The good news is that mobile customers often have more idle time than their desktop counterparts. Whether they’re waiting in line to buy something, or sitting on a bus or train, smartphone users on the move are a surprisingly captive audience. Moreover, they tend to be more responsive to ads, tacitly understanding that banners are targeted to their specific spending habits rather than being issued en masse to a wide audience.

Mobile surveys serve mobile customers – and that audience is doubling year on year, which means SMS marketing teams need to get wise to the potential of the SMS survey or risk losing their edge.

The SMS survey takes this idea further still, acting as an indirect form of advertising that also performs the function of market research. When a consumer feels engaged with the process, they are more likely to spend money. It really works. But how do you go about conducting a mobile survey? And how can it feed into the other strands of your marketing strategy?

Events offer a great way to leverage phone numbers and email addresses in order to build your contacts. If you have an upcoming event, send a survey to attendees to harvest real-time feedback. You can schedule the survey to coincide with the end of a seminar or lecture, or to go out after the conference has finished. The beauty of an SMS survey is you can display the results in real-time on contacts’ phones.

Surveys provide your business with invaluable information about consumer habits and preferences. They also prize open the lines of communication between you and your customers – and in a way that is usually preferable to the customer (especially among younger consumers). Not only that, a mobile survey emphasizes your desire to provide a good service to customers. It shows that your business has two eyes firmly on the future, and helps you foster a sense of brand loyalty within an increasingly fickle marketplace. SMS marketing has already got a proven track record, and it’s not about to disappear, so don’t fall prey to the turning tides – get wise to the benefits of the SMS survey this year!