People Prefer Text Message Marketing, Says Direct Marketing Association

Given a choice, people in the UK, France and Germany prefer receiving text message marketing campaigns as opposed to mobile web promotions.

The research was carried out by to Toluna for the Direct Marketing Association. The report sponsor Velti, revealed the somewhat surprising evidence that 38% of people in the UK prefer the well-established text message marketing channel, compared to just 15% who prefer mobile web.

The results were even more striking in Germany and France with 58% and 60% respectively favouring text message marketing, with just 21% of consumers favouring mobile web.

According to the report, which surveyed 4400 mobile users in Europe’s three largest economies, an encouraging 40% of UK consumers would be interested in being contacted by advertisers via their mobile.

Krishna Subramanian from of Velti, said: “From our perspective, this survey highlights a vast opportunity available to mobile marketers to address the gap in mobile engagement.”

Mighty mobile phone

So the evidence suggests that many of us would welcome text message marketing campaigns from advertisers. What is surprising is that so few UK companies are using SMS in any way in their business. Our estimate, which admittedly is only based on gut feel, is that about 30% of UK companies are using or have used text message marketing as a promotional tool. Despite having been around for 15 years or so, text message marketing is still viewed as a cutting-edge and slightly edgy marketing activity to get involved in. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you haven’t yet tried text message marketing, now would be a good time to set up a free account to see how it might work for your business. If you would like to chat to us, please give us a call on (0117) 205 0202.