One of the most prevalent truths about SMS marketing that we have been noticing is the huge open rate when compared to any type of direct marketing. With an open rate over 95%, comes a huge responsibility on part of the sender (business owner) to keep a check on their ethics and good practice. (more…)
SMS Marketing
How SMS Marketing is the Perfect Fit for a Small Business
-Affordability, visibility and quick management are just some aspects of SMS marketing-
Are you looking to start a small business, or have already set up the business but are looking for an effective means of marketing that doesn’t weigh down on your budget? SMS Marketing is probably the best tool for you to get started. (more…)
How to Reel In more Mobile Subscribers
A few simple steps to get people talking
When you’re looking at email marketing, there are still certain ways to obtain contact lists with several thousands of email id’s. There are legitimate businesses selling such lists to companies who wish to promote their products, services or offers. (more…)
The Race For Fresh Content
Tips to refurbish existing content to save time and resources
Carrying out an SMS campaign relies heavily on the content that is to be sent out. Its the marketer’s responsibility to ensure that the content is engaging and offers vital information to the customers to serve the objectives of the business in question. (more…)
Effective Campaigns for Cafés and Restaurants
The charm and success of SMS marketing highly depends on its short messaging aspect, and actionable links. In our experience, the most effective campaigns are short and precise when it comes to the content. Furthermore, the message offers a quick actionable benefit to the customer. (more…)
SMS Marketing For All Type of Business Administration
We’ve spoken extensively about the marketing nature of SMS marketing. However, there’s a whole other world of application that is benefiting a lot of our clients come from diverse industries like health care, hospitality, retail, wholesale and much more.
SMS marketing is far more versatile than an average person would give it credit for. Its advantages only show themselves to those who endeavour to do business in a seamless and highly efficient manner. It’s like they say, if you don’t look, you’ll probably never find. Let us give you a few instances of how business owners are using the SMS technology to run their businesses:
- Hospitality
The hospitality industry includes businesses ranging from small cafes and bakeries to the larger restaurants and catering companies. These businesses require employees to be constantly updated about their shift timings and other particulars. Furthermore, restaurant owners can also use automated SMS services to keep in touch with their suppliers and regular customers (information about special offers, happy hours, events and so on).
- Retail
The retail industry thrives on customer retention like most types of business models. And what better way to get in touch with your patrons than through their smart phones. We have illustrated the advantages and the abundant limitations of email marketing in our previous articles. Smartphones are accessed nearly every 15 minutes and open rates are upwards of 95% for SMS marketing. In addition to this, retail administration can be carried out through SMS marketing. To allocate shifts and new working positions for employees. SMS services can also help to keep employees alert during peak seasons in order to maintain sufficient staffing requirements.
- Health care
The health care industry benefits greatly by means of SMS administration. It is imperative to keep in touch with patients about their upcoming appointments so that your time and money isn’t wasted on a missed appointment. Furthermore, this service can also be used to inform patients about prescriptions that need to be renewed, test results and much more.
We have only tried to give you a taste of how effectively you can handle various aspects of your business. If you would be keen on finding out specific details relating to your business, get in touch today.
Social Media Marketing VS SMS Marketing – The Why and How
Social media is the ultimate form of sending and receiving targeted information. The complexity of back-end algorithms is making the world a tiny place with the fantastic connectivity platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more offer. These days we can see that nearly every business seeks to establish a social media presence, in keeping with the times and to target a large group of people in desired locations and under the desired demographics.
How the Social Media Myth is Working:
We have found that new SME business owners are assuming that they can achieve their marketing goals by maintaining a consistent social media feed. While it’s of great importance to maintain your brand image and reach out to new potential customers, it cannot actually deliver your message in the right time to get you the desired outcome.
Why Compare Social Media with SMS Marketing:
- Liberty
SMS marketing gives businesses greater liberty to deal with the people on their “list”. These are people who have shown the certain interest in your products and services and are okay to receive updates from you. This is not the case on Facebook. Furthermore, you are bound to save a lot more funds with this concept of owned media rather than paid media, which is Facebook. SMS marketing depends on the package you have chosen and offers great numbers to work with.
- Pay to Boost
It was pretty clear that we would start off this article by discussing the price aspect. To a business, every move is accounted for financially. And no business should invest in any activity without having some experience of success from it or by the sheer logic of the activity.
Facebook requires you to pay to boost your post. For instance, you could spend $20 and reach out to 1000 users. Without which, the organic reach of your posts would be less than 6%.
- 97% Open Rate
This point hardly needs much explaining. As we know that SMS marketing takes our message directly to recipients immediately. And it is a well-known fact that 97% of the messages are opened immediately when they are received.
- No Smartphone, No Problem
SMS marketing can help you to reach out to even those customers who have not yet found the idea of using a smartphone appealing. However, you cannot download the Facebook app unless you have a smartphone.
