Hi, I'm Derek Johnson with tatango.com.
I want to do a quick video about something that comes up almost every single year, and
that's the fact that, why does text message marketing, which is so simple, 160 characters,
text messaging has really not changed in the last 20 years, why, every single year, does
text message marketing become more popular, even though it's the same technology from
20 years ago?
At least at Tatango, we have seen this.
The amount of brands that are interested this year is significantly more than the brands
that were interested last year and the year before.
It seems like every single year, there's more and more demand for text message marketing.
But why is that if it's the same thing?
It's 160 characters, and nothing really has changed in the last 20 years.
Well, what they're not taking into consideration is the fact that the mobile phone has obviously
got way smarter.
When we launched in 2007, 10-plus years ago, I don't even think anybody in our office had
an iPhone.
I don't even think they were around back then.
So, really, the only thing you could do was get a text message and essentially show the
text message to the retailer or restaurant and say, "Here, here's my coupon," or, you
know, "Here's what I'm here for."
Pretty boring kind of experience, but it worked, obviously.
As the phones have gotten smarter and smarter and smarter, even though text messaging has
stayed the same, it's every single year because the phone keeps getting smarter, text messaging,
text message marketing becomes more and more valuable because text message marketing has
a 99% open rate.
That means everybody, if you sign up for text message marketing alerts, you're gonna open
that text message.
You're gonna see what the brand is offering you.
But now, instead of just, hey, show this text message to the cashier, they literally have
so many different options now that they can send the consumer to.
We're talking download mobile apps.
You can do deep-linking into mobile apps, so go visit a specific page within the mobile
app.
You can take polls and quizzes on the mobile web.
You can go see a video on the mobile phone.
That was never...when we started back in 2007, that was not available.
There was no video on a mobile phone.
So, think about now, you can send a text message and encourage people to go watch a...you can
watch a feature-length film on your mobile phone.
So, pretty powerful, the things you can do, when, again, text messaging is just that communication
channel.
And as the things you can do on the mobile phone increase and become more interesting
and more valuable so does text message marketing.
So, again, you can send polls and quizzes.
You can do them on the mobile web.
You can go to a mobile website.
You can purchase things on your mobile phone.
You can view videos.
There's so many different things that you can do now on a mobile phone.
And as the mobile phones get smarter and smarter and you can do more and more things...think,
like, virtual reality, yeah, that's gonna come very soon, I bet, onto the mobile phone,
as those things come and become interesting for brands, text messaging is just the workhorse
that gets those consumers to click through the text message and go experience those things
on the mobile phone.
So, as I was talking to one of my friends, they kept saying, you know, text messaging
hasn't changed, but why every year does it seem like, you know, the industry is busier
and busier?
And it's essentially because the mobile phone is getting smarter and smarter and brands
are still looking for the best way to get consumers to those experiences.
And with text messaging having a 99% open rate, there's really nothing else that can
compare.