The Last Word: Making sense out of SMS marketing

Mobile phone subscribers in the UAE are intensely irritated by the flood of spam SMS messages. I know – I'm one of them.

While the UAE's sole telecommunications provider, Etisalat, has finally promised to take some kind of action by allowing users to block certain senders, subscribers are still being forced to take action to prevent these messages getting through – and even then, subscribers are likely to only be able to block a sender once a spam has been sent.

This means that the irritation is being compounded – every time you get a spam message, you have to act to block that new sender. The volumes of messages being sent are already unacceptable to many people. This is not a UAE-only problem, incidentally – untargeted SMS marketing has created negative reactions in other world markets, too.

Let us leave aside, for the moment, the issue of phone companies which sell SMS messages by the million to companies. At the core of the issue is that out there in the blue beyond there are actually marketers that still believe that unsolicited messages are a good idea.

It's something of a worry, because it does demonstrate a remarkable lack of thought – let alone tact or respect for the target audience. If, indeed, these people have ever bothered to define a target audience! I frequently get invitations sent to me to attend clubs to watch the latest DJ on the block, for instance.

There's a longstanding precedent here as well – and another issue that many people in the UAE are finding a real pain right now. Spam e-mails. We don't want them, we don't like them and the vast majority of people I talk to have very negative perceptions indeed of companies that send them unsolicited mail.

Global problem

There's been global news coverage of the problem and of the various promises being made by companies that are going to work on fixing that problem. So why, given that unsolicited messages so obviously create negative reactions in the target audience, would anyone think that spamming mobile 'phones is clever?

It most certainly isn't – people don't want unsolicited SMS messages to start with – and they're more irritating than unsolicited mails because of the basic file and message management available to a mobile user. You have to open the message to find out that it's rubbish. At least you can spot 99 per cent of spam e-mails without having to open them all.

The huge message that is being missed by any company sending out bulk e-mails to random lists is that it is driving completely the wrong kind of awareness. Many people react negatively to these messages and to the companies sending them or being featured in them.

What's worse is that it's creating a deeply negative reaction among people to receiving any SMS messages from companies flooding the market to the point where it's hard for companies that want to use SMS responsibly to do so. This is not clever marketing.

Danger

And, in the long run, it runs counter to the core aims of any organisation trying to build a revenue base around value added services such as SMS and MMS. Short term gain is in danger of leading to long term pain.

So what's the answer? Firstly, in any e-mail or SMS campaign, the critical first move is to ensure that you are delivering solicited content – that your campaign is 'opt-in'. That means targeting an audience with content that the audience has requested because it wants it. So you have to define messages that people actually gain value from – enough value for them to ask for the message.

Ideally, they should be one message campaigns, or have a clear 'getout' if they involve multiple messages. SMS messages, in particular, should also clearly identify the sender so that any database issues can be quickly ironed out.

Generally, the SMS message should never form the 'first touch' in a campaign. SMS is not a good awareness medium, but it is a powerful fulfilment medium. You can trigger an SMS on an event, for instance – 'SMS me if there is a seat free for the concert at the last minute' might be an offer on a registration web site for a concert that's full.

The key here is that someone selects the option from a website. Or you could offer a seminar audience the chance to receive SMS updates on new properties or product availability or virtually any other time-sensitive update. Again, the first touch comes from the audience being with you, and being given an option to further the contact via e-mail or SMS.

The writer is a senior public relations consultant.