Guest post by Sophorn Chhay

Mobile marketing isn’t only for the customer, it’s a viable avenue for product managers, advertisers and even sales floor assistants. If your brand needs to jump-start its product resourcing department, it’d better invest in mobile. Below, we examine the biggest reasons behind the business world’s shift to mobile marketing while making product management a priority.

Reason One: SMS-Based Purchases

In-house product flow is always being optimized. Today, SMS is leading the rollout. 76% of consumers are more likely to read a text than an email, and 52 percent of buyers prefer SMS-based customer support.

Unsurprisingly, service and product industries are both managing entire product lines via text. Because SMS is a highly personal communication vehicle, it’s becoming a great tool for new product promotion. If your product management team needs to spike visibility, it should turn to texting.

Reason Two: SMS-Based Coupons

Discounts channel product flow, too. In 2016, SMS-offered coupons, discounts and QR codes will be big. Influential marketers and managers are attracting customers, promoting sales and boosting in-store purchases with text-based deals and services.

In fact, 50% of American buyers purchase goods and services after receiving a branded text. SMS coupons are powering brick-and-mortar purchases. They’re prompting e-commerce product sales, too. To gage product management effectiveness, a brand must first keep sales constant. Automated SMS systems succeed at this, ensuring consistent product promotions while tailoring deals to the customers.

Reason Three: Customer-Centric Alerts

Because 64% of Americans have smartphones, mobile-based alerts are driving product purchase reminders. Smartphones have totally reworked the way in-house managers remind customers of their products, and they’re enabling instant alerts for pick-up options.

Restaurants, electronics stores, gyms and even theme parks are using mobile alerts to drive sales. More importantly, they’re using them to streamline product and service management. Decision makers are reducing errors by narrowing the gap between buyer and product, and they’re using mobile marketing as a foundation.

Reason Four: SMS Polling

The customer’s behavior should always drive product management. Determining product demand can be hard, but mobile marketing excels at grasping the economy’s details. If you want to know what your customers think, and if you want to reduce demand-based product management errors, you should invest in SMS polling.

Beyond 2016, companies without a proper grasp on product needs will fall behind. SMS polling, today, is one of the best tools for demand determination. Don’t miss out.

Reason Five: Personalized Mobile Content

Too many product managers experience difficulty with e-commerce customization. Fortunately, mobile marketing gurus have implemented smartphone-based tools for everyday buyers. E-commerce shoppers can now browse for customized goods and services. Soon, mobile searches will answer buyer queries with immediate size matches, color matches and product line matches.

It doesn’t stop there, either. In-store items are being optimized for mobile browsing. A lot of customers search for, compare and settle for products based upon mobile search. By increasing the buyer’s speed of product search and transaction, product managers can effectively boost product management efficiency.

2016 is seeing a big shift for product management. Stay ahead with the right mobile marketing strategy.

Question: Which mobile tools are you using  for product management and marketing?  I would love to read your comments below.

Sophorn Chhay is the marketing guy at  Trumpia, the most complete SMS software with mass text messaging, smart targeting and automation. Follow Sophorn on Twitter(@Trumpia), LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+

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The Product Management Perspective: The world product managers work in is changing rapidly and mobile tools are at the forefront. Make sure that mobile factors in to your current strategy.