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SMS Marketing Tips To Put A Spring Into Your Business This Summer

May 21, 2010 by Priit Vaikmaa

Is your business in need of a little marketing savvy in order to shape up for the summer season, bulk SMS marketing strategies can give you just the push you need. It’s a whole new way to communicate with your customers, achieving unparalleled response over any other marketing media and creating that ‘personal touch’ which customers love – bringing them back to your door again and again. Take a few tips from the bulk SMS messaging experts, TextMagic, and you'll be on the first step to making your sales figures really shine!

1. Planning a sale but not sure how to get the message out? Why not create a real PR story and send a bulk SMS message to your customer base letting them know that there’s an extra 10% off on the first morning of the sale? Encourage them to pass on the message to anyone who could benefit from the extra savings – and you’ll have a crowd at your shop front when you open for business. It’ll make the local newspapers and get your business some great free publicity – and who can say no to that?

2. Coupons are a great way to make customers sit up and take notice – and to get those slow-moving stock lines out of the door. Don’t waste time printing and distributing your coupons in the local paper or door to door – it’s costly and also unkind to the planet’s resources. Go green and get results by sending bulk SMS messages to your customer base containing a ‘text coupon’, which they can show at the till to get claim that money off.

3. Remember that the best bulk SMS marketing campaigns are two-way rather than one-way. Any campaign that encourages customers to interact with your brand or company brings the customer closer to you, both operationally and emotionally. BBC Radio 1, for example, use text messaging to great effect by encouraging their listeners to text in with ideas, thoughts and feedback – which is vital for any business to learn to understand their customers and perform better. Think about whether you could use interactive bulk SMS marketing to gain valuable feedback about your business performance and help you do things better. Don’t forget – it’s good business practice to include an incentive, such as a discount. If a customer puts them self out for you, make sure you return that favour.

4. Everyone loves competitions! Help your customers feel that they’re gaining extra value from your business by regularly contacting them via bulk SMS with promotions and competitions. Use SMS short codes (five figure SMS text numbers) to help hone the entry process and make entering those competitions easy and fun for everyone. SMS short codes give your company real identity and are far more memorable for the consumer, meaning you’ll get much better uptake on your promotions. Before you know it, you’ll have a flurry of customers texting ‘WIN’ - or any chosen word - and as a consequence creating high profile awareness for your product or brand.

5. Keep your customers happy by only texting them with relevant offers. You’ll get a much better response to your bulk SMS marketing campaigns if you spend a little time analysing your database for gender, age and buying habits – so that you’re not texting 16 year old girls with your latest offer on gentleman’s hiking boots. SMS marketing campaigns are effective because they’ve not been infected with the spam issues which make the public so reluctant to open marketing emails these days – so think clever, target your communications well and your customers will love you for it. Even better, your sales will increase as a result.

Don’t forget that the real beauty of SMS marketing is that because people generally open texts as soon as they receive them, you can choose when your marketing campaigns are read. Think clever and you’ll make your sales soar. Not only can you seasonalise your SMS marketing messages – Easter, Christmas and Halloween for example – but you can pick the right time of day when customers will be most receptive to a particular product. Send out a bulk SMS marketing message about your new lunchtime menu at 11.00am on a Saturday and bring hungry shoppers direct to your door!