2,022 per month. According to Experian, that the number of U. S.
smartphone owners aged 18 to 24 send 2,022 texts per month on average — 67 texts on a daily basis — and receive another 1,831. And it’s more than a 1000 per month for their slightly older peers, smartphone users aged 25 to 34. What’s it all mean for you in the music business?
Texting is a big business — global carrier messaging revenues were $150 billion in 2013. The question to ask yourself is what’s your share of that number? If it’s non-existent or miniscule, then get ready for a new vision. Mobile marketing for recording artists, DJs, promoters, nightclubs, radio Radio Stations can be a powerful revenue generator. Specifically, SMS text message marketing (i. e. text 55888 to NOW) is major tool to reach today’s target audience.
Sure, email and social media still exist as marketing tools, but it can be argued that mobile is better. Why? First, more than half of all emails never even get opened. In many respects, text marketing is even better than email marketing. The latest IBM research shows that 90 percent of email marketing goes unopened and unread.
But part of the real power of mobile is that the message does not compete for attention on the screen, and the device is always on. Social media still good for some of the time, but it’s about getting everyone all of the time – i. e. the phone. The average text message is opened and read in 4 minutes and 97% of all text messages are read (source: Pew Research). Text message marketing is instant marketing.
Recent surveys find that 60% of people worldwide are active texters, with over 193,000 text messages sent every second. In fact, texting is the number one most used data service in the world. But the music industry is not currently maximizing the power of mobile.
And if that consumer happens to be of color, then mobile is a must. African-Americans are still number one – over every other demographic in the United States – when it comes to mobile phone expenditures, feature usage, smartphone purchase and mobile video viewing. (source: Nielsen Mobile).
So if you’re not using text messaging to market your part of the music business, now is the time to get started. The process is easy and cost-effective. And to maximize benefits, the code should always be incorporate into all other digital communications avenues such as YouTube, Instagram, etc.
The goal is to build a mobile database that can be communicated to and marketed to, over and over again. And if one executes the strategy correctly, the numbers build themselves. Once built, it’s about capitalizing on it to secure a following that leads to bigger and bigger sales, bigger and bigger venues, bigger and bigger opportunities.
Just a few of the benefits and actions are:
Are You Cashing in From Text Messages Marketing?
- Drive general sales
- Offer VIP exclusives
- Increase Tour monetization
- Market appearances
- Offer coupons
- Drive ticket sales
- Increase site traffic for greater e-commerce
For example, a production company in Philadelphia saw its web traffic increase by 75% and sales by 50% after started using mobile text message marketing. The recent Tao Nightclub case study also demonstrates increased earnings. The club created a simple strategy which included when to actually send the messages.
Exclusives built in and, essentially, the club made $6170 from one text message through understanding mobile marketing. You can do same. by placing call to action signs everywhere there were eyeballs, including their website, emails and print flyers, within 3 weeks, TAO had 2,000 people voluntarily opt-in to their SMS marketing list.
Certainly recording artists, DJs, radio Radio Station , and club promoters have even greater opportunity. Adds Sibyl Lindsay, a product manager at Punch Media Group (www. punchmediagroup.
net), “Even if some have used SMS campaigns in the past, now is a great time to up the ante and create even more engaging messaging and integrate it more consistently within the overall communications. Naturally we suggest all our clients place the code on everything that is part of their communications materials. Worked so well for artists on Universal, clubs, with and now DJs starting to consider.
Why? Because in today’s competitive market, people need to stand out. This makes you stand out. When is the last time your phone gave you and alert that you didn’t response to? Then it’s about understanding how to engage people once you’ve got ‘em. We’ve done projects before for A-List rap artists, so we have a track record, and in mobile we can do more than just SMS campaigns, too.
A lot of people are testing out various mobile opportunities now in order to blow up for new year, “ she explains. There are a few companies that offer SMS, but that’s only the tech. It’s like assembly line offering, and they do everything from pizza shops to used cars.
We provide the tech and full consulting, strategy, execution. It’s a marketing campaign. Plus, we understand the actual music game. ”There are considerations, however. Frequency does have to be monitored so as not to over-communicate. The style of the messaging, its potential links to video, newsletters and more is also key to understand.
This is where seasoned professionals come into play for guidance. It’s about how to create an effective message, knowing when to link it to other media and how to translate the analytics and metrics behind it so that money is not wasted. Traditionally, the African-American market has been the biggest mobile consumer.
The personal usage is at a expert level, but it may be time to carry such familiarity into the business realm in order to dramatically improve recognition and sales and to stand out from the competition for attention out here. How well is your current marketing campaign working without mobile marketing power? Lauren DeLisa Coleman
Socio-Economic Digitalist/Cultural Trend Analyst
www.ultralauren.com
follow me @ultra_lauren
author – https://amzn.to/KmsuJ8
www.linkedin.com/in/LaurenDeLisaColeman
