Need people to renew their membership? Or sign a petition? Or sign up for volunteer times? With SMS marketing, you can send reminders tailored for each person’s unique situation.
It can be hard to remember a time when friend requests and text messages were not part of daily life, effective SMS marketing strategies can be the perfect platform for targeting your Millennial clients.
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Category Archives: SMS
E-mail marketing
Companies often list email as one of their most powerful
marketing channels. To this day, the size of your email list is a
demonstration of your reach and thought leadership. However,
your email marketing campaigns should be part of a holistic
approach to educate your contacts about your company. Your
marketing emails need to be complimented by other efforts,
such as content creation, social media engagement and behavior-based nurturing.
In order to integrate your email marketing with your other data systems, you need to use a marketing software that allows for that integration to take place ,and that’s when you can benefit from our help.
#Eyemails: 5 Benefits of SMS Marketing
5 Benefits of SMS Marketing
These days, most companies’ marketing budgets are tight – to say the least. This means every single channel used has to have clear benefits and a tangible return on investment. The efficacy of everything from direct mail to SMS marketing is being questioned, but fear not… Here we have the top five benefits of running with an SMS marketing campaign. Next time your seniors query why you’ve opted for this medium, you’ll be armed with some solid, sensible answers.
So, let’s start with (arguably) the greatest benefit of them all: immediacy.
Instant communication
Reports suggest that text messages take seven seconds to send and deliver, on average. Plus, it’s fair to say the majority of mobile or smartphone users will have their devices with them most all the time, meaning they are more likely to open the message instantly – or certainly within a short period after receiving it. In fact, IDC data shows 62 per cent of smartphone users check their phones immediately after waking up, whilst 79 per cent check theirs within 15 minutes of waking up. Few other marketing mediums can boast such immediacy, making SMS the clear winner when it comes to instant communication.
Solid open rate
Take a second to consider this: when it comes to email, the average open rate is 27.2 per cent. Direct mail boasts a significantly higher open rate of 91 per cent (so say centralmailing.co.uk and marketingcharts.com) Yet SMS still beats them both. The average open rate of text messages is a whopping 95 per cent (smsmarketing.org), making for quite an astounding difference. Whilst these other forms definitely have their place within overall marketing strategies, there’s no denying that when it comes to actually guaranteeing recipients will open a piece of marketing, text messages win the battle fair and square. Plus, the higher the open rate, the greater the chances of success. It’s simple!
Limited personal details required
With SMS marketing, those who have opted in can typically choose to hand over as much or as little information as they wish. Perhaps they just want to receive the generic discount messages, or news of upcoming sales from their favourite retailer? In this case, they can simply provide their mobile number and, at a push, their name. However others might like to receive targeted, bespoke information – like details of when their local pizzeria is offering a wine tasting evening, or fancy knowing when there are slots available at their favourite hairdresser. In this case, they can release further personal details. This flexibility should prove fairly enticing to prospects, as they are in control of the marketing, not the other way around.
Go green – go SMS
Want to lower your company’s carbon emissions and reduce paper wastage? SMS is a medium which has a significantly lower impact on the environment than direct mail. You don’t need paper, envelopes or even stamps – which means marketing costs as a whole could drop too. Statistics shows that 40 per cent of the world’s trees are chopped down simply to make paper. Don’t be a part of that 40 per cent – go green with text marketing.
Greater engagement levels
According to the Direct Marketing Association, the typical response rate on direct mail is 3.42 per cent. When you consider that the Mobile Marketing Association says people are five times more responsive to SMS marketing than direct mail, those figures add up to something pretty special. It’s likely that this leap is down to the immediacy with which people can engage with a text message. Responding to a piece of direct mail usually requires completing a form, finding an envelope, addressing and stamping it, then leaving your home to find a post box. Responding to a text message takes seconds and there’s no need to move from the exact spot you’re in. It’s so easy. Why wouldn’t a company want to take advantage of that?!
