#250 has the greatest practical reach of any mobile marketing medium, and is the only platform that spans all carriers, handset manufacturers and operating systems. It is THE common denominator.
SMS (text) is enabled on a high percentage of handsets, but many factors limit its practical reach, such as lack of a QWERTY keypad (only 55% of handsets), anti-texting-while-driving laws, difficulty in typing for some demographic groups, and difficulty remembering random shortcodes.
Note the limited reach of the celebrated iPhone. Marketers Wake Up! Why spend so much time & money on that platform to reach only 5% of the market?
The ability to use voice allows a broader demographic of users to access information.
There is no need to remember a random shortcode, which may have very brief exposure... only #250 and the keyword.
MDR provides more options - the user can hear a voice message or alert, be routed to a call center or recieve a text message.
THE MDR ADVANTAGE: These factors will raise response rates and branding dramatically , as more users will be accessbile, anytime, anywhere.
#250 Encourages Immediate Response
This chart illustrates the half-life of interest. It is hard enough to grab the consumer's attention via advertising. If we can additionally interest them in our product AND motivate them to call ("The Moment of Conviction"), we certainly do not want any barriers to response.
Primary barriers to response include the inability to remember or record regular phone numbers or random shortcodes. THAT is why it takes multiple exposures to get a consumer to act - NOT because they cannot be convinced upon first exposure to the message.
When driving and listening to the radio, our hands are busy, and can neither record numbers nor dial safely (imagine hunting & pecking a vanity number on a two-lane highway). Texting is out of the question (even if we could retain the random shortcode that was briefly exposed to us). Dialing #250 and conducting business by voice is the only safe solution, short of abstinence.
Mobile phones now have higher penetration and usage than landlines. While watching TV ads, if I have to get off the couch to reach the landline or get a pencil, I'm not doing it. But I do have my mobile phone in my pocket, and can respond easily by dialing #250 and saying the product keyword.
Don't let the bean-counters limit your marketing. Higher response rates, not cost, is what matters. If you spend a few pennies more to make even one incremental sale, the ROI sky-rockets. And what if #250 doubles your response rates?
