As a full-service SMS provider, Text2VIP sought to prove to its client, Bare Feet Shoes, that text messaging impacted consumer behavior, both online and in mobile.

Media Armor executed the study by isolating and quantifying the conversion and brand engagement of consumers exposed to messaging. The study ran from Oct. 15 to Nov. 1, 2010, and encompassed data from two SMS blasts.

?Our analytics definitively identified the cause-and-effect SMS had on consumer behavior across channels previously unconnected,? said Elizabeth Zalman, cofounder of Media Armor, Boston.

Bare Feet Shoes is a multi-channel footwear retailer servicing women, men and children?s shoe needs with a wide variety of brands. Store locations can be found in PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA, GA, WI, IL and FL.

Text2Vip provides full-service text-message marketing services such as identifying mobile strategies, providing detailed measurement and assuming SMS programming responsibilities.

Clients include multichannel retail merchants and national food franchises.

Media Armor is an analytics company that measures the impact display advertising has on consumer behavior, with a focus on mobile.

The company believes that the impact of display advertising goes far beyond the click, and as such, all reporting and analytics measure a wide array of consumer activities.

Analyzing the effectiveness of SMS
The study was performed in partnership with Text2VIP, on behalf of Bare Feet Shoes.

Messaged consumers were identified post-SMS, site interaction and conversion behavior followed across mobile and online devices and compared against an organic site traffic baseline.

Media Armor?s findings indicate that SMS positively impacted consumer behavior across multiple platforms, and generated a two-to-one ROI ratio cross-platform.

When measuring mobile-to-online purchase behavior, SMS heavily influenced the consumer?s purchase decision, generating a two-to-one return on ad spend.

The mobile campaign also improved the brand?s ability to directly identify product of interest by 67 percent.

SMS produced greater consumer relevance and resulted in enhancing consumer capacity to find the relevant item of interest by 67 percent.

The SMS campaign also increased consumer engagement in the funnel by 27 percent.

Text messaging created greater brand awareness and utility, enhancing consumer engagement with Bare Feet Shoes.

In direct correlation to improvement of identifying specific products of interest, SMS increased a consumer?s likelihood of browsing deeper in the purchase funnel by 27 percent.

?Much like the data showed with SMS interaction two-plus weeks post-blast, text messaging maintains high presence of mind for the Bare Feet Shoes brand, reconnecting with consumers and sparking additional purchasing decisions due to the spontaneity that the SMS alert generates,? said Paul Faherty, managing partner at Text2VIP, Atlantic City, NJ.

?Given the results of this case study, we?re excited to provide these enhanced analytics, in tandem with Media Armor, to additional ecommerce clients,? he said.

Key finding
The key takeaway from the study was the cross-platform results, per Bare Feet Shoes. 

Generally, when a marketer looks at a particular media buy, measurement is predicated upon results within that medium alone.

In this case, there were two main wins. First, mobile communication generated returns online, at a two-to-one ROI.

Secondly, that mobile communication also enhanced brand engagement.

Messaged consumers were 27 percent more likely to penetrate deeper in the online site?s funnel, with a 67 percent improvement in their ability to find their product of interest. 

The most surprising finding was that consumers interacted with the SMS up to two weeks after the initial blast, and in large quantity, according to Text2VIP.

?We had known that, on average, a text stays on a phone for approximately 21 days, but didn?t realize this would parallel within SMS based advertising,? Mr. Faherty said. ?It?s vital to consider every channel of communication when reaching out to consumers, from both a retention and acquisition perspective.

?Furthermore, understand what those efforts drive,? he said. ?Insist upon accountability when buying media, from a measurement and analytics perspective.

?In the Bare Feet Shoes example, at first glance, it appeared as if all activity centered on conversions?another look demonstrated that a huge part of the story resided within engagement metrics.?

Final Take