#Eyemails: The Basics Of Mobile Marketing In A Nutshell
Mobile marketing is one of the fastest and most direct ways to reach your customers. Many people use their cell phone now as a primary computer. If you are not learning to market in this industry, you can promise yourself you will not get very far. Read this article to learn some tips for marketing in this new generation.
Relearn how to create successful landing pages in particular for mobile marketing. These landing pages need to be much more streamlined than regular landing pages if you’re hoping for lead-generating pages and overall customer acquisition. Take the time to learn this skill and it will pay off greatly for you.
What Not To Do In Mobile Marketing
Try not to add files to your message. If possible, you should only include a link. Adding large files, like pictures, to a message will only frustrate the customer, because you are adding to the download time. Also, you may be costing them extra money just to be able to view what you have sent.
Be sure to let the recipient know who you are and what you offer right up front. If they question who you are and what it is that you are offering to them, you are going to have a difficult time trying to get them to invest any of their money into what it is that you are offering.
Make sure that your messages are targeted to their purpose in mobile marketing. You won’t have any room for meaningless words here. If the customer cannot understand your message in a few words, then it isn’t even worth contacting them in the first place. You need to be very clear here as to your purpose.
A Call To Action With Mobile Marketing
When developing content for mobile marketing, be sure that you portray a sense of urgency along with a reason for your customer to perform at least some type of action. This is important because the fear of missing out on something special is one of the best sales techniques in existence. Also, without an action for the customer to take part in, you are failing to bring in any immediate business.
Set up a poll for your mobile marketing campaign. Polls can be set up as a question-response format or a response message. Polls are an excellent source to use to get the options of your customers to your products. Always check with your mobile provider to make sure they can support real-time results for your polls.
Keep your text messages, social network posts and e-mails brief and concise. If the message is too long, people tend to dismiss it immediately. The message shout be short, urgent and contain a call of action. It should not be a quarter page ad, but instead a short message aimed to alert consumers of discounts or promotions.
Ask customers to review you on the various review sites. You can put up QR codes that link directly to your business on a particular review site. Make it easy for them to tell the world how fantastic their experience was with you. The more positive reviews you have, the better your business will grow.
Use proper grammar even though a lot of the mobile world doesn’t focus on it. Using abbreviations and net speak like “LMAO” is just not how you want to conduct business. Be the consummate professional here and always work on using good grammar instead of slang or acronyms in your content.
You have just read many tips that have hopefully given you a clear direction on what you need to be doing. Doing something new may seem scary, but it is important that you encourage your business to go with the latest trends. Using mobile devices is definitely a way to market your business more effectively.
http://www.globalonlinemarketingconsulting.com/mobile-marketing/the-basics-of-mobile-marketing-in-a-nutshell/
#Eyemails: SMS Marketing vs. E-mail Marketing
SMS marketing has some distinct advantages over email marketing. In this article we compare SMS marketing vs. e-mail marketing. Learn the pros and cons of both SMS marketing and e-mail marketing to see which is the best advertising and marketing for your business.
Technology offers business owners a number of opportunities to market their products and services to customers and potential customers. We are connected in ways that many of us could never have imagined even 15 years ago. For a while, email marketing was the big thing, since it allowed businesses to send messages to a lot of people at one time. However, even though email marketing can be effective, new types of marketing might be even better choices. One of the new trends in marketing is SMS marketing. You might find that this type of marketing provides you with advantages that outweigh email marketing.
Good Points of Email Marketing
There are definitely some good points to email marketing. Email marketing provides you with the ability to reach thousands of people at once. Additionally, if you catch the customer at the right time, you can see an immediate conversion. On top of that email marketing messages are highly customizable. You can also create a situation in which customers receive targeted messages. This can help conversions. Plus, because they are so simple to customize and send, email marketing is rather cost efficient. However, the truth is that many of the advantages associated with email marketing can be found with SMS marketing. And SMS marketing offers some additional advantages that email marketing can’t compete with.
