A new marketing idea......texting?

[hondacuraplanet]

I was reading somewhere on one of the business blogs that email in the 21st century is becoming somewhat passe.

Which got me to thinking, think there'd be any demand doing parts and order quotes by txt? Say, for example, a method by which you can obtain quotes, order status, etc by texting rather than email?

[andyschneider]

Sounds like an interesting idea - as long as it's only status/info type of things it'd work - but you'd still have to use the internet or phone to order.... Only thing we'd have to be careful about is the type of things others would use for texting, and the potential logjam of incoming messages including spam, etc, as this picks up - would be tough to weed out the good from the bad....

andy

[Shindig78]

I've been in e-commerce for the majority of my career, and I've heard a lot about SMS/Text marketing, but it really hasn't gained much traction at all over the years. In order to purchase, a customer needs to authenticate, send their order information, send their payment information, and receive confirmation that the order was accepted. In my mind, that's a lot for simple SMS.

For the websites that I manage, I would build a mobile-compatible version before I do anything with texting. The mobile-friendly version of the website would give customers access to most of the features they currently use on our site, and they could access it anywhere from their cell phone, iPhone, or Blackberry.

I've also heard from many vendors trying to sell me tools to send marketing messages to my customers via text. From what I've read, Americans are not ready for this -- they view text as a form of personal communication, and ads would be intrusive. Plus, many wireless plans still charge for each text message sent or received or have some type of set allowance, which means that customers would be paying to receive our ads. This per-message fee or allowance does not apply to traditional e-mail. If I were to engage in SMS/text marketing, I would only send messages to customers who actively opted into my SMS/text marketing campaign.

So, to sum it up, I am not a fan of text commerce or text marketing, but I'm not writing it off yet, either. I'll keep my eye on it over the next couple of years to see what happens. For now, I'll stick with my very productive traditional e-commerce website and e-mail marketing.

[rocky]

Texting is pretty clunky form of data transmission at best. This is due to limited message lengthy.

It is however a very quick method of communicating and I use it as necessary especially with collegues etc overseas.

[whizmo]

Originally posted by Shindig78
Plus, many wireless plans still charge for each text message sent or received or have some type of set allowance, which means that customers would be paying to receive our ads. This per-message fee or allowance does not apply to traditional e-mail.

I think this is a key point. Many (most?) of us are not on texting plans and the per-text charges are frankly ridiculous given that texting uses a fraction of the bandwidth of voice. For this reason, I avoid texting all-together, although my kids sign up for limited plans and pay for it with their own money.

I also think most people view ordering parts and accessories for their cars as something they do at home where they have access to research and background information. I doubt many people are going to decide to order wiper blades or a CD changer while they're sitting at Starbucks.

- Mark

[Shindig78]

Originally posted by whizmo
For this reason, I avoid texting all-together, although my kids sign up for limited plans and pay for it with their own money...

That's something that we old guys may be missing. "Millenials" love their texting, and they may be more receptive to doing business via text that older generations. They are the ones that are beginning to enter the workforce and spend money, so the industry will react and give them what they want.

But for now, I am fine with sitting on the TXT sidelines until things are sorted out.

[hondacuraplanet]

I'm not suggesting marketing or sending txt instead of email, I'm thinking like parts quotes and such. Although, I do get a lot of blackberry traffic already.