entire world in partnership with telecommunications giant, Telefonica.

eBay’s successful use of applications has been complemented by a number of effective and well thought out marketing campaigns. Often these have been mobile based so to tap into the ever-increasing pool of consumers already using smart phone technology. One particular venture was the sponsorship of music recognition app Shazam’s tagging tool. Any time someone uses that tool, they receive a link to a number of eBay’s retail apps. It is strategies like these that have helped eBay’s mobile presence take off so quickly.

In 2011, it is projected that eBay’s mobile sales will exceed $4 billion. With figures like this, it is no wonder that it is constantly looking for ways to enhance and broaden the mobile shopping experience for users. Senior eBay exec, Steve Yankovich, really could not have been more right in saying that “the future of shopping for our customers is mobile”.

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[I:http://yourmobileinfo.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/EmmaRoseSmith22.jpg]NZ: A new McDonald’s store in Wellington encouraged foot traffic through use of a radio and SMS marketing campaign. During the campaign, just under 12,000 customers came into the store per week- about 2800 more customers than the average for pre-existing McDonald’s restaurants! What a win for McDonald’s and SMS marketing alike.

To promote the new restaurant, advertisements with an SMS marketing call-to-action were broadcast on Wellington radio. The offer was for mobile phone coupons, redeemable at the new store. To receive it, listeners simply had to text in. The menu items given away ranged from McMuffins and sundaes, to Big Macs or McChicken meals. Blair Wilson, Operations Manager at the new store, explains that the SMS marketing campaign’s results exceeded his expectations.

“The guest counts during the promotional period far exceeded our expectations with 11,739 customers coming to the store that week. This is approximately 2800 more than an average week.”

Radio and SMS marketing also translated to high revenue for the new McDonald’s restaurant, as well as more foot traffic than that seen in pre-existing McDonald’s restaurants.

The new McDonald’s store had another need: to recruit around 50 staff members. They ran another radio and SMS marketing campaign to find quality staff members. To submit their resume, listeners to the radio advertisement could text in to receive a link to a McDonald’s Web page. From there, they could upload a resume. Wilson explains that recruiting staff by text message was new territory in SMS marketing, but it paid off.

“Using this method (SMS marketing), we had approximately 600 applications for positions in two weeks. We had the same amount of applications over a nine month period at the Johnsonville store.”

This McDonald’s case study demonstrates the many uses of SMS marketing. Mobile coupons are already a popular form of SMS marketing, and in this campaign they made it as easy as possible for McDonald’s listeners to connect to their advertising. In contrast, the SMS-to-recruit strategy was an entirely new dimension of SMS marketing, and its use here tells us that there are many other possibilities still out there. So what’s next? SMS-to-pay maybe?

This article was written by Emma Smith of TXT2GET, a leading SMS marketing company. TXT2GET supply affordable SMS keywords that typically increase ad response by 2-3x. SMS keywords also bring measurability & accountability to advertising, because you can see the exact time and date that responses come in. Click on the link to get free advice on how SMS marketing can improve your business’ advertising.

SMS texting is a new way to market to a list of subscribers and involves a business sending out small messages to peoples cell phones. The biggest advantage to SMS texting is the local business market. A local restaurant for instance can send out special deals and coupons for events like Valentines day to bring in customers when a special occasion comes around. A cell phone is a great reminder as you are sue to get any message that comes to you if it comes through a text. Almost 100 % of text messages are read by people with cell phones and so when compared to the 7 % open rate of email lists there is a an obvious advantage to adopting this new marketing technology.

There are legal problems with SMS text marketing you need to be aware of. There are no hard and fast laws on how marketers are to use SMS text messaging as a marketing device. What could potentially happen especially for mass scale marketers is being hit with a class action lawsuit. The laws that will be used because there are no laws in place are likely to be land-line laws which are very harsh and expensive to the defendant. This all simply means you want to be sure to explain exactly what your customers are opting into when they subscribe to your SMS text marketing list. Also be sure to send text marketing messages that deliver what you initially promised your customers and be sure to not overload them with messages they do not need.

