“Mobile advertising,” has been a buzzword for businesses and marketers alike for almost a decade. With over 95% of Americans owning a cellphone and 97% of those people using those cellphones at least once a day, it’s easy to see why mobile-facing advertising is so buzz-worthy.
“But the large majority of companies are focused on mobile development, mobile responsiveness, app development,” says Yuval Madar. “And that’s important. But I think the future of mobile marketing is direct marketing.”
Yuval Madar is the CEO of Lime Cellular. He created the company in 2006 when he realized that cellphones were the next major marketing opportunity. Lime Cellular currently has over 40,000 merchants in five different countries who use the platform to send offers to almost 40 million opt-in users.
When Yuval Madar talks about “direct marketing to cellphones” he’s talking about through text. “There is no other marketing channel more primed for development, innovation, and disruption,” says Madar.
And with consumers spending, on average, more than five hours a day on their phones, we can see his point. “Text messaging apps are the most used apps across the board,” says Yuval Madar. “Leveraging SMS marketing can present a level of opportunity to reach out to your consumers on a personal level and urge them to take action that is currently unprecedented.”
Expect More Personalization Says Yuval Madar
Like most opt-in marketing, you’re going to get the best results with personalization. “Text is already an intimate medium,” says Yuval Madar. “You should be on a first-name basis with someone you’re texting. And since we operate on an opt-in basis, people have signed up for these texts! Don’t make them regret it.”
Aside from automatic name recognition and filling, SMS marketing technology has the ability to send texts based on location triggers. “So when they’re in the store, you can set up a trigger that will send them a coupon for their favorite products,” says Yuval Madar.
There are also capabilities that send text messages celebrating a purchase and thanking customers for visiting the site or the store. “Eventually, I expect to see technology that sends texts, not as a mass text with a name inserted, but based on individual algorithms. Reminders that it’s time to buy the brand of milk you like based on how long you usually go between purchases. I expect to see personalization increase at an exponential rate because that’s what people want from their marketing.”
Yuval Madar is a subject matter expert in cellphone direct marketing and is the founder of successful opt-in text marketing platform Lime Cellular, one of the most dominating players in the field.
