Mobile messages with pricing-based offers most likely to spur action

What’s the top reason US mobile device users will sign up with a brand to receive mobile marketing messages? Deal-seeking, of course—in November 2013 research from Responsys, the No. 1 motivation was to receive special offers and promotions, and the No. 2 slot went to news about other sales.
Offering discounts will do more than get mobile users on your opt-in list, though. It’s also the primary driver of actions taken after seeing mobile marketing messages, according to the same research.
Two-thirds of mobile users who subscribed to marketing messages from brands said they were likely to take action when they saw a pricing-based offer. While time-sensitive, location-based and product-based offers were likely to sway around half of subscribers each, mobile messaging subscribers are putting a clear priority on pricing.
That means cost is even more important than convenience—even to mobile users who are on the go, which marketers have traditionally seen as a chance to target them with timely, location-based offers. Not only were such offers likely to win over 50% of users—nothing to sneeze at, but far below the 66% who cared about price—location-based offers were the most likely to turn prospects off of a message.
More than one-third of subscribers to opt-in messages said they were actually unlikely to take action from a location-based offer. There could be a number of reasons for that preference, including consumers who think the targeting is too intrusive or creepy. But it could also be a matter of poor targeting—if marketers are sending location-based offers to the wrong locations, they are not going to appeal to their target audience.