Being a small business is hard, money is very tight and it takes time to establish and get a firm foothold in the market. It is imperative that small businesses keep a firm grip on their spending, don’t go crazy and blow all their budget at once, and to be able to track exactly where it is going, and what they are getting out of it.
Spending £1,000 on some leaflets, may seem like a good idea, but there is no way of knowing if it will work, and no real way to track the return of investment, so this is probably not the best idea to grow and get new customers for small businesses.
But being able to spend anywhere from £10 to £300 on something that you can easily track, will bring back a great return, and is easy to do, is something that all small businesses should do.
In steps the mighty SMS.
SMS is low cost, you are able to track exactly who clicked your URL in your message, how many people received the message, who went onto purchase, along with loads of other great things SMS marketing can do.
Those stats alone should get your mouth watering for SMS, but this post isn’t about telling you how amazing SMS is, we have other blogs for that advantages of sending SMS online and what SMS can do for your business. This blog is about helping you save every penny when using SMS marketing.
We have outlined 5 ways that all small businesses should do when using SMS marketing to save money.
1. Make the most out of the special offers and price breaks
Make sure that you make the most of any introductory offers. For example, Text Marketer run a Double Credits offer for all new customers, so buying 1,000 credits will get you 1,000 free, but buying the full 10,000 credits will get you 10,000 free credits! So stock up on them!
Also make sure that you take full advantage of any sales or offers. Over the past few years, Text Marketer have done Spring Sales, Summer Sales, Black Friday Sale, Flash Sales, the list goes on. So buying your credits when a sale is on will help you save a bit of money.
Finally, most SMS providers offer price breaks when you purchase more credits, like most businesses, the more you buy, the cheaper the credits are. So instead of buying 6,000 SMS credits at 3.6p, why not buy 12,000 SMS credits at 3.3p. You would be saving money on the price per credit and the extra credits can then sit on your account and you can use them throughout the year.
2. Track who is active and remove customers
What’s the point of sending to customers who haven’t engaged with you in over a year. Removing customers who have not clicked your link, been in contact with you, or done any of your required actions before sending another bulk marketing message will save you money.
Have a look at your past few sends, maybe 6 or so over the past few months, and see which of your customers have not clicked your link on any of those occasions. You could then put all these customers into their own contact group and send to these less frequently, checking each time if anyone has engaged with you and moving them back across to the main group if they have.
3. Don’t go over 1 message
Why spend double or even triple the amount when you don’t need to? By simply shortening your message and ensuring that it is only a single message will save you money. Sending a 2, 3, or even 4-part message will increase your costs.
If you really need to include a lot of information in the text, then why not include a mobile landing page. This can have as much information as you desire and include a couple of enticing images as well.
4. Do it yourself and keep it simple
Text marketing is so simple, or at least it should be anyway. Don’t be fooled by providers offering over the top prices for amazing features and managing it all for you. Sending a text message to your customers is swift and simple. If you just want to keep it simple and cost effective, then all you need is the ability to upload your contacts, type the message, and click send.
5. See what works for you
Test, test, and test again. All businesses are different, and sending a certain message at a certain time might work for them, but it may not work for you.
Make sure you test different times to send with different offers in. This way you will be able to track and see what works best for you, meaning your SMS campaigns in the future will be optimised and bring you the best returns.
We have already done a load of research on when the best time is to send, so if you are a retailer, click here to see the best times to send. Or if you work in the food industry, click here to see when the best time is for you to send your SMS campaigns.
If you are a small business and need any advice on SMS marketing, then please don’t hesitate to give us a call and one of our expert team will be able to advice you.
If haven’t started your SMS journey yet, why not sign up for a free account and get 10 free credits to test with.