Start by asking yourself a few questions: How’s business? What is the size of your marketing budget? How big/small are your margins when calculating marketing dollars and ROI?
No matter your answers, refining the way you advertise can lead to better use of your marketing dollars. So, how do you increase your customer base while making your marketing strategy more efficient and cost-effective? The answer is SMS text message advertising.
99.9% of you reading this have a cell phone or smartphone. In fact, as of 2012, 116 million Americans owned a smartphone - it’s a safe bet that number has grown exponentially in the last two years. Additionally, this year, predictions state that mobile will outpace desktop usage.
People look at their phones an average of 150 times per day. Despite the proliferation of social media, texting is still one of the most common mobile activities — and not just for young people. A smart marketer will capitalize on the power of mobile.
Needless to say, text message marketing is here and now. This kind of “narrowcast” method has proven to be the key to marketing ROI. According to Mashable, 98% of text messages are read, compared to 21% of tweets, 16% of Facebook posts, and 12% of emails. Those same texts are read within five minutes of receipt.
Did you know that text message coupons are 10 times more likely to initiate a purchase than paper or email coupons? And, with a 19% click-through rate, text messages outpace other forms of marketing, like Facebook ads which hover around .05%, 3% for Promoted Tweets, and only 4.2% for email.
Getting Your SMS Campaign Running
1. Once you’ve signed up for an SMS service, create a campaign so that your customers can opt-in. (Opting-in is extremely important and is highly regulated.)
Invite customers to opt-in by offering a discount or promotion ie. Harry’s Bistro is advertising a free appetizer with the purchase of a beverage. To qualify, text the keyword “FREEAPPS” to 122122. Upon responding to the offer, that customer has just opted-in to receive future offers. Each customer who opts-in gets added to your list of clients.
2. Don’t make every message about the sale. A lot of people think text message marketing is only for retail, but a customer who receives a “Happy Birthday” text from businesses they patronize will have very positive feelings about those companies. On the flip side, monitor opt-outs for every text you send out. This will help you learn what’s working and what’s not.
3. While keeping the messages personal, watching the clock is also important. A good rule of thumb is to avoid sending texts before 10 a.m. or after 8 p.m.
It’s really that simple.
SMS mobile marketing is an effective way to put your brand in your customers’ hands no matter where they are, and can be applied to any kind of industry. Because SMS is a do-it-yourself, or DIY, kind of advertising, this flexibility allows for any size business to take control of their marketing strategy. As cellphones and smartphones begin to outnumber humans on this planet (which will be very soon), it’s no mystery that SMS text message marketing is the way to go.
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