“Recently I’ve been having horrible nightmares. These nightmares aren’t the kind I had when I was a child though, these are much worse. These nightmares take me into the future and give me a glimpse of what the SMS industry has become. “

Derek Johnson posted On Mobile Marketing Watch and he continues to say:

“So to answer the question, “who’s killing SMS marketing?”, it’s unfortunately the same people that are trying to promote it, the SMS providers. This piece is more of a call to action, than it is a blog post. Starting today, I’m calling for all SMS providers to band together and put a stop to this self-destructive practice. If we don’t act now, my nightmares will soon become our harsh reality. “

Many have been predicting that the rise of the smart phone along with their apps such as foursquare, Twitter and Facebook that make the social networks easy to access on the go will lead to the fall of text messaging and ultimately SMS marketing. A study from Deloitte examining the usage of smartphone users shows this theory not to be true.

“A common perception is that the text message has been usurped by mobile email, which in turn is being displaced by social networks,” said Paul Lee, head of telecoms and technology research at Deloitte.

“Yet, there still appears to be plenty of life left in the humble text message. The intensity of usage of text messages remains high.”

Deloitte found that 90% of smartphone users send at least 1 text message a day. This is compared to only 4 in 10 people using their smartphones to use social networking sites such as Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook. Paul went on to say text messages are used more often because they are “more immediate and more personal.” Text messages are also simpler to use and understand for people. For businesses wishing to reach their customers on smartphones or any mobile device, SMS marketing remains the easiest form of communication that will provide the near instant business that is needed.

“My nightmares always start with the consumer. I see consumer after consumer grow frustrated with the concept of ‘SMS marketing.’ I watch as their phones beep every few minutes signaling the arrival of another unwanted SMS advertisement. Parents take their mobile phones into the stores requesting SMS be removed as a feature, while children become immune to the flood of SMS spam, just as in present day I’ve become immune to email SPAM.”
Derek Johnson, founder and CEO of Tatango

What are your thoughts? Do you use SMS Marketing in your campaigns anymore? What has been your experience with results lately?

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