The Great British Mobile Marketing Report 2012

The Great British Mobile Marketing Report

Research

In association with

insidemobile

©Textlocal 2012

textlocal

Business mobile messaging

Foreword by Alastair Shortland Mobile continues to grow at a rapid pace and marketers are

continually implementing mobile messaging, mobile web, QR codes,

mobile advertising and applications into their marketing efforts to

reach consumers on the move.

Narrowcast channels such as mobile are out-gunning email and

other direct response media due to targeting accuracy, cost

efficiencies but it is the incredible open rates and response rates of

mobile messaging that wins every time.

However, over the past few years, with the continual rise of

smartphone usage, and more people accessing information online

via their phones, mobile has become a major player in the overall

marketing mix, and nowadays the majority of campaigns out there

have a mobile element to them.

There are many ways mobile can be used for businesses to boost

profits, communicate with customers and run efficient operations,

but this year mobile messaging has come out on top. Ofcom have

even stated that texting has overtaken talking in the UK, but are

businesses underestimating how mobile can support, compliment

and boost their marketing strategy?

One thing is clear its here to stay.

Alastair Shortland, Textlocal CEO and Founder

Research The Great British Mobile Marketing Report 2012

The Great British Mobile Marketing Report 2012 Research

……………………………A bit about us

Page 4&5……………………….About the report

Page 6……………………………Educate me

Page 7&8……………………….The power of text

Page 9……………………………Digital marketing rules

Page 10………………………….Time to embrace mobile

messaging

Page 11………………………....Communications. Its

confirmed

Page 12………………………...Mobile marketing on the

rise

Page 13………………………….SMS Vs. Email

Page 14………………………….SMS & mobile web trump

apps

Page 15……………………......Most used mobile marketing

services

Page 16………………………....The mobile marketing

budget

Page 17………………………….The future

Contents

A bit about us…

We are Textlocal. We provide online mobile marketing and

communication services for businesses. We enable UK businesses

from small SME’s to multi-national companies, to instantly

communicate on mass with customers, members or staff through

the medium of the mobile phone.

Founded in 2006, Textlocal’s goal has always been to bring text

message marketing to the UK business market and unlike its

competitors, enable any size of business to do this with costs

starting from as little as 2.4p.

The Textlocal ethos is about providing businesses with a

Do-It-Yourself automated system, putting the power in their hands.

The result is ‘Messenger’ an award winning online messaging

platform. The user can craft mobile marketing campaigns, develop

messages, and pay online in a matter of minutes. Messenger offers a

variety of easy to use services enabling clients to easily

communicate with customers in just a few clicks.

Today, we work with over 96,000 businesses from all sectors and of

all sizes, from councils and universities, to big clients like Google,

Marie Curie, English National Opera, Shell, Pizza Hut and

Greenpeace. Through Messenger we now send millions of text

messages every month, making other businesses more profitable

through mobile marketing and communications.


3

About the report… in association with…

With the support of Mobile Marketing Magazine, we developed the

questions in this survey to obtain information about the business

sector and its approach to mobile marketing, and was derived to

meet the following key objectives.

Survey Objectives

• Consultative questions to explore attitudinal and budgetary

factors

• Understand general marketing channels used and where

mobile marketing fits within the marketing mix

• Explore business’s current and future use of mobile

marketing by type of activity (promotional, customer service

etc.)

• Explore mobile service adoption and the propensity to

purchase new services (apps, location based, rich content

etc.)

• Understand their views on the success or otherwise of mobile

marketing activity

• Explore buying behaviour in terms of selecting mobile

marketing providers

• Gather information on the company and decision making

process


4

This report is based on a survey of 600 client-side respondents. We

used our own research to uncover the changing needs and uses of

mobile marketing for SME’s across various business sectors and

regions. We canvassed opinion at a granular level to provide you

with knowledge and insight, backed up by statistics and cutting

edge thinking. This report will prove invaluable to business

professionals, marketers and anybody making a decision on whether

business mobile messaging is for them.

It has been designed to be practical and thought provoking, and to

help you drive your mobile strategy forward, based on fact and real

opinion.

It focusses on needs, preferences, as well as current and future

usage of mobile marketing amongst UK small to medium

enterprises.

Interestingly, the reports uncovers that narrowcast channels such as

mobile marketing are out-gunning email and other direct response

media due to targeting accuracy and cost efficiencies, but

businesses are still unaware of the incredible open rates and

response rates of mobile messaging. From this research we know

that there needs to be more education for businesses to dispel any

misconceptions and unveil the true power of mobile.


About the report… in association with…

5

Educate me

Even though 40.6% of respondents understand the use of the mobile

marketing, 59% still aren’t using it. We know that most businesses

will be aware of mobile messaging, but the gap in the level of

understanding indicates that there needs to be a focus from

suppliers to educate businesses about its full potential.

