<p>In a world where the way we communicate with one another is constantly changing and evolving it is important for businesses to communicate to their customers the way their customers communicate.&nbsp; Today people are using their cell phones more than ever and this trend is expected to grow.&nbsp; I want to take a few minutes to talk about how businesses can capitalize on this by reaching these huge populations with Text Message (SMS) Marketing.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What is Text Message (SMS) Marketing?</strong></p> <p>SMS stands for short message service, but is more commonly know as &ldquo;texting&rdquo;.&nbsp; Text message marketing is simply sending your marketing message or offer directly to any mobile device, such as a cell phone.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Why Text Message (SMS) Marketing?</strong></p> <p>Today more than 263 million people have cell phones, 80% of them have their cell phones on them <em>at all times</em>.&nbsp; Meaning when you send a message 80% of the people you sent it to will get the message immediately.&nbsp; Additionally, text messaging is now used more often than phone calls.&nbsp; It is becoming very evident that text messaging is not just for teenagers anymore, but in fact is used by all age groups and in a frequency that increases daily.&nbsp; Of all the text messages that are sent 94% of them are read.&nbsp; When you send a marketing campaign via SMS 94% of the people who receive it are going to read your offer.&nbsp; Plus, your offer is sent directly to the palm of their hand.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>How does it work?</strong></p> <p>All text message (SMS) Marketing is done only on an opt-in basis.&nbsp; You as the business will advertise to your customers a simple message asking them to text a certain keyword to a 5 digit phone number known as a short code.&nbsp; For example I advertise &ldquo;Text AMANDA to 56665 for half off your set-up fee&rdquo;.&nbsp; When a customer sends this text they get an automated response and they have now opted in to your marketing list.&nbsp; You can send them future discount offers or promotions at any time you want.&nbsp; The message is fully customizable by you and is delivered in real time.&nbsp; Not only can you use this to advertise all of you sales and events, but if you are having a slow day, or even hour, you can send a message with an offer good for only that day or even that hour knowing that the message will be sent immediately.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Does it really produce results?</strong></p> <p>As with any marketing effort, the offer that you send will have a big impact on how effective the results are.&nbsp; I do think with the right offer the answer to this question is definitely yes!&nbsp; For example, as reported by the Nielsen Company, in the summer of 2008, Ashley Furniture Home Sales wanted to boost sales and sent text message coupons to 6,000 customers who had previously opted in offer a coupon with a secret 4-day sale.&nbsp; The furniture chain also sent nearly 29,000 emails to promote the event with the exact same offer, almost 5 times as many emails.&nbsp; The text messaging campaign paid off resulting in $85,000 of the $135,000 generated in revenue being from the text campaign.&nbsp; Almost 63% of the sales were from the text message marketing efforts even though the message was sent to far fewer customers.&nbsp; They further estimate for every $1 they spent on the text message marketing campaign they generated $122 in revenue.&nbsp; While no two campaigns will get the same results this was from a furniture store in the middle of recession, at a time when many furniture stores are closing their doors.</p> <p>Mobile marketing revenue is expected to reach $330 million this year more than double 2008 and increase more than 20 fold to $3.1 billion by 2013.&nbsp; While each company uses Text Message (SMS) Marketing a little differently it is obvious communicating with our customers this way will not stop any time soon.&nbsp; I hope after reading this if you have never considered Text Message (SMS) Marketing, or if you are on the fence if it could really work for you, this article will show you how valuable it can be.&nbsp;</p> 2009-10-24T00:14:54Z -1.1805 186 7097 true 15 41681 communicate-the-way-your-customers-do 0 2009-10-24T08:58:26Z 2009-10-24T15:59:49Z

The way we communicate with one another has drastically changed over the last 10 years. Are you communicating the way your customers do?

1 2009-10-24T15:59:49Z