A great way to use SMS text marketing is in retail, clothing, and restaurant businesses. Because you have a very high responsive list with SMS text marketing you only need to offer real value and benefit to your customers to easily increase ROI. Your customers already love you or they would have never let you in to their cell phone. If you send them a 50% off coupon right before they leave from work you bet they will stop by and buy a 50 % off T-shirt or a buy one get one free ice cream. For local businesses the sky is the limit to getting your current customers to come in more often and buy more stuff from you.

SMS text marketing also works very well for those selling products and services to low income customers. A furniture, appliance, and TV leasing store could easily use this service. For instance, low income customers use their cell phone as their home phone, computer, internet connection, and ecommerce solution. These customers likely purchase things from Ebay, Amazon.com and other stores as they do not own a computer but are willing t save money and work with a small device that is adequate for buying things online. When these customers op-in to receive SMS text messages about special furniture leasing deals they will jump at the impulse of getting a new couch or chair at a slightly cheaper price. Rather than sending a marketing message like this to email address that has a 7 % chance of ever getting read these customers will open the text message 100 % of the time.

In conclusion, when you find out about an obvious no brainer marketing strategy like this the key is how fast you implement the strategy. The quicker you move to adopt SMS text marketing into your companies marketing campaign the easier it will be to make the higher ROI that email subscription lists simply cannot deliver because of the low open rates. The added convenience of getting a coupon directly to your cell phone means that customers will be presented with easiest e-commerce solution to buy from you without any barriers in the way.

When deciding on using cell phone text messaging to market to your customers it is important to know the SMS Text Marketing Risks as we have outlined in this article. To learn more about text messaging as it relates to marketing look here: SMS text service

SMS marketing could hold audience attention where email marketing failed to do so.

[I:http://yourmobileinfo.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/AndrewCampbell29.jpg]HubSpot’s recent research indicates that most 12-17 year olds prefer to communicate via SMS, instant messaging, and social media. Over the last 12 months, there was a 59% drop in their Web-based email usage. If most teenagers prefer to communicate with text messages, instant messaging and social networks, then email marketing doesn’t reach as far as it used to. SMS marketing could be a viable alternative.

While SMS marketing could fill the gap for teenager communication, HubSpot also claims that “web-based email usage has been on the decline among ALL Internet users under the age of 55.” So SMS marketing isn’t just for teenagers.

This is not to deny the role of email, but to point out that SMS marketing deserves a place in mainstream marketing practice, along with social media marketing. SMS marketing has two main advantages over traditional marketing forms. The first is that its platform is a preferred mode of communication for customers (this why Facebook advertising is successful too).

Secondly, SMS marketing communicates more closely with the consumer than traditional marketing. The ‘one-way’ transmission model of communication is now redundant: we realised successful communication needs a two-way exchange. So SMS marketing, like social media marketing, works because it makes it as easy as possible for organisations and publics to communicate. When publics can send an SMS to an organisation and have it valued, SMS marketing has achieved success.

SMS marketing is not a ‘fix-all:’ it can and should be used in addition to other marketing channels. It must be well-planned to get great results. Above all, it needs to offer value to the customer, in accordance to marketing best practice. That 59% of teenagers who aren’t using email won’t necessarily be customers of SMS marketing today, but as HubSpot put it, “today’s kids are tomorrow’s customers-and they’re probably not going to be reading your email.”

Watch this video for a quick introduction to SMS marketing: what it is, why it works, and how you can use it.[youtube:IWG2BqtevgA?fs=1;How does [link:SMS mobile marketing] work? What are its benefits? Mobi explains…;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWG2BqtevgA?fs=1&feature=related]

This article was written by Andrew Campbell, the Country Manager of TXT2GET Australia. TXT2GET are a leading SMS marketing company operating from the US, NZ and Australia. For more free insights, industry trends and research reports, visit the TXT2GET blog.