Advantages of SMS Marketing
SMS marketing makes use of the popular cell phone communication method known as the text message. Businesses can send text messages right to the cell phones of customers and potential customers, reaching thousands in an instant. Additionally, it is possible to customize and personalize SMS marketing campaigns in ways that are similar to email marketing. However, SMS marketing has the added advantages of portability and the fact that recipients pay immediate attention to the message.
When it comes to email marketing, many users are beginning to discard messages. They see that the message is from a business, and may decide to discard the message unopened. Another issue with email marketing is that sometimes messages are automatically sent to the junk mail folder. If your message is caught in a spam filter, the intended recipient will never even know that it existed. This can be a real source of frustration for many businesses.
SMS message marketing, on the other hand, doesn’t have those problems yet. The text message is not consigned to a junk folder; the recipient is notified immediately that it has arrived, and many cell phone users will read such text messages. Even if the recipient decides to block you from send SMS marketing messages, it still represents an active step that the potential customer has to take, rather than something that happens automatically, as with email marketing messages sent to the junk folder automatically.
Another advantage that SMS marketing has is that it can provide a impetus for action while the recipient is available to do something. It is possible for businesses to send SMS marketing messages to the cell phones of people in a certain area, offering a special deal if they come in. Recipients are already in the area, so it is much easier for them to act on the message received. The immediacy that comes with SMS marketing can be a real advantage to businesses, and it’s something that may not be available with email marketing.
Bottom Line
Email marketing can have its place. It is a great way for businesses to share newsletters and exclusive deals to those who have opted in to receive communications. However, email marketing has some drawbacks that are difficult to overcome. SMS text marketing, on the other hand, represents opportunities for the future. The nature of SMS marketing encourages immediate action, and it also makes it difficult for recipients to overlook the messages they receive. It is definitely worth it for a business to consider the possibility of SMS marketing as part of an overall strategy.
SMS Marketing vs. E-mail Marketing
#Eyemails: Top 3 Reasons SMS Automation Benefits Small Businesses
Though in its early 20s, today’s mobile market is all about accessibility, connecting people by voice, email and social media anytime, anywhere. In this virtual space, technology is playing a major role in the development of process automation and the management of operations as it comes with effective solutions for small businesses.
In this context, SMS is not dead, as many have predicted, but rather a pocket-friendly and empowering element to our daily business talk. Let’s see why text messaging should be used by small businesses that plan to automate their operational processes:
1. Current Mobility wave embraces SMS automation
It was just a matter of time for mobility to go beyond a simple trend, ever since the birth of the mobile phone in 1973 when Motorola launched its first commercial handheld cellular phone. Now, mobility stands for information, convenience and social networking, all part of an on-the-go approach accessible across different screen sizes, operating systems and devices.
“Mobility started out as a way to access email, contacts and calendars, but it now extends into productivity applications and enterprise data.”
– Daniel Eckert, director and CTO of the Emerging Technologies Group at PwC
The impact of mobility has started to gain traction in the public eye during the last 10 years with the rise of e-commerce and business applications for SMEs. These applications opened the door for small business owners as well as mid-market enterprises to find mobile solutions given budget restrictions.
Though experts may have different point of views of what we can expect in the following years at least they all agree on what thing: each stage of technological development moves us one step closer towards the merge of information, people and devices – the last 40 years stand as proof.
Moreover, the current growth of M2M (machine-to-machine) communication that may use integrated SMS Gateway API benefits SMEs especially because:
- There is a growing trend for the M2M sector.
- There is a worldwide wave towards offering mobility solutions to almost any type of business and the attention on mid-market companies keeps growing.
- Consumer-lead technologies are becoming stronger, leaving behind the traditional channels between retailers and buyers – SMS is a growing choice for companies that what to communicate more efficiently.
