If you have looked at any marketing publication or article in the past few months, you’ve probably seen a mention of text messaging marketing. It seems to be the next big thing that has been tested by everyone from small business owners and large brands, including Armani and even the President..  The success of these campaigns was closely tied to the number of people opted into it. For example, the President pinged 2.9 million people when he announced Joe Biden as his running mate and Armani had lines down the block after announcing deals via a short messaging service (SMS).

So what does this mean for you?

Much like any media channel that you venture into, you need to ask yourself if this is a medium that your customer base will embrace.  After that’s been answered, make sure to do your research and decide upon the best way to enter the space. It’s also important to consider that getting a SMS campaign up and running will require an investment of at least $800.

If you are ready to get started down the road of text message marketing, or are just interested in seeing how it could work for you, check out Mark Cohen’s New York Times piece titled, A Small Business Guide to Text-Message Marketing. Over the course of the two-page article, he breaks down some basic text messaging marketing ground rules while also giving real world examples from companies actively participating in the space. Perhaps the most interesting point made in the article is the equation of the trust involved with sharing a cell phone number with a company and a person’s social security number:

“People’s mobile number may be the most guarded number they have after their Social Security number,” Mr. Lee of Distributive Network points out. “That’s why in that first call to action you need to change their mindset from, ‘You’re going to hit me up with marketing,’ to ‘You’re going to give me exclusive access to something,’ or ‘You value my opinion.’ Voting for the new M&M color is probably the classic example.”

While stressing the importance of trust with your customer base, the quote from Lee also reinforces the idea that the message should hold value and a strong call to action.. Have you had success or experimented with text message marketing? Or is this something that you plan on exploring in the next year? Let us know what you think.