Your Business Needs to Use Mobile Coupons

According to a Nielsen Ratings study in early 2014, 49% of smartphone owners said they have used their phone to redeem mobile coupons. This number increased 10% in a year’s time, comparing results from a previous Nielsen study. Are you taking advantage of the most popular and effective marketing tool available?

Coupons have long been a favorite and most effective form of marketing and mobile coupons are quickly becoming the most popular type of coupon available. Some companies require customers to download an app to get access to their coupons while others will email the coupon out and the customer can pull it up on a mobile device to redeem it. But probably the easiest way of sending and receiving mobile coupons is through a text message. Text message marketing is cheap and easy. As a business owner you will have to decide what you want your mobile coupon to look like. If you want customers to receive an actual image coupon you will need to use a MMS (multi-media service) provider. If you are fine with using a simple text format that says something like “show this text to redeem” then you can use an SMS (short message service) provider. A sms text message could also contain a link that takes them to an image coupon.  

Both SMS and MMS messages are delivered as a regular text message, but there are a few differences. MMS service allows attachments such as an image, voice, or video clip; this service also allows for longer messages than a traditional SMS service that is limited to 160 characters. The downside to MMS is that it is quite a bit more expensive to use. Both SMS and MMS are free to the end user, meaning they are charged the same as a regular text message but don’t incur any additional charges. In a case where the end user is paying per text message they may not like MMS messages because if it is a long message it may be divided into multiple texts that are counted individually.

Mobile coupons can be used to draw customers to your business for the first time and increase brand awareness. They can also be used to increase loyalty to your brand, if they can get a product cheaper from you than from a competitor they will most likely get it from you. Mobile coupons can also be offered as an incentive to get your customer base to join your text marketing campaign, giving you the perfect opportunity to stay in contact with them and let them know about new products or special deals.  

Mobile coupons are incredibly flexible and easy to change. With many sms marketing techniques you have such a large investment that you are stuck with it for a set period of time, regardless of how effective it is. Text marketing is easy to change and easy to gauge the effectiveness. Changing your mobile coupon daily or weekly is very doable and easy to see the response rate. Having the ability to change the marketing campaign whenever you desire is a huge benefit!

Mobile coupons are very easy to share. Include a note on the text coupon telling your customers to have a friend text your keyword to the short code to join your list so they can take advantage of your specials as well. If you are offering mobile coupons that are valuable there is no reason they won’t want to share. This is a great way to spread the word about your business and draw in new customers.

 

As you can see, there are so many options with mobile coupons that it really doesn’t make sense to not use them. Our society is increasingly technology based; if you don’t jump on the bandwagon you will be left in the dust. The great thing is, text marketing is incredibly simple and affordable! What more could you ask for? Check out some text message marketing providers today, you could be sending your first mobile coupon before the dinner rush; yes, it’s really that easy!

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