It is always great to get a second and a third opinion on any marketing techniques you plan to adopt. For more information, you can always contact us.
Moving from Email Marketing to SMS Marketing
Email marketing has been in boom ever since the PC and Macintosh devices have flourished in nearly all homes across the worlds. It has provided marketers with a personal approach to marketing directly to their existing and potential customers.
However, with highly controversial open rates, being in the range of 25%-35%, marketers have started to consider other forms of direct marketing. Email marketing was pretty much a step-up for marketing through letters. It could be seen as a more environmentally friendly way of being dismissed by most receivers. Email marketing has never been able to fully realise its potential.
Here is a list of differences between Email marketing and SMS marketing:
Email- Open rates of 25%-35% are said to increase slightly with increase in the number of campaigns sent out each month. This can be viewed as spamming in some cases.
SMS- Open rates soar at about 99%. This is quite magnificent in terms of getting your message out there effectively. Furthermore, 97% of these messages are opened in the first 15 minutes.
Email- As mentioned above, the open rates can increase only with excessive campaigns being sent out every month. This reduces the availability of original content, can increase cost and is still not guaranteed to be opened by the readers.
SMS- Due to the high exclusivity of this method, it is expected that customers can respond to the offers in less than 4-6 text messages.
Email- Email marketing can only serve as promotional tools for marketing products and services.
SMS- Owing to the high open rates, SMS marketing opens up possibilities of being used as an reminder service for time-sensitive offers, appointments and staff communications.
We do not encourage our clients to stick to just one form of marketing and ignore the others. We simply urge them to try everything and see what works. We hope our information about the differences can help you to plan your next marketing campaign.
Targeting the Millennial Population?
Here’s what not to do…
The millennial population in Australia is characterised by two major appeals. They are capable of high-paying jobs, and they love to spend what they make. This makes them quite a sought after group of consumers for most businesses. And their heavy use of smartphones creates a solid opportunity for marketers to utilise this channel of direct communication, which has a 96% open rate.
The high open rates and the proximity of communication makes this a platform that should be used with utmost care and responsibility. What this means is, pushy sales offers and annoying frequency of messages can cause catastrophic failure of such campaigns.
Here is a list of ethics marketers can follow to ensure that SMS marketing campaigns run for long durations with success:
- Reduce the frequency:
According to a recent study, it was found that 82% of smartphone users would like to receive messages no more than twice a month from a particular brand. If you are anywhere close to this limit with a chance of exceeding it, take a reality check now!
- Always Give A Way Out:
Before we get into the other aspects of the SMS marketing ethos, the most important one is to give them an opportunity to “unsubscribe” or “OPT OUT”. This makes users feel less harassed and gives them control over the incoming messages.
- No time for long dramas:
A short and sweet message always captures people’s attention. Whatever offers you need to communicate can be done through your website and in store. But a simple “we miss you since your last purchase” can create a friendly relationship and urge the customer to come back one more time.
There are many more points that you need to consider to avoid a disastrous campaign. Maybe that’s why it pays off to have professionals handle it.
Factors That Influence The Success of An SMS Marketing Campaign
Planning The Most Effective Campaign Is Only Achieved By Keeping The End Goal In Mind
Effective SMS marketing campaigns are being rapidly adopted by all types of businesses. They prove particularly helpful for retailers, restaurants, pubs, nightclubs and so on. However, they are not limited to promotion and marketing. They can also form an integral part of employee administration.
In our previous articles we examined the different ways of planning an effective SMS marketing campaign by focusing on key aspects that ensure positive and profitable outcomes. In this article, we will take a closer look at measuring the SMS campaign success.
Here is what success may look like:
- Cross linking customers to social media pages and increasing traffic on the company website.
- Informing customers about time sensitive deals and supporting impulse buying behaviour.
- Service providers can save time and money by asking for appointment confirmations via an effective SMS campaign.
- Invite the right amount of crowd to your restaurant, nightclub or bar on special occasions and in the light of special deals.
While these are the expected outcomes, you cannot always wait till the final outcome to judge the responsiveness and measure the SMS campaign success. That is exactly why we have compiled a small list of iterative observations that you can make as you go:
- Always offer your customers an opt-out from receiving ongoing communications. The rate of opt-out can help you determine whether your content and targeting is effective.
- Website analytics can help you to quantify the click through rates if you’ve been circulating website URLs through the text messages.
- Alter your contact list based on messages that are not being delivered. These numbers have most likely been disconnected and create additional costs.
- Conversion can also be observed by examining the number of visitors that made a purchase that was encouraged by the SMS campaign.
Our team of SMS marketing experts would be more than happy to give you more detailed information that is specific to your type of business. To know more about setting up a campaign, give us a call on 1800 823 859 for a free quote.
