SMS marketing

SMS marketing is popular in South Africa thanks to the high mobile phone penetration rate. We all know how often we check our phones, especially when there’s a message notification - so it makes sense that, for brand awareness at least, SMS marketing is an almost sure-fire way to get consumers’ attention - even if they don’t have a smartphone or an internet connection.

The keys to a successful SMS campaign lie in targeting, the opt-in process and careful control of the content and frequency of messages so that it doesn’t feel too intrusive.

Instant messaging platforms

Believe it or not, BlackBerry’s BBM platform is still a big player in developing markets across Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. BlackBerry recently announced a new offering, BBM Channels, which it describes as; “a new place to join conversations happening right now between people, brands and communities.”

Users can subscribe to a number of ‘channels’ (which look a lot like Facebook or a microsite, and can be owned by a brand). By selecting which channels they wish to follow, consumers select which advertising messages they’d like to receive. Brands can pay to be a ‘featured channel’ or can sponsor targeted invites to get people to subscribe to their channels.

Whatsapp is another popular messaging platform. It doesn’t permit advertising, but the sharing of images, blog posts et cetera in order to engage with customers is allowed. Word on the street is that, since it was bought by Facebook in late 2014, Whatsapp is now exploring a B2C messaging service for tracking of deliveries (read more about that here).

Mxit would have been on the list had news not broken last week of the closure of South Africa’s first feature phone messaging service.

Facebook mobile advertising

This is the one that most of us probably use to reach new consumer audiences, and it’s obviously working. Facebook’s mobile advertising revenue now reportedly makes up 76% of its total advertising revenue.

It works because it’s not seen as intrusive. Facebook's news-feed ads are designed to blend in with the flow of posts from friends and brands that users choose to get updates from. And since we all have ‘friends’ that we have lost contact with, we’re used to seeing posts that are unfamiliar.

Facebook’s new full-screen mobile ads (as opposed the sponsored news feed ones) are very interesting. There are already some great examples of how brands are using them (including this one from US take-away Wendy’s).

Sponsored call advertising

This mobile marketing channel is quite different to those mentioned above. The concept is simple though: brands sponsor a consumer’s phone call in exchange for something: a purchase, data, or for listening to a short audio ad as the call connects.

Sponsored call advertising is not limited by age and doesn’t require the consumer to be able to read. It is an ideal way to foster brand advocacy with low-income consumers - the value of giving them something they value in exchange for them giving you something you value.

It’s all about audience

At the end of the day, the combination of mobile channels you use to connect with consumers depends on who those consumers are and what they value. What’s important is that you take the time to really understand your target market before you begin to investigate all the options.

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