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Ask YC: How do you market SMS-based services?

1 points by fuzzmeister ↗ HN
For the past few weeks, I've been trying to market my SMS chat service, with absolutely no success. Facebook ads are costing about $5 per new user at best, AdWords has netted exactly 0 users, and AdMob blew through 100 clicks in 4 minutes with, again, 0 users.

This has all proven to me that web ads, be they on a computer or a phone, are miserable ways to get users for a text messaging product. So, I was wondering if anyone has any experience marketing an SMS service (or any other mobile service) and would be willing to share tips.

4 comments

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jakecarpenter
Who are you trying to market to? You can't really market a product to "people". If you have a specific product, you likely have a specific audience. It could be as simple as redesign refocusing your current campaign/ads.

Try testing your ads on people you know. If you can't get your friends and family to bite, you can't really assume that anyone else will.

fuzzmeister
The group I am primarily trying to market to is teenagers, thus my use of Facebook advertising. I do have friends and family using the service, but viral growth is limited, as it is most useful among a small group of friends. I recently did change the ads and the landing page to be more teen-friendly, which increased conversion a bit, but still not to an acceptable level.
iamdave
Create a promotion where users would invariably make use of SMS (text 12345 for a chance to enter; only something less cheesy), and introduce them to your service.

You've got to keep in mind, folks are kind of sensitive with SMS. Mobile carriers are stingy. Unless it's got a usability factor of "wow, this is something I really need to be using daily", you're going to have a hard time getting the use out of it.

SMS, by the nature of how it's currently being controlled is going to have a high barrier to entry as far as creating services goes.

Good luck.

fuzzmeister
Any promotion I do would have to be based around the concept of also inviting others, as a chat service is obviously only useful with friends. Maybe people could become eligible after they invited x number of friends? I'll think about it, thanks for the input.

As for the usability factor, I do think it is certainly there. I have often heard complaints that while texts can be sent to multiple people, replies only go to the sender, preventing group chat or collaboration. My service, in essence, provides that reply-all button. If you want to check it out, follow the directions at http://slide.fm/ (I direct traffic from advertising to a different, more teen-friendly landing page, just FYI).