Q1. How would you rate the understanding of the potential uses

and benefits of mobile marketing to your business?

The Great British Mobile Marketing Report 2012 Research

6

Understanding the power of text

Research

Q2. Are you aware that over 97.5% of all text messages are read

within five seconds of being received? Source: Ofcom

The open rate for mobile messaging is higher than any other

marketing channel. The DMA compared it to email stating that only

20% of marketing emails are opened and read. Ofcom even stated

that consumers are choosing text over calling these days, so it

becomes obvious that businesses need to communicate with

customers in this way, to give them what they want and boost ROI.

The true power of mobile messaging is the fact that 97.5% of all

recipients will read what’s been sent. Only 24.4% of businesses

were aware of the high readership rate, meaning many could be

missing out.

The Great British Mobile Marketing Report 2012

7

Understanding the power of text

Research

Q3. Did you know that the average SMS response rate typically

ranges from 15% to 30%, compared to 5% for email and 2.61% for

direct mail?

The fact that 85.71% of businesses don’t know the high response

rates of SMS, suggests again that suppliers need to educate the

masses of its clear advantage over other marketing channels.


Source: Mobile Data Association 2011

8

Digital marketing rules

Research

Q4. Which marketing channels are more and less important to

your company?

67.21% of businesses feel that mobile and internet marketing are

the most important channels in the mix, with 53% ranking mobile as

their number one. Email and social media follow closely with

around 48% feeling its more important than direct mail, TV,

billboards, telesales and promotional flyers, showing a clear shift to

digital marketing.


0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

9

Time to embrace mobile messaging

Research

Q5. How frequently do you use mobile messaging?

Only 25.7% admit to never using mobile marketing, with 42% stating

that they use it occasionally. The frequent users should be a larger

group here, and this maybe again, due to negative perceptions or a

lack of knowledge as to the benefits and uses of mobile messaging.


Too many businesses sitting on the fence

10

Communications. Its confirmed

Research

Q6. What do you use mobile marketing for at present?

We can see that the most common uses of mobile marketing for

businesses is for sending confirmations, reminders or alerts and also

for sales promotions. Business tend to use mobile marketing less

frequently for lead generation, m-commerce and delivering rich

media. The rich media aspect is interesting, as we feel many

businesses don’t realise that you can send shortened links to mobile

websites, brochures and videos in a simple text message, therefore

extending the 140 character limitation associated with a plain text

mobile message.


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

11

Mobile marketing on the rise

Research

Q7. Do you see your focus on mobile marketing increasing in the next 12 months?

69.8% state they see their frequency of mobile marketing activity

increasing in the next 12 months, while 10.3% say they would start

using it for the first time. This shows a definite trends towards

businesses realising its importance in their marketing strategies.


12

SMS vs. Email. The showdown

Research

Q8. How effective have you found SMS text marketing?

69% said that they found SMS text marketing either effective, quite effective or extremely effective.

Q7. If you have tried SMS and email, how effective have you

found SMS text messaging in comparison to email marketing?

63% said that SMS text marketing was more effective than email

marketing.


Nearly

two thirds felt SMS was

more effective than email

69% suggest SMS text marketing is effective

13

SMS and mobile web trump apps

Research

Q9. What mobile marketing services do you consume?

SMS and mobile web are the two top mobile marketing services

used by businesses individuals frequently, and as the chart shows,

67.27% state that SMS is their preferred mobile marketing

communication channel.


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

14

Most used mobile marketing services

Research

Q10. Which new services do you think you will start to use over the next 12 months?


15

The mobile marketing budget

Research

Q11. What percentage of your current marketing budget is

appointed to mobile marketing?

It’s clear how cost effective mobile marketing is when we look at

the majority of businesses spending less than 10% of their marketing

budgets in this area. Making your budget work harder in the current

economic climate is paramount for businesses both large and small.

Q11. Is this planned to increase next year?


16

The future

Research

Q12. Do you have any plans in place to use mobile marketing

services in the near future?

Q.11 What kind of information would be most likely to influence

your views in favour of mobile marketing?

Top 10

1. Relevant case studies

2. Word of mouth

3. Benchmarking

competitors

4. Relevant testimonials

5. Not open to influence

6. Press articles

7. Online video

demonstrations

8. Face to face demo

9. Telephone demo

10. Online reviews


30% of businesses will be likely

to use mobile marketing in the next 3 to 12 months

17

Follow us:

Visit us:www.textlocal.com

email us:[email protected]

Call us:08450093180

http://www.textlocal.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.facebook.com/txtlocal

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mobile-Marketing-UK-Forum-4353379?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

https://twitter.com/textlocal

https://plus.google.com/s/Textlocal

http://www.textlocal.com/news/feed/

The Great British Mobile Marketing Report 2012

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