Oztrepeneur
04-09-09, 03:42 PM
When economic conditions turn hard, just as we have been experiencing for almost 12 months, one of the first activities in any cost control of a business is a reduction in marketing and advertising.
The reason behind this is often that marketing and advertising are intangible and often unmeasured activities.
For businesses doing marketing and sales via electronic channels, the ROI can be measured more easily. However, for most businesses, trying to track the effectiveness of marketing is too time consuming and hard.
What is needed is an easier way both to get the message out and to track the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
One fantastic way to do this is by advertising using SMS.
Text messaging can be a very powerful way to communicate with your market. What other form of marketing has a distribution system set in place that means you can provide marketing incentives to your audience when you want, no matter where they are?
http://www.plusone.com.au/diary/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/womanphone.jpg
This is the great thing about SMS marketing. You can virtually control when your audience will receive your message.
Which brings about an important aspect of SMS.
Text messaging is a communications medium of immediacy. People send messages to friends, family and colleagues because they want the respondent to read the message NOW.
This factor needs to be included in you text messaging marketing.
SMS advertising is not about branding or awareness building. It is about getting people to respond, to take action.
So lets look at wording:
The Clothing Store is having a Sale – up to 20% off all clothing does.
Not bad, but will not work as well as:
Get 20% of all clothing TODAY AUG 10 ONLY at the Clothing Store.
which not only puts the offer up front, but also defines WHEN the offer is valid (invokes immediacy).
To get some tracking happening you can have this:
Get 20% of all clothing TODAY AUG 10 ONLY by showing this message at the Clothing Store.
There are some important elements here.
The first is we have included the date. This firmly fixes when the sale is being run.
Second we have ‘by showing this message’. This allows tracking of the response rate. Sales staff can also ask if they received the text. If not they can be added to the master list so they can get future sale notifications.
Thirdly the offer is at the lead. 20% off is the first thing people see – it is an attention-grabber.
Methods of responding to the offer can include: coming into store, replying to the text, calling a number or visiting a website (not ignoring the rapidly increasing number of people now accessing the web from their phones).
Here are some other samples of how you can word your offers for different action requirements.
Use the code chics at checkout to get 20% of all clothing TODAY AUG 10 ONLY online at the Clothing Store Visit http://www.examplevcv.com.au .
Get get your free widget TODAY AUG 10 ONLY by 1300 123123.
Reply to this txt with OFFER1 TODAY AUG 10 ONLY to get a coupon for 20% of your next purchase at the Clothing Store.
(Coupons can be unique or standard are are send in response to their reply. This also is a way to capture numbers when using a rented list.)
Of course you also need a distribution list. There are several ways to develop your marketing list:
Capture people’s details at time of sale. Either enter them into a database (preferred) at time of sale, or have them text a message to a special number which will add them to the database or have them fill in a form with their details so they can receive communications about special offers and sales. Remember – anti spam laws means that you need to ensure to seek permission to send messages. This can be implied through their doing business, and it is recommended that only customers from the last 12 months are included in your marketing efforts.
Run a competition. This is an expansion of point 1, and can help build a list quickly as it provides an added incentive. Entry can be by the above methods. You will need to check local state government department requirements to ascertain if a permit is required for running a competition. Also some budget will need to be allocated to promoting the competition.
Rent a list. List allows a demographically targeted group to be sent the offer. This can form a part of your competition promotion methods. By getting people to reply to the message to get a coupon etc, is a good way to start building your own list.
Costs for SMS advertising vary, depending on the number of messages sent, but can range from 22-14 cents per message and compared to just about any other form of advertising is very cheap.
If you would like to explore how SMS advertsing can be used in your business at just 14 cents per message, please contact us at sms1-AT-plusone.com.au (replace -AT- with @) or Plusone SMS Central (http://www.plusone.com.au/smscentral/)
The reason behind this is often that marketing and advertising are intangible and often unmeasured activities.
For businesses doing marketing and sales via electronic channels, the ROI can be measured more easily. However, for most businesses, trying to track the effectiveness of marketing is too time consuming and hard.
What is needed is an easier way both to get the message out and to track the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
One fantastic way to do this is by advertising using SMS.
Text messaging can be a very powerful way to communicate with your market. What other form of marketing has a distribution system set in place that means you can provide marketing incentives to your audience when you want, no matter where they are?
http://www.plusone.com.au/diary/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/womanphone.jpg
This is the great thing about SMS marketing. You can virtually control when your audience will receive your message.
Which brings about an important aspect of SMS.
Text messaging is a communications medium of immediacy. People send messages to friends, family and colleagues because they want the respondent to read the message NOW.
This factor needs to be included in you text messaging marketing.
SMS advertising is not about branding or awareness building. It is about getting people to respond, to take action.
So lets look at wording:
The Clothing Store is having a Sale – up to 20% off all clothing does.
Not bad, but will not work as well as:
Get 20% of all clothing TODAY AUG 10 ONLY at the Clothing Store.
which not only puts the offer up front, but also defines WHEN the offer is valid (invokes immediacy).
To get some tracking happening you can have this:
Get 20% of all clothing TODAY AUG 10 ONLY by showing this message at the Clothing Store.
There are some important elements here.
The first is we have included the date. This firmly fixes when the sale is being run.
Second we have ‘by showing this message’. This allows tracking of the response rate. Sales staff can also ask if they received the text. If not they can be added to the master list so they can get future sale notifications.
Thirdly the offer is at the lead. 20% off is the first thing people see – it is an attention-grabber.
Methods of responding to the offer can include: coming into store, replying to the text, calling a number or visiting a website (not ignoring the rapidly increasing number of people now accessing the web from their phones).
Here are some other samples of how you can word your offers for different action requirements.
Use the code chics at checkout to get 20% of all clothing TODAY AUG 10 ONLY online at the Clothing Store Visit http://www.examplevcv.com.au .
Get get your free widget TODAY AUG 10 ONLY by 1300 123123.
Reply to this txt with OFFER1 TODAY AUG 10 ONLY to get a coupon for 20% of your next purchase at the Clothing Store.
(Coupons can be unique or standard are are send in response to their reply. This also is a way to capture numbers when using a rented list.)
Of course you also need a distribution list. There are several ways to develop your marketing list:
Capture people’s details at time of sale. Either enter them into a database (preferred) at time of sale, or have them text a message to a special number which will add them to the database or have them fill in a form with their details so they can receive communications about special offers and sales. Remember – anti spam laws means that you need to ensure to seek permission to send messages. This can be implied through their doing business, and it is recommended that only customers from the last 12 months are included in your marketing efforts.
Run a competition. This is an expansion of point 1, and can help build a list quickly as it provides an added incentive. Entry can be by the above methods. You will need to check local state government department requirements to ascertain if a permit is required for running a competition. Also some budget will need to be allocated to promoting the competition.
Rent a list. List allows a demographically targeted group to be sent the offer. This can form a part of your competition promotion methods. By getting people to reply to the message to get a coupon etc, is a good way to start building your own list.
Costs for SMS advertising vary, depending on the number of messages sent, but can range from 22-14 cents per message and compared to just about any other form of advertising is very cheap.
If you would like to explore how SMS advertsing can be used in your business at just 14 cents per message, please contact us at sms1-AT-plusone.com.au (replace -AT- with @) or Plusone SMS Central (http://www.plusone.com.au/smscentral/)