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Do Consumers Want Retailer Texts?

Written by Tom Ryan

As long as they can opt out, consumers appear at least open to receiving text-messaged ads from retailers, particularly when the ad includes a coupon to a nearby store.

According to a survey of 1,572 mobile users in eight countries conducted by Millward Brown Digital:

  • Sixty-eight percent of global respondents (66 percent U.S.) find SMS and push messages sent to them from a company to be valuable;
  • Fifty-nine percent of global respondents prefer SMS and push campaigns over other forms of mobile marketing, including video advertising, banner or standard display ads, and e-mail;
  • Eighty percent would share location data with brands in order to receive SMS or push messages.

The caveat: 88 percent said they want to be able to opt in to receive messages from a company to make sure they are relevant and targeted at them. The types of marketing messages respondents said they are willing to receive on a mobile device include:

  • SMS/text messages offering coupons or deals for a brand based on a consumer's location (23 percent);
  • SMS/text messages offering coupons or deals for a brand (20 percent);
  • Push notifications with updates, coupons or deals relevant to an app (16 percent);
  • E-mail marketing messages (14 percent).

A new white paper from Textlocal, based in the U.K., similarly found that almost four million shoppers there were "keen to hear from retailers by text at least once per month." The survey found that 38 percent of consumers claimed discounts or promotions from a retailer were most relevant to receive as a text.

Both surveys mark a dramatic shift since a survey by Harris Interactive in May 2012 that found only 33 percent of mobile users who didn't receive marketing texts were "somewhat interested" in receiving them. At the time, only four percent of the respondents received marketing text messages.

MBlox, the mobile messaging company that sponsored the Millward Brown Digital survey, said the findings should reverse the perception that mobile messaging is just another form of "interrupt marketing" and the feeling that if consumers are unwilling to click on a banner ad on a website, then they won't open a text. They also believe marketers should downplay privacy and security concerns many believe are making consumers hesitant about sharing their location to receive such text offers.

"When consumers are telling you they want to, if not expect to, be contacted just by downloading an app, it would be foolish not to take advantage of that," said mBlox CEO Tom Cotney in a statement. "If you're a marketer, why wouldn't you engage people via the channel and methods they prefer?"

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