SMS Is Most Effective Direct Marketing Method, Claims Enpocket

This is according to research conducted by Enpocket, which has monitored more than 200 UK SMS campaigns since October 2001. The group’s report shows that the most likely response to an SMS ad is to reply to the message (by 8% of people on average). Others also visit a website (6%) or a store (4%).

On average, about 4% of recipients actually buy the advertised product. However, this figure rose to 17% for the most successful campaigns.

Immediate Action Taken On Receiving An SMS Ad
	Percentage Of Survey Group
	Average	Best
Read then deleted	76	88
Stored and read later	23	40
Saved it	21	37
Any reading	94	100
Showed it to friend	20	39
Forwarded	6	10
Any viral	23	41
Source: Enpocket, February 2003

Campaign Responses SMS Ad Recipients
	Percentage Of Survey Group
	Average	Best
Any response	15	46
Reply to the message	8	27
Visit website	6	19
Watch television	6	17
Buy advertised product	4	17
Visit a shop	4	15
Supply own email address	3	9
Visit a WAP site	2	5
Call a telephone number	2	4
Source: Enpocket, February 2003

Users are around three times more likely to visit an advertised website than to make a return phone call, despite the fact that the ad is received on a telephone. Enpocket found that the unknown cost of dialling a call centre from a mobile, along with the preferred anonymity of websites were largely responsible for this response.

SMS outperforms Enpocket concludes that SMS advertising “consistently outperforms other response media channels, such as direct mail and email.” The evidence for this claim is presented in the chart below.

The report predicts that there will be an accelerating growth in the use SMS campaigns, as marketers become able to exploit these high response rates.

“With this third [Enpocket Insight] report, SMS advertising has firmly proved that it is also a more effective direct marketing channel than other media. The personal nature of the medium and high attention it commands, coupled with its unparalleled targeting and response capabilities, means marketers can deliver actionable campaigns of greater relevance and impact to their target audiences,” claims Enpocket CEO, Jonathon Linner.