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SMS Compared to other mediums of Marketing |
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Standard communications mediums available
to marketers and advertisers are usually rated on three factors:
Reach, Cost and Effectiveness /Retention |
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| Medium |
Reach |
Cost |
Retention |
| Television |
One of the Highest |
Very High |
Good |
| Radio |
Medium |
Medium |
Poor |
| Internet [Banners] |
High |
Medium |
Dropping |
| Emai |
High |
Extremely Low |
Extremely Low |
| Print Media |
Low |
High |
High |
| Billboard/POS /POP |
Medium |
Medium |
Medium |
| Moving Media |
Medium |
High
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Medium |
| Telephone |
Medium |
High |
Medium |
| Fax |
Low |
Medium
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| Standard Mailers |
High |
High |
Medium |
| Personal Interaction |
Low |
High |
High |
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As a new medium available
SMS has the following characteristics:
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| Medium |
Reach |
Cost |
Retention |
| SMS |
High |
Low |
High |
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Using SMS in an Enterprise |
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Before the advent of SMS technology the major
modes of communications in an enterprise were Email and Voice.
The advantages and disadvantages of these mediums are discussed
above.
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SMS message has some special advantages vis-a-vis
these communication mediums. |
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- Instantly Received and Recorded:
The message is
delivery and if not delivered for some reason the sender
is informed about that. Moreover it is stored immediately
in your cell phone. Email provides no such guarantee
even if does not bounce it may not be delivered to the
recipient. Voice can only be received if the recipient
is carrying his/her mobile phone.
- Less Intrusive Medium:
SMS message
is less intrusive as you don’t have to go out of
an official meeting to receive it. As a result customers
are much more open to any communication from an organization
via SMS vis-à-vis
Voice.
- Cheap Medium: The cost of delivering an SMS is
less as compared to phone call. This could be most effectively
used for small and precise piece of information that you
would like to pass like the balance of your bank account.
- Easy to Respond:
If the customer needs
to respond to any of the messages send by an organization
then this medium will get the maximum response to the sender.
As a result many of the TV channels are using this medium
for interacting with their viewers.
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Thus SMS is being used in an enterprise for |
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- Customer Service: Banks have added a new dimension
to the service they provide to their customers by sending
them SMS messages for information, which a customer usually
seeks by calling its bank. This makes life easier for the
customer as the customer need not make a phone call to the
bank and reduces load of enquiries on the bank.
- Business Process Integration: An education
institute has a business process of giving admissions
to the students and later on informs the parents about
the activities related to their child. This whole business
process that is managed by School Management Software
could be integrated to send various types of communication
to the parents of existing as well as prospective students.
- IT infrastructure monitoring: One of
the mediums of monitoring your IT infrastructure could
be SMS as the IT administrators would always be carrying
their cell phones with them.
- Staff Communication:
It is a cost effective and
fast medium to communicate with your staff members located
at various geographical locations.
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