New concepts, ideas, and technologies are particularly vulnerable to myths and misconceptions. After all, by the very nature of the word “new”, these concepts are not entirely known or grasped by the mainstream. Newness brings with it a lack of knowledge, and a lack of knowledge brings misunderstandings.
This misunderstanding is unfortunate because something like text messaging can be an extremely useful tool if you’re trying to increase either your personal visibility or that of your business. It’s hard to beat text messaging’s ROI, and you can’t afford to let misapprehensions hold you back.
So in the interest of setting the record straight, here are five of the top text messaging marketing myths.
Text Messaging Is On The Way Out
What, already? It barely just got here! It’s true that traditional SMS text messaging has some formidable competition these days in the form of online messaging apps (e.g. WhatsApp, Snapchat). Messaging apps offer more versatility to texting, and also help users bypass SMS fees.
But what SMS critics are not mentioning is that those “traditional” text messages are still receivable by devices that use messaging apps. What seems to have changed here is the number of choices people have for texting, that’s it. SMS marketing is not going away.
This Is Just A Fad
Fads come and go, it’s true. One rarely sees gangs of people stuffing themselves into phone booths anymore. For that matter, one rarely sees phone booths. But this particular myth, not to be confused with the first one due to certain similarities or overlap, says that the entire texting thing is just a craze.
The article “Debunking 5 Common Myths about Text Message Marketing” begs to differ. They cite mobile marketing figures that are trending upwards at an exponential rate and show no sign of slowing down. This increase is the result of more people using mobile devices and leaving their desk-bound systems behind.
All Mobile Message Users Are The Same
It’s a dangerous misconception to believe that all mobile users are alike. Not everyone who uses texting is a young millennial taking selfies, hanging out on Facebook, and treading on the lawns of boomers. A lot of mobile users are actually over the age of 35. Indeed, the older-skewed users are coming to the party a little late, but they are more than making up for it. That’s why any message marketing campaign needs to have several iterations, each aimed at a different target group.
People Hate Getting SMS Messages
It’s no secret that many people have a love-hate relationship with the way communication has become so much easier these days. If people can’t get a hold of you at home, they can try your cell phone, or drop an email, or text you. It’s enough to make people dislike getting contacted by strangers, like, oh, say, a business doing a text messaging campaign, perhaps?
But fear not. The whole idea behind a text message marketing campaign is that it functions on the principle of permission, opting in. People who receive the business’ text messages are the people who signed up for the message in the first place, so yes, they want to hear from you!
Even If People Don’t Mind Getting Messages, They Don’t Read Them Anyway
Again, not true. A 2010 study conducted by Frost and Sullivan shows that people read over 95% of their text messages. In fact, people read more text messages than they do tweets (29%), emails (22%), and Facebook messages (12%).
So don’t let myths hold you back from having a dynamite text messaging campaign. If you need some ways to pull it off, check out “How To Fix Your Boring Text Marketing Campaign.”