It’s hard to get numbers on mobile marketing’s effectiveness locally, since we’ve hardly started here in NZ, even though our mobile phone penetration and usage is high. (In Japan mobile marketing + coupons are commonplace). However I recently came across some useful numbers out of the US market. It came from a mobile provider servicing the restaurant industry, via a Linkedin forum.

“We have had a lot of success driving revenue and foot traffic. Before I go into stats, the first thing you should all think about is customer. What would they like and what is the best method to deliver that key "something" to them. Many restaurants and QSR’s have seen great results using simple text message coupons/offers and sweepstakes off their TV commercials. Meaning you can embed a ‘call-to-action’ in your video to drive response. The text message drives the traffic/redemption. Example, you see a commercial for KFC with a visual and/or audio call-to-action that says/reads, "text KFC to 12345 to get $2 off your chicken meal". The consumer texts and gets an immediate text response. This text message has details on how and where to redeem. On average we see a 1% response rate, based on Nielsen estimates.

Here’s the best part, follow up with a second text message asking the consumer to join your exclusive database for more savings. We typically see ~33% opt-in rate (we call this a double opt-in). That rate fluctuates based on brand and if there is an additional offer in the DOI message (get a free appetizer and more info from XYZ Restaurant, reply YES).

We typically see between 52%-113% redemption rates (based on the number of people that requested the offer and then went to the store and used the coupon). Village Inn in Phoenix ran a Bogo entree and saw a 113% redemption rate, that means that people forwarded the text to friends and they redeemed too.

Perceived SPAM is as BAD as SPAM!!! (even if you are not legally spamming, if the consumer thinks you are… that’s bad for business)

Here are the stats:

• 97% or more cell phones in the USA are text (SMS) enabled. basically, everyone.
• Response rates on TV ads: ~1%
• Redemption rates: 52-113%
• Database opt-in: averages 33%.
• Re-marketing to your database: 60% or more redemption rates on average
• Opt-out of database, we see less that 1%, but it is all in how you manage your database.
• Only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009
• Smartphone owners in the U.S. tend to be male, younger (between the ages of 18–34), affluent (income of $75k+), and they use the phones for a mix of both personal and business purposes, with more emphasis on business usage.
• iPhone user is similar, but skews even higher for the more affluent (twice as many in the $100k+ income group).

Want to setup your own mobile campaign? It’s surprisingly affordable. email: zn.oc.gnitekramlatigidnull@nivek

Related posts:

1. Restaurants – Natural Affinity with Mobile
2. Your Customers have gone Mobile – Have YOU?
3. Adding Mobile to your Next Mailer
4. Most Still Prefer Real Stores