Text message marketing is when a business communicates with its customers through cell phone text messaging to let them know about promotions, specials, deals, or other any other relevant information.
The customers who receive the text messages have opted in, or given the business permission to communicate with them this way.
How does this grow your business? Because 95% or so of these messages are opened within minutes, the response rate is very high.
It’s more effective at bringing in sales and customers than almost any other form of marketing! It’s incredible.
Say you own a restaurant, or there are days where your business is slow each week. When you send out a text message promoting a deal or a discount, you can bring people in when otherwise it would be “dead.”
Since everyone on your text message marketing list sees your deal almost immediately, and you give them a good incentive, a percentage of them will come in. It never fails!
The likelihood of selling something to an existing customer is much greater than selling something to someone for the first time.
This way of driving repeat business and building loyalty with your customers is very powerful.
Technology… isn’t it terrific? It’s a brave new world out there, people!
With the introduction of smart phones and smart devices, the world of marketing got turned upside down.
Companies have relied on television and magazines to advertise their products. At least this is the way it has been for several decades. As annoying as commercials can be for us as consumers, they have also proven to be effective.
Most recently, we’ve seen the rise of Internet marketing and email marketing.
Newspapers, too, have been around for a long time. Hundreds of years in fact. Companies figured out a long time ago it was a great means of marketing themselves.
While it might not be the go-to outlet it once was, the newspaper is still read by millions of people every day. As long as this is still the case, companies will continue to use newspapers to advertise.
I myself am a bit old-fashioned and prefer to read a newspaper instead of only getting news on my device. It just feels more “real” to me than surfing the Internet for everything.
Another recent way for companies to advertise their goods to consumers is by text message. Texting has taken over the planet. Many of us talk less on our phones now, but we ALL text.
It makes sense when you think about it. We all have busy lives and can’t always answer the phone every time it rings.
Text messages are a way to get the message you need to a person immediately. They can check it whenever it is most convenient for them.
It is much more convenient to be able to say everything you need to say and make sure the person gets it. Better this than getting no answer to your calls and having to wait sometimes days to hear back from them.
Voicemail is almost obsolete at this point. Few people seem to check their voicemail anymore because people stopped leaving messages. Why leave an awkward voicemail message when you can send every word you want – and none you don’t – through text?
Companies have picked up on this and have started to use it to get their messages and promotions directly to consumers!
People check their messages within minutes if not seconds of receiving them. Almost 95% are open and read within minutes. With all those people seeing your company’s ad via text, you can be sure some of them are going to check it out.
The way companies do this is by sending out a mass text message to customers in their database. Those customers have opted in and given permission to be contacted this way. It’s against the law to text people who didn’t agree to be texted.
For an interactive texting experience, the message the company sends contains a keyword and a number for the customer to text the word to.
If the customer is interested, she will text the keyword to the number given. The company then usually sends an automatic response with more information about the ad. She can decide from there if she wants to know more about the product or service the company is offering.
This is another way text message marketing is so effective! Companies have ready-to-go responses for whatever the person does, and it happens immediately. It’s interactive and this is what a lot of consumers like.
For the less interactive type of text message marketing, a company can simply send a deal or a special to their subscribers.
Maybe something like, “15% of hair products all day Monday at Hoorah Hair Salon.” Or, “Buy 1 drink, get one free! From 4PM to 7PM on Monday. Come on down to Kelly’s Bar!”
Really, you can send as many promotional messages as you want. But don’t be annoying about it or you’ll have people opting out of your list.
Another cool feature companies use is syncing their text messaging with their social media pages. When they send out a text to people, it automatically posts it on their Facebook and Twitter page.
So many people use these social media outlets. It’s a great way to get the message to everyone in case someone missed the initial text message (as impossible as this seems!).
Every company has overhead costs high on their list of priorities, right? The cost to do business is great and any way companies can cut costs, it is usually the better for the company.
The best thing about this kind of marketing is the cost. I should say the lack of cost. It is one of the cheapest forms of marketing available! It costs companies pennies to send promotional text messages to people.
And businesses have really taken off with this method of advertising. I myself have received a lot more marketing text messages over the last few years.
It is the new era of instantaneous information! Everything is at your fingertips now.
You can be in front of your customers eyes in seconds! The old ways of advertising get older every day.
Makes me wonder what will happen to my newspaper…
RedFynn has text message marketing “dialed in,” if you know what I mean.
It’s proven to be a very effective marketing tool for increasing profits quickly for all of our partners.
Our team of marketing experts will guide your business to greater profits with our unique and affordable REV text message marketing plans. Learn more here.