2. SMS automation makes your business available anytime
Starting from the birth of SMS, the last 20 years have allowed individuals to be accessible at any time. This has pushed everyone to want everything instantly, thus expanding the need for accessibility from individuals to enterprises. As a result:
- Organizations are now focused more than ever on making themselves accessible to customers 24 hours a day.
- We are witnessing the rise of multiple communication channels through dynamic websites, responsive designs and mobile apps.
- As brands build their mobile presence, the use of SMS for promotions, notifications, support and internal communication increases.
3. SMS workflow automation is growing as a trend for SMEs
The maturation of machine-to-machine communication has led experts to predict continuous growth in business process automation.
According to an Aberdeen report, “Understanding the Complexity of B2B Integration: Insights for Mid-Market Leaders”, 44% of midmarket companies are feeling under pressure by the lack of business process integration, which leads to poor customer, supplier and trading partner communication.
As process automation develops, there is a clear demand for making communication simpler. SMS is one of the tools that can be easily integrated with any existing system enhancing the dialogue between staff members and customers.
In addition, global revenue for SMS/MMS security gateways is expected to grow by 55% from 2012 to 2017, according to Infonetics Research, leaving no doubts about our conclusion.
Conclusion: SMS facilitates operational efficiency
As enterprises are pushing their communication process towards wireless, mobility will enhance process automation and address operational efficiency and quality challenges faced by businesses that rely on workflow management systems. Nowadays, all of these systems include process monitoring features that use the SMS Gateway API for event notifications and critical alerts.
Given these facts, I tend to believe we will see an increase in the usage of text messaging in the small business sector as companies move towards automating their internal and external processes to increase operational efficiency.
http://www.textmagic.com/blog/top-3-reasons-sms-automation-benefits-small-businesses/
SMS Marketing Best and Worst Practices
SMS marketing may have been absent from our blog for a while, but it’s far from absent from the marketing world. I feel like every week lately, another company sends either an email or social media post announcing that they’re starting SMS campaigns. I usually sign up, to see what they’re doing with it.
Most of the time, I regret doing so and unsubscribe within a few weeks. SMS marketing is tricky – you’re reaching your audience in a very personal way. Think about email and social media; you receive updates from friends, colleagues, brands, celebrities, etc. But SMS messaging is usually reserved for people you’re close with.
When a consumer signs up for your SMS campaign, they’re letting you into a personal space where there’s a whole new set of rules. You can’t take a marketing campaign from another medium and transfer it to text messages. Mobile marketing in general is a whole new territory, and SMS is especially unique. There are some things that are absolute musts, and other things you want to avoid like expired dairy.
Make sure to:
- Include a link: You only have 160 characters, and there will definitely be time where that won’t be enough. Instead of sending multiple, continuous messages explaining details, include a link leading to a mobile-optimized website at the end of your message or in your call-to-action. Even feature phones can connect to the internet most of the time. If you use a shortened link, try to use a custom one instead of a service like bit.ly to appear more trustworthy.
- Keep it short: A lot of companies send multiple messages at a time as part of the same campaign so that they can use more than 160 characters. But blowing up someone’s phone is annoying, even if they’re getting some sort of deal out of it. Limit each campaign to one message, and try to make it concise enough that you don’t need to resort to “text lingo.” Do you really want text abbreviations as part of your marketing copy?
- Test different times: Timing is key. You want to reach your subscribers when they’re awake, near their phones, and free to read your message. If they see the text but don’t open it, it’s likely they’ll get so many new texts that they’ll forget about it. You never want to be forgotten, especially if you’re sending a time-sensitive campaign. Test different times and stick with the one that garners the best results. It can vary depending on what the goal of your campaign is.
Don’t you dare:
- Send every message to every subscriber: Just like with email marketing, you need to segment your subscriber lists for the best results. Not everyone will care about every message, and sending people irrelevant texts is a great way to lose them as a customer. Have subscribers check off what topics or types of offers they’re interested in when filling out the opt-in form so you know what kind of messages they care about. This way, you can segment each campaign accordingly.
