Mobile marketing or text message marketing are starting to grow in popularity immensely throughout the United States. One company that is making a hard push to be one of the best text message marketing businesses is iZigg, or are they? This iZigg review will cover some of the costs, pros and cons of utilizing the iZigg services.
iZigg is a new company offering the text message marketing product with a twist. Based in Atlanta Georgia with co-CEO’s Brian Underwood and David Liniado, iZigg has launched a product combining multi-level marketing (MLM) and a group text messaging platform. From the iZigg website there is no information on when iZigg was founded and a vast search of the Internet indicates that it was launched at some point in the summer of 2010.
The iZigg website is a simple site that is very nicely put together with videos and text messaging statistics. Surfing through the iZigg website is not always a simple task, trying to visit all of the web pages will require heavy use of the back button as links to other pages are non-existent. The iZigg site lacks pertinent key information to assist potential customers in making a purchasing decision. Within one of the iZigg videos it shows a very short background clip of how to send a message and it appears to be a simple procedure.
Here’s where the twist comes into play with the way iZigg is set-up as an MLM, it does a great job convincing this is what is needed, but gives no ability to sign up. The “contact us” page references you back to the “iZigg agent that led you to our site” and there is no support information given.
Some of the mobile marketing services and cost options for iZigg include:
mCard – Business card sent via text message.
- $14.95 a month
- 1 keyword
iConnect – Group text messaging service.
- $99.95 a month
- 2000 messages per month
- 2 keywords
iConnectPro – Group text messaging service.
- $249.95 a month
- 5000 messages per month
- 5 keywords
Aside from typical text message marketing platform, some of the pros for iZigg are their marketing abilities. They have a knack for turning something as simple as a shortcode (90210) into a selling point. Using a MLM structure to sell the iZigg products is another pro because of the sales reach it provides. The mCard feature is very innovative and does stand out in an ever cramping industry and gives an added ability for the end user.
Unfortunately for iZigg, the cons far out-weigh the pros in most of iZigg’s pros are also cons. With claims that the shortcode 90210 is the “most widely recognized, the most widely searched and therefore most valuable five digit shortcode in mobile media” and that 90210 is to the mobile media what the dot.com is to the Internet, iZigg may be setting themselves up for more skepticism. While the number 90210 may be widely recognized and searched the shortcode is just another shortcode. Also, any company making an informed decision on a group text message marketing company will quickly find out the shortcode is not the important part of the call to action and the more successful companies in the industry know that one shortcode won’t accommodate a large customer base.
Using MLM to sell the iZigg services leads to another concern, “I want to sign up, how do I do that?” Well if you were led to the iZigg website by the “most widely searched” shortcode then you have gotten nowhere. The other issue that comes up with the MLM sales platform is the cost. iZigg is priced at $0.05 per message which is average for companies in the industry that are reselling short message services. To give iZigg the ability to pay the sales people for their sales and for their down line sales the costs need to be on the high side to compensate. Comparable packages can be found for less than $0.02 per message.
On the whole, iZigg offers a unique way to sell a text message product that has been deemed the future for marketing. It is a great product and as an MLM seems to offer the ability to resell a product and make some money. As a company interested in utilizing text message marketing, iZigg is lacking the essentials to compete in an industry that is growing both in popularity and in competition. Figuring that the platform will be easy to use, iZigg is still overpriced and it seems that the support will be funneled through the down line of the MLM pyramid until it reaches a capable answer. Do your homework!