Profit Masters

Why Mobile Phone Advertising When Twitter Is Free?

Written by bmlengel on June 19th, 2010

I’m sure you have recognized the similarity between mobile text advertising and the Internet craze for short messages available on Twitter.  Twitter’s short message service (SMS) allows users to send and receive messages with a 140-character limit on any device, including computer, phones and pdas. 

Twitter has even started experimenting with promoted tweets, which are paid tweets visible to the entire Twitter user community. Thus far, only large advertisers such as Starbucks and Best Buy are being offered promoted tweets, and with Twitter boasting a community of almost 106 Million, it may be awhile before small business owners can afford a piece of that pie. 

But, why can’t a small business owner just use Twitter, which is free, to promote their business?  What are the benefits of using mobile phone advertising as well?  Here are a few things to consider:

1.  Tweets on Twitter are viewable only by those users who have asked to follow you.  While it is a great idea to get your customers who use Twitter to follow you, the reality is that not everyone uses Twitter on a regular basis.  Yes, 106 Million sounds like a lot and it is. It may be hard to believe, but that represents only 20% of all people who use the Internet.  And believe it or not, there are those customers who still even use the Internet infrequently or even not at all.  But rest assured most of those folks have a cell phone (82% of Americans do, in fact).

2.  If you have had any experience with Twitter, you are aware that tweets can be buried very quickly. Immediate responses from those who see your tweets can be favorable, but the effectiveness can wear off very quickly.  This makes Twitter a good option for building brand loyalty, but not the greatest source to promote an event such as a sale or a limited time coupon offer. A direct mobile advertising message is much more effective to reach your customers for that type of promotion.

3.  Mobile advertising, unlike Twitter, offers mobile keyword technology which makes it a more powerful targeting option for a small business advertiser.  While large companies like Best Buy and Starbucks are comfortable reaching out to a large and diverse group of people, most smaller businesses prefer to pinpoint specific customer demographics and mobile keyword technology is the answer.    People can simply text your mobile keyword right where they see it – at the cash register, webpage, event, or even when hearing an advertisement on the radio.  You can even import cell phone numbers of customers you already have, so you are starting from ground zero building your customer base. 

While Twitter has its place in a small business owner’s marketing plan, it can’t take the place of an effective mobile advertising promotion.  With affordable options and the ability to start out on a month to month basis at a low cost (it can be as low as $10/month), mobile phone advertising is a great addition to the small business owner’s marketing plan.   

Be sure to stop by SmallBusinessMobileAdvertising.com to learn much more about how entrepreneurs can use mobile phone advertising to expand their business. Make sure to sign up for your free mobile phone advertising trial (and mention the promo code “mobilenow” and receive double the credits during your free trial period).

Tags: cell phone advertising, mobile phone advertising, mobile sms advertising, twitter