- Bombard subscribers: People get enough text messages already. Don’t bombard them with promotional texts every single day, or even every single week. You want to stay top of mind without annoying them. At the most, send out one campaign a week. According to MotoMessage, sending out texts once a week or a few times a month will get you the highest redemption rates, so don’t waste your time trying to send out more.
- Forget a call-to-action: We’ve said it before, but all marketing content needs a call-to-action. What do you want the subscriber to do after they read your message? Sign up for something? Buy something? Redeem a special offer? Don’t make them figure it out on their own, tell them what their next action should be.
http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/sms-marketing-best-and-worst-practices-0524070#!NWaRl
SMS Mobile Marketing
How Does Mobile Marketing Work?
Mobile marketing / coupon campaigns typically begin with the brands creating a database of opt-in users. For example, a fast food restaurant might hang signage near the waiting lines. Customers can then send a text message to a short code (e.g., text SUBWAY to 12345) and immediately receive a text message that provides some value, such as a discount coupon, or entry into a sweepstakes of sorts.
Once a brand has built up its database of opt ins, they can then begin to send out their promotions, typically once or twice per week. The frequency of messaging depends on the nature of the brand, and the expiration date of the coupons.
A consumer may opt-out of any mobile-marketing campaign simply by replying “STOP” to the text message received. According to Anthony Wayne of the Text Message Blog, the opt-out rate for mobile coupons is only 3%.
Also attractive to consumers is the ease of use in joining an SMS program. There’s no form to fill out, no website to visit. All that’s needed is to use that little device that everyone has, their cell phone, and send a quick text message.
Once someone opts into your program, their cell phone becomes your billboard, as your brand and promotions are steadily displayed on their phone. Your business has just bought the most expensive advertising space; a direct touch-point to your market, enticing new and repeat customers with your promotions.
SMS is not for all businesses, but when it does apply, the response rates dwarf those of traditional advertising. No matter what size business you are, you can become a mobile marketer within hours and start using a shared short code. So what do you have to lose? Try it out and see what works
Why start an SMS program?
Response rates for Text (SMS) Marketing have been proven to consistently outperform all other marketing media, some rates as high as 70%.
People who subscribe to your SMS Marketing program do so because they like your product. These subscribers are asking you to provide them with your promotions. They want you to give them reasons for buying your product.
Offers that are sent to your SMS Marketing program subscribers are delivered in a timely fashion. No more receiving email coupons that have expired.
SMS Marketing Benefits:
Speed: Text messages are received virtually immediately, making it the ideal solution for distributing information, whether that information is coupons for products, time-sensitive information, or anything else than can benefit a business through timely delivery.
Readability: As 94% of all text messages are read, your marketing message will be seen by virtually all of the subscribers in your SMS program.
Qualified Recipients: Since your subscribers have opted-in to receiving your offers and promotional messages, you know they have an active interest in your business, and your products.
Flexibility: With text messages sent and received within minutes of starting your campaign, you can use mobile marketing for ad-hoc purposes, such as driving traffic to your store on slow nights (“Make a purchase within x hours, and receive a xx % discount!”), or clearing out overstock items before end of month. This is the new “Blue Light Special”!
Range of Use:Mobile marketing can be used for a wide range of purposes: announcing new product, one-day specials, new store openings, special events…etc. Subscribers can be treated as an exclusive group for offers and information that only they have access to, increasing loyalty, purchases, and speed of communications.
What Can Mobile Marketing Be Used For
Mobile marketing can be used for almost all retail operations, with the primary objective being increasing customer traffic, patronage and REVENUE. SMS messaging is an unprecedented form of communication. No other channel in the history of marketing has the immediacy of SMS.
National brands such as Subway have embraced the use of mobile coupons. What they like best about their mobile programs is the fact that they can reach their audience when they’re most likely to purchase their product.
http://www.bulkemailpower.com/smspower