With 750-million messages sent in a day, one million new registrations in January 2012 alone and over 50-million users to date, 10-million of whom are in South Africa – have you asked yourself why your business is not on Mxit yet?
Mxit, a free instant messaging application, was born in Stellenbosch in 2003. Developed specifically for use on cellphones (and not only smartphones), it allows users to send and receive one-on-one text and multimedia messages to each other, as well as in general chat rooms.
So why use Mxit to send out your business messages?
Firstly, registering on and using Mxit is free.
Secondly, what makes Mxit attractive is its range. Unlike other instant messaging systems like BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) or Whatsapp, Mxit is not a limited network – it can connect to Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, AIM and Windows Live Messenger.
Mxit operates all over Africa and in many other international markets, including Malaysia, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
If your targeted demographic is aged between 19 and 25, then Mxit is for you, as 49% of registered Mxit users globally are in this demographic.
Mxit has more male users at 56%, to 42% females. Two percent are undefined.
Mxit allows your company to create its own community within the application, which is great for fostering communication about your brand and products. And, because Mxit is instant and mobile, you can respond and interact with users immediately.
You can also take advantage of Mxit’s cyber currency, “moola”, and to sell your products online.
An example of how effectively Mxit can be leveraged, in 2011 it was used to stimulate voting for Table Mountain to be named as one of the New7Wonders of Nature. Table Mountain eventually received 100-million votes globally.
Former Mxit owner and CEO Alan Knott-Craig (jnr) commented afterwards that the application had never seen user traffic on the scale of its Table Mountain campaign.
Some useful Mxit features you can use to advertise:
Splash screen advertising
Splash screens are full-screen, full-colour images that appear on a user’s screen for a few seconds when a user logs in. Statistics show that 79% of users log in more than once a day, with an average of four log-ins per day.
Broadcast messaging
A broadcast message is a text message with no colour or images that is displayed within Mxit. All users who log in on the day will see the broadcast message. Sixty-nine percent of broadcast messages are read a day.
Competitions
The Bandit is a Mxit application used for competitions, surveys, awareness campaigns and content. With Bandit, users have access to interactive categories such as competitions, giveaways, and downloadable content.
Portals
Instead of relying solely on one or more of the above three tools, businesses can create portals to their own branded community that allows for live feeds, voting polls, and users can download content such as ringtones, wallpapers, games and videos.
Companies currently making use of Mxit include Standard Bank, MTN, Red Bull, Adidas, Nu Metro, Samsung, Quicksilver, Cadbury and Sasol, to name a few.
Statistics show that Mxit has a seven to 10% click rate on splash advertising, meaning that a large percentage of Mxit users are responding to advertising.
So, are you still asking yourself why your business is not on Mxit yet?