Text Message Marketing is the Fastest and Most Effective Way to Communicate with Your Customers.

 

Business is slow. National competitors with larger budgets have stolen a good deal of your market share.  Fortunately, you had the foresight to implement a mobile marketing campaign and…

You’ve built a list of 1,000 customers and sales prospects that have agreed to receive marketing messages from you via text.  With one click you’re able to send a text message to everyone on your list. You do so at 1:30pm on a slow Tuesday afternoon.

Within minutes you begin seeing results.  The phone starts ringing again and customers are dropping by asking about the text you sent.  Current customers forward your message to their friends and colleagues and new customers contact your business throughout the afternoon.

With one click you were able to stimulate your business in a manner that had never been possible before. And you were able to do so without your competitors even knowing what you were doing.  That is the power of text marketing.

Text marketing is the practice of reaching customers and potential customers via text messages on their cell phones.  It is relatively new (especially here in Canada) but it is wildly effective and it offers an outstanding ROI for most businesses.

There are many variations on text or (SMS) marketing but we’ll cover the most common here.  For other ideas feel free to contact us.

Mobile Coupons via Text

Everyone knows that customers love to get a good deal.  That is why I’m sure printed coupons and all varieties of sales, specials and discounts have been around for as long as humans have been doing business. However, issuing mobile coupons via SMS messaging takes direct marketing to a whole new level. Consider these facts:

• People carry their cell phones with them all the time and they’re on 24/7
• 95% of text messages get read and 90% of those are read within an hour
• Redemption rates are TEN TIMES those of paper coupons
• It only costs from $0.03 to $0.10 to send an SMS to a customer or sales prospect
• Your initial message only goes to people that have agreed to receive text messages from you
• Your coupons are very likely to be forwarded from friend-to-friend so you gain more exposure without additional effort nor additional costs

So basically, you’re sending messages to people that have agreed to receive them, those messages get read 95% of the time and they can be acted on immediately.  That is why I consider text marketing to be hyper-direct marketing.

About Text Marketing

It is important to note that text marketing is highly regulated – much more so than email.  This is a good thing for honest business people like ourselves that offer great value to our customers. Every person on your list must ask to receive messages from you, confirm that they agree to receive them and be given the opportunity to get off your list at any time.

I know this sounds complicated but it isn’t at all. In fact, it ALL happens automatically for you.

How it Works

Setting up your SMS marketing campaign is so simple it is ridiculous.  In fact, there are only three steps and you can complete them in about ten minutes:

1. You choose a word that you would like your customers to use to indicate they wish to receive text messages from you. It should be something short, relevant and memorable. Examples might be ‘Rayspizza’ if you own Ray’s Pizza or ‘Mondohair’ if you’re the owner of Mondo Hair Emporium.  This word is exclusive to your campaign for any specific number or short-code.
2. Your next job is to come up with an offer or something that is interesting enough to your customers to make them want to join your SMS list. Suggestions might be coupons, contests, free information, sample products, free entry, VIP membership, etc. You know what your customers want just make sure that it is enticing.  Contact us if you want some ideas specific to your business.
3. Then you get what is called a short-code. This is usually a 5 digit number that your customers would send your word to when they decide they wish to receive messages from you. When people text your word to your short-code they will be subscribed to your SMS list and you have their permission to send marketing messages to them.

Test it for FREE

The simplest way for you to see how this all works is to try it yourself.  If you text FREETEST to 70734 you will see exactly how the process works. Note that this short-code only works within Canada.  When you do that you will be subscribing to our SMS list.  You’ll only receive a text message a day for three days which provide you with other ways to use mobile marketing in your business.  After that you will not receive more than one message per week from us.

You can remove yourself anytime by texting STOP to the same number.

Is This Applicable to Your Business?

You might be thinking, “That’s cool but how does it apply to my business?”  Business owners are very innovative and I’m always amazed at how they’re constantly finding new ways of leveraging this technology.  Here are some examples to get your thoughts flowing:

• A restaurant owner sends out a text to 1,000 of his subscribers on a slow Tuesday night and fills his restaurant
• The local pizza joint offers a free appetizer on any order over $15 and manages to steal marketing share from the two national franchises competing with higher marketing budgets and name recognition
• A realtor allows prospective buyers to text a word to a short code for a specific listing.  Prospective buyers can then view full information on the listing on their mobile phone while looking at the property.
• A doctor replaces postcards and phone calls with text messages to remind patients of upcoming appointments
• A non-profit organization allows donors to make donations by sending a text to their short-code
• An auto dealership uses text messaging to update customers of new product arrivals or to remind clients of service dates
• A retailer rewards SMS subscribers with early notifications of inventory or upcoming sales
• A night club sends texts to announce upcoming events or to invite subscribers to bring a friend in exchange for free entry
• Schools and universities replace email as the preferred form of communication with students
• the list goes on and on…

I trust that you’re beginning to see the opportunities that SMS marketing offers to businesses of ANY size. Beyond the fact that these campaigns almost always generate a positive ROI, text messaging will provide your customers with a service they’ll appreciate and share with their friends.  It is also a means for you to build a very valuable business asset – a responsive SMS list of customers that know, like and trust you.

That is all there is to it.  It takes about 24 hours for us to set up a campaign for you once you choose the word(s) you wish to use.  Contact us if you would like to get started now of if you simply wish to learn more about SMS marketing.