Why use SMS marketing?
Remember what life was like before we all had mobile phones -when SMS or MMS didn’t even exist? How on earth did we pull out of plans at the last minute, make otherwise awkward arrangements, or announce the birth of our children to all our friends?
There’s no question that tools like SMS, and mobile technology in general, have changed the way in which we communicate in our personal lives. The efficiency and succinct nature of SMS enables us to communicate quickly, without hassle, and in a very direct way.
However, SMS has also opened a very important and popular new channel when it comes to business: SMS Marketing.
What is SMS Marketing?
While SMS Marketing may sound complex, it’s actually quite simple. Essentially, it’s any form of marketing that involves you sending text messages to your customers, or potential customers. Typically, these messages will include a very powerful call to action: encouraging customers to visit you in-store, call back, or visit your website to secure a special offer.
How does it work?
While you can, of course, perform your SMS marketing yourself, using a company mobile phone, this is very labour-intensive, and open to error. It requires you manually selecting each customer you wish to send to every time, is not scalable or customisable, and also doesn’t involve any form of measurement.
Instead, it makes sense to engage a company like Big Click, to create an SMS Marketing tool on your behalf, and provide guidance regarding ongoing marketing.
How can Big Click help with your SMS Marketing?
As well as providing consulting and advice on how best to engage customers via text, Big Click can help your business embrace SMS marketing by creating an online tool and database – through which messages can be easily composed, sent, and measured.
While you still need to engage a telecommunications carrier such as Optus, Telstra or Vodafone to distribute your messages, we can create a robust and very easy to use system that you can use over the web.
Once implemented, our customised SMS Marketing tool can help you:
- Manage your campaigns. You can keep a library of your SMS marketing messages – so you know what’s been sent in the past, and to whom.
- Compose and send messages. Our system will enable you to compose a message in an instant – and send it to all registered members in your database.
- Track campaign effectiveness. You can easily track how many people receive your messages, and how many people respond to each SMS you send.
- Tie into your other marketing. We can help you connect your click-through rates (if your message includes a URL) or call centre responses, and tie these back to your database, so you know which customers are responding, and how they are doing so.
- Maintain your database. Automatically manage and cleanse your database, and effectively remove customers who wish to unsubscribe, or whose numbers don’t work – ensuring the accuracy of your information, and that you’re not paying to send messages that don’t work.
Of course, we can also help you by providing guidance regarding the types of messages you should send, to who, how often, and what the calls to action in your messages should be.
Why embrace SMS marketing?
SMS marketing has recently emerged as a very low cost, highly targeted, effective means of marketing.
There are several key benefits:
- Effectiveness. SMS Marketing has an average open rate of over 98% compared with email open rates which can be as low as 30%, or even less.
- Qualified leads. SMS marketing is an opt-in service. This means that people only receive your messages if they want to; increasing the likelihood that the message will be suc-cessful in its aim. This also means you’re not paying to send an unwanted message.
- Immediacy. You can reach customers in an instant, wherever they are.
- Timeliness. With SMS marketing, you can also target customers with specific time-oriented marketing. So, for instance, if you are a takeaway food shop, you could send an SMS to customers in your vicinity letting them know of your lunchtime specials. Or on a particularly hot day, a store stocking air-conditioners could promote their special offers to locals.
- Two-way communication. If required, BigClick can also establish a two-way SMS service, enabling clients to interact with your system. You can also publish a feed of the latest messages you have received on your website, or send automatic replies for different in-coming messages to allow mobile support and information for your clients.
Technology website www.emate-econtent.org also points out that SMS marketing has a short preparation time, compared to traditional marketing methods. This is certainly the case if you have an online SMS Marketing tool created and ready to go at any time.
Does it work?
Definitely. In most cases, SMS marketing can be extremely effective and can also deliver a significant return on investment.
How could it work for your business?
Take a look at these hypothetical ways in which SMS marketing could be used by a small business:
Carol’s Florist
Carol runs a popular florist on the Central Coast. Delivering flowers is a large part of her business, and whenever she is taking an order for a delivery (in person, via her website, or over the phone), Carol requests a mobile number and asks if the customer would like to receive updates regarding special offers. This means that, over time, she has built up an extensive database of customer numbers. Whenever a special occasion is coming up (Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc), Carol uses an SMS system to quickly and easily send personalised messages to her customers. For instance:
“Andrew, don’t forget that Sunday is Mother’s Day. Want to order a dozen for your mum at $50 a bunch? Call 4365 3333 to place an order.”
Ron’s Personal Training
Ron is a Sydney-based personal trainer. He runs morning classes, and his classes operate on a per-visit basis. So Ron only gets paid if people show up. Ron uses SMS marketing to reach out to his customers every day, provide reminders about upcoming classes, and increasing the likelihood that they will attend:
“Carly, tomorrow’s classes: 6am Boxing in Centennial Park, 7am Cycle in Centennial Park, 9am Core session at Bronte beach, 6pm Yoga at Clovelly Surf Club. Hope to see you at one of these?”
Want to know how SMS marketing could work for your business? Give the team at Big Click a call to arrange a free, no-obligation chat about our services.
