As a business owner, certain amount of your budget goes to marketing and promotions. But how effective are many of the traditional methods. It is evidently becoming more and more difficult to reach your customers as many now turn to non-traditional method to get information. From Podcasting, RSS for news, Youtube Video and many depend on their cell phones  for information beyond voice. Consumers are becoming more and more elusive and they now control many of the advertising avenues that can access them.

Here are some interesting information to consider about mobile coupons versus traditional coupons.

1. Mobile coupons has a higher redemption rate. Traditional Marketers distributed 323 billion coupons in 2005, up 10%, consumers redeemed only 3 billion,  a 0.93% redemption rate ( source CMS and Couponinfonow.com).  Mobile coupons deliver up to 30% redemption rate or more for businesses.  For example Dunkin Donut sent out coupons of 99-cents latte at several stores to interested Boston cell phone users. The campaign increased store traffic by 21%.

Every year the redemption rate of traditional coupons  kept on going down



2.  Mobile coupons are cost effective: No printing and distribution costs of traditional coupons. Average coupon passes through 4 pairs of hands and takes several months to plan.

3. Mobile coupons delivered through our plaform  is sent to targeted and qualifiled consumers.  How would you like the company that places newspaper coupon inserts to know exactly what type of coupon you really need instead of sending alot of junk. Sometimes the coupon reach you after you’ve made the purchase or when you need the coupon you clipped, you forgot it at home on the counter. With mobile coupon you can reach consumers who actually want to hear from you. Consumers who want the coupon you have. Just remember, it has to be valuable.

4. Mobile coupon is not spamming. I would say traditional coupon is the biggest form of spamming to me.  Why if you ask. I didn't ask anyone to send me junk in my mail box, I just get it weekly. When my wife and I moved to the suburb, we got a lot of welcome to our neighborhood offers . But after 2 weeks , we began to receive coupons and deals which we did not  ask for. I wish marketers know what we really need.  With our mobile coupon system, our users opt-in  and control the frequency of whatever they receive. If there is a coupon a consumer is looking for in our system , we only forward maximum of 2 to the consumer  for them to choose from per request. Fourty-two percent of  mobile customers are open to mobile advertising if it is relevant, if they asked for it or if they will get coupons or free services( Yankee Group). Thirty-five percent of U.S. households that own a mobile phone engage in text messaging, which is creating a viable audience for businesses.

Some Interesting Stats  About  The Mobile Marketplace

An update on marketplace for mobility marketing in the U.S. -

• 192 million active mobile phones
• 90% of active mobile phones capable of text messaging
• Over 70% of mobile phone users send text messages 
• As of mid-2005, 5 billion text message sent each month (up from 2.8 billion a year ago)
• 80% of Tweens to 24's send and receive text, up 51% from last year
• 63% of cell phone owners aged 18 to 27 use text
• 31% of cell phone owners aged 28 to 39 use text
• 18% aged 40 to 49 use text
• 24% of all Americans are active text message users
• 13% have used text to vote in a contest or participate in a poll
• A June 05 report, "Mobile Advertising, Brands and Affinity Marketing" (www.in-stat.com) found that 40% of mobile users are paying for non-voice communication services such as text messaging, picture messaging and mobile e-mail as part of their wireless phone service.

Sources for above - CTIA, 2005 & The Yankee Group 2004 Pew Internet & American