Industry experts discuss two initiatives for mobile marketers.
Notwithstanding the short history of mobile marketing, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has been exemplary in its long term view of industry growth and sustainability. Part of this has been the development of an impressive set of privacy guidelines. As stated in the MMA's Code of Conduct, member organizations are required to respect consumer opt-in, opt-out, clearly delineate the value proposition of their services, and protect consumer security. Holding steady to these principles will provide a way for the industry to consistently develop consumer engagement and avoid the pitfalls we've seen in some other marketing channels.
While we applaud all that's been accomplished to date, there's still work to be done. Some of this is strictly regulatory, and some it is an extension of the MMA's privacy standards-- but together these steps represent an important move towards continued industry sustainability and growth.
We believe mobile marketers should establish a global opt-out program.
Why is this so important? Fundamentally, establishing standard principles for opting out of marketing -- providing consumers with choice -- is the first step towards ensuring the continued acceptance of SMS marketing. The MMA is in the position to lead the industry toward more user control of messages received on their handset.
There are some good models of this from the online sphere. Numerous studies in the last few years have shown that consumers reward those who give them "choice" in their advertising channels, and online marketers have taken notice. For email marketers, this has meant increased adoption of opt-in marketing lists and "unsubscribe" links. Providing choice can get complicated in the context of online advertising, but for many marketers, consumer concern has led to the adoption of opt-out links for personalized marketing. Mobile marketing, on the other hand, has so far focused its attention on a single half of the picture: opt-ins. Consumers are also demanding the choice to opt-out.
Online marketers and emailers have had success focusing attention on the issue of consumer choice through the work industry trade groups-- which provides a good example for the MMA. Combining the many voices of the mobile marketing industry will provide for a consistent and representative viewpoint on issues of opt-out and consumer choice. Alleviating this sort of consumer concern might have some short term costs, but the end result will have long term benefits for everyone involved.
Second, we need to eliminate messages sent to deactivated cell numbers. This could easily be achieved if all cell carriers were to provide an updated list of outdated numbers. Marketers could then tap into a consolidated list to scrub out deactivated numbers prior to launching their campaigns or delivering their content. For the moment, though, marketers may be sending messages to a significant percentage of cell numbers that no longer exist or have been re-issued to new subscribers that have not given permission for such contact.
Even since consumers were provided with the opportunity to "port" their numbers from carrier to carrier, churn rates have remained constant about two percent. Since churn levels didn't drastically increase, we can probably assume that those who do switch providers are doing so for the same reasons as before. And from a marketer's perspective, if 2 percent of cell numbers expire each month, then up to 25 percent of their messages are sent straight to dead ends and unwitting recipients.
In the email marketing sphere, issues of deliverability (i.e., how do I get my messages into consumer inboxes?) continue to challenge marketers. For example, email marketers recognize the value of continuously scrubbing their lists to remove email bounces. Frankly, the stakes might actually be higher in the mobile space-- there isn't list scrubbing, since mobile marketers don't always have access to a bounce list.
Moreover, what happens if any of the dead cell numbers are recycled? If a consumer starts to get mobile marketing that someone else opted into-- well, they're not going to be happy. And when marketers send messages to the wrong consumers (or no one at all), they're directly losing money and increasing costs for the wireless carriers who handle calls to Customer Care. The cost of sending a SMS message may vary from sender to sender -- the range seems pretty broad, actually -- but at the end of the day, there's a base cost for message delivery. Because the cell carriers charge per SMS sent, marketers have an incentive to make sure each SMS counts. Without an accessible directory of deactivated cell numbers, though, marketers and content providers are left to send messages without knowing if the intended recipients will ever receive the messages.
But why should we do these things?
Let's face it-- we are all working in one of the most dynamic and compelling advertising mediums in existence. Consumers love their mobile devices, and seem generally receptive to marketing messages on those devices. We want to make sure things stay this way.
Unfortunately, it's possible that consumers could become frustrated or distrustful of mobile marketing. They could come to feel inundated with advertising they didn't want, or unsure of how to remove themselves from future advertising. And if consumers begin to feel overwhelmed, or start to become uncomfortable, they may turn to their congressional representatives for help. Without some level industry self-regulation on these issues, Congress might have an incentive to step in.
On the other hand, federal regulators recognize that this isn't an ideal future. In a speech to the IAPP in 2005, Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC's Consumer Protection division, suggested that when it comes to marketing and consumer concern, the best solution is "if both the private sector and government act." While it's the FTC's role to enforce violations of consumer protection, Parnes encouraged the marketing industry to develop standards for "defining" and "disclosing" information to consumers.
Preemptively standardizing opt-in, list updating and creating one authority for customer opt-out would lower the number of unwanted messages and give consumers choice as to the messages they did (or did not) receive. Providing consumers with this sort of choice will also mean continuing to focus more broadly -- and effectively -- on issues of consumer privacy. Ultimately, though, this is the best way to retain the current consumer acceptance of mobile marketing-- and guarantee that any industry change is in the direction we would desire.
Alan Chapell, CIPP, is president of Chapell & Associates, a consulting firm that helps companies understand privacy and incorporate consumer perception into product development. Chapell has been instrumental in the development of emerging best practice standards for privacy and interactive marketing and can provide a real world evaluation of where your organization's practices fit within that spectrum. He has been in the interactive space for more than seven years with firms such as Jupiter Research, DoubleClick and Yes Mail. Mr. Chapell is the New York chapter co-chair of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and publishes a daily blog on issues of consumer privacy.
Gerry Christense,Chief Technology Officer, joined Zoove to lead product development, provide technology vision, and to drive technology integration and related partnering activities for the company. Prior to Zoove, Christensen led technology R&D for VeriSign's Solutions Development Center and was also responsible for wireless data and content business development. He also sat on the board of the Mobile Marketing Association for VeriSign. Prior to VeriSign, Christensen was Director of Product Management for SignalSoft, a leading provider of location-based services infrastructure and middleware. A registered Professional Engineer, Christensen is also the author of numerous books, including Data on SS7 and Yes 2 Prepay.
Kelly McIvor comes to TxtGroups from WireCutter Technologies, where he was co-founder and the head of all SMS-related products and application development, as well as all partnership integration efforts. Prior to WireCutter Kelly was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Cingular (formerly AT&T Wireless Services). At Cingular, Kelly led the development of many technology-based programs and services.