It’s interesting to see that SMS marketing is becoming pretty common place these days. On Friday I received two marketing messages from restaurant’s that I’d been to.

What was interesting is that I didn’t specifically opt-in to receive messages, and I hadn’t been to either place for a year. It’s always suprising when you receive a marketing message on your phone so long after the event. In terms of the UK regulations (PEC regulations), it is quite acceptable and counts as a ‘soft opt-in’.

I make it clear to many of my clients that if you are intending to use your customer’s mobile numbers then you should make it very clear to them. Perhaps a message shortly after using their service to say something along the lines of ‘We will send you occassional offers etc … to opt-out ..’.

The good thing about both of these campaigns is that there was a clear offer. One was a discount and the other was for free champagne. Interstingly, the first restaurant sent the message twice and the second sent their offer by email in response to my SMS. Neither of these are particularly satisfactory. If I receive a marketing message on my mobile then I want to be able to get the offer/redemption through my mobile!