Mobile Marketing Consumer Response is Heavily Influenced by Incentives, According to Survey

While most consumers’ initial reactions to marketing and advertising messages on their mobile phone can often be negative, a recent survey from ABI Research finds that their level of responsiveness can often be improved through incentives. In fact, approximately 37% of those who have received text message-based advertising have indicated they are more likely to respond to advertising in a text-based marketing message if they are offered an incentive such as a retail coupon or free song or ringtone, compared with only 11% who indicated that such incentives would not have any impact.

“We think that in general, advertisers and operators must tread carefully when delivering marketing messages to a consumer’s mobile handset, especially given that many subscribers believe they are paying a significant amount of money for their mobile services,” says research director Michael Wolf. “However, we believe that marketing and advertising messaging that is properly crafted and that utilizes incentives could enjoy more acceptance on the part of the consumer.”

Incentives that received the most positive response in an ABI Research study were real-world discounts and coupons for retail storefronts. In fact, over 60% of those who were either neutral or open to potential text message marketing nominated a discount coupon at a local retailer as the incentive they would most likely respond to. The next most popular incentives were free ringtones and songs.

“As more content and applications move through both messaging systems and browsers, advertisers are going to need to consider how best to package advertising,” said Wolf. “We believe that most consumers will ultimately be amenable to limited marketing on their mobile phones, particularly that which is non-intrusive, targeted, and that can bring them some kind of value in the form of both real-world and digital media-based incentives.”

ABI Research’s recent study Mobile Marketing and Advertising presents in-depth analysis of the major areas of mobile marketing, including mobile messaging-based marketing, mobile web (including both text and banner), mobile search, mobile game advertising, and mobile video advertising.