OK, quick question. Raise your hand if you ever mention to someone who is not a business colleague that you are in mobile marketing and they say something like, “Oh no, I sure don’t want to start getting spammed on my cell phone.”
Now keep your hands up (and I know a lot of them are up; I’ve heard it a million times too) if you just wish these people only knew the hoops you have to jump through just to get a mobile campaign launched. Especially a text message campaign.
Don’t consumers know that they have to opt-in to get a mobile marketing message? Don’t they know we only want to send them something that will be of value to them so they will be happy to have received it? Aren’t they already aware that they can just send a STOP message and it will all be over?
Nope.
They don’t have a clue. Most consumers are not aware of the guidelines that ethical mobile marketers follow. They don’t know that the technology exists that gives them the ultimate control over receiving messages from sending the opt-out message to simply keeping their Bluetooth from being discoverable.
It is our job to educate them as we work to get them participating in our campaigns. We may even have to teach people how to use mobile marketing – show them how to send a text message, how to get onto the mobile web or how to accept a Bluetooth message. Think about this when you are creating your next mobile campaign. You may have to educate first in order to get participation.
What is your company doing to educate consumers?