The best Shortcode Services?

We tend to think of premium rate when we think of Shortcode Services but their biggest use now is for advertising response or competitions which are non chargeable.

Probably some of the most famous uses (or infamous depending on your point of view!) are TV shows like the X Factor where you’re asked to text a 5 digit shortcode, starting your message with the word ‘vote’ and then a, b or c for example.

These are call ‘shared shortcode services’. Where a company such as us, pays the large monthly fees for a 5 digit shortcode – ours is 88802 – and then rents keywords on that shortcode for a much smaller fee.

We actually include a free keyword with every account on our shortcode, 88802 so you can fully test the system before you buy a more relevant keyword for your business. Customers often choose their business name for example.

You can choose from 2 lowest-cost choices with Text Marketer’s Shortcode Services;

Features include; autorespond by text message and/or email, log all the responses, have responses emailed to you live and up to 8 timed text autoresponders.

You can have as many keywords in your account as you wish. Many agencies use our system to manage multiple campaigns for their clients. Everything is set up instantly online, in your account. There are no lengthy contracts and you simply pay each month as you go for your keywords. Cancel at any time.

Now there’s a fresh approach.

Summary:

• As a reseller you will have an ‘administrator’ account.
• From this account you will be able to create ‘sub-accounts’ for your customers, see all your sub-account activity, manage all your sub-accounts and transfer credits between your account and your sub-accounts.
• Every sub-account gets their own free reply number and also a free keyword on our shortcode. A fully fledged SMS Marketing system.
• You can manage SMS for your customers or give them the login details and let them run their campaigns.
• You will also be given a partner code which you can use if people you are introducing sign up directly with us instead of you creating accounts for them. This will also link their account to your administrator account.
• You will receive 10% of the total sales value of any account you introduce, for the life of that account. Subject to a minimum monthly commission of £50 (for all your accounts) and applies to sub-accounts on standard prices only.

How to set up your reseller / affiliate account:

1. First, you need to open a standard Text Marketer account if you don’t already have one.
2. Log in and go to Financial | Become a Partner in the menu & get your partner code.
3. Contact us with the company name of your account and request it to be an administrator account.

Using your Administrator account:

2 new options will appear in your account to set up and manage your sub-accounts

• After we’ve made your account admin status, you’ll see 2 new options in the Financial menu – Create a Sub Account & Display Sub Accounts. It’s fairly self explanatory but there are more detailed instructions here.
• You will also have your partner code by now and instructions are on the partner resources page – go back to Financial | Become a Partner in your account if you missed this.

You’re ready to start reselling Bulk SMS!

Frequently asked questions:

• Do you white label? – We don’t. We found that people find us anyway and then sign up direct so partners would lose out if they try to pretend they have their own system. Plus, you would get all the support calls!
• Is a sub-account different? – No. A sub-account is a fully fledged account, it’s just linked to your admin account. This way you can manage SMS Campaigns for your clients or equally give them the log in details and they can manage it all themselves.
• Some competitors of yours offer higher % rates. Why should I use Text Marketer? – We’ve thought this through carefully. Find out why here.
• How is commission paid? – At the end of each month, we total the sales in all your sub-accounts and then send you a statement. You simply invoice us for that month’s commission.
• Can I use all the material on your site? – Yes, of course. Everything on our site is freely available to you to help you help your customers.

Reselling SMS can be a very profitable activity for a host of companies. If you have a bank of clients already then there’s a good chance that many of them already use SMS Marketing. You can introduce Text Marketer and pretty much guarantee to reduce their costs – as we’re the low-cost SMS company. This means you’re doing them a favour and also generating some additional income for your business.

With our reseller arrangement, we pay commission on the total sales value for the life of the account. Given that most companies who use SMS tend to stay with us for many many years then the overall commission from one account can be sizeable over the lifetime of that account. In addition, SMS Marketing is set to grow for many years to come so the you’ll have a growing revenue stream as well.

According to a recent report, it seems as if a lot of UK companies have just not grasped how effective SMS Mobile Marketing can be. Here’s a couple of highlights;

• 86% of companies didn’t know that consumer response rates to text message marketing typically range from 15% to 30%, compared to 5% for email and just 2.61% for direct mail.
•  Three-quarters of the those surveyed didn’t know that 97.5% of text messages are usually read within five seconds according to Ofcom.

However, two-thirds of respondents said they found SMS more effective than email and over two-thirds (67%)of business owners claimed they preferred mobile messaging and the mobile Web to mobile apps.

What’s the future for SMS Marketing?

At Text Marketer, we’ve been involved in this communication channel since 1999 – so we’ve seen a few things!

We’ve seen from our growth (and from some our our ‘more expensive’ – sorry, couldn’t resist – competitors’ growth) that more and more companies are understanding how effective low cost SMS is. But …. there still remains the vast majority of UK businesses that simply don’t embrace the medium. They are really missing out.

The FT reported, “Ofcom’s report shows that the UK has one of the highest levels of penetration of smartphones in the world at 58 per cent of the population, while just fewer than one in five owns a tablet computer.”. That means that almost 3 out of 5 customers in a typical business will be able to receive a link by SMS and go on and shop on a website – instantly, wherever they are!

According to comScore and the GSMA, 4.2 million UK consumers per month are using the mobile internet to visit retailers’ websites.  Moreover, Brandbank’s “2010 mCommerce Content Report” noted that growing numbers of UK smartphone users are engaged in shopping behaviour on their handsets; just 19% of smartphone owners surveyed in May 2010 said they did not use their mobile phone to help them shop.

Why not just email them? Smart phones get email, right?

Sure they ‘can’. It’s just that most people don’t have their email set up on their phones and if they do, they generally have excellent spam filters that get rid of bulk email messages. If you’re lucky, 10% of your emails will get opened. Compare that to around 98% of SMS’s getting opened …. and read …. within seconds of sending. How important is the message you’re sending?

I don’t believe you. You’re an SMS company so you would say that!

I get it, of course. Who would trust an SMS Company who says that SMS is so great!?

Here’s what I do though when the evidence is stacked so high. Test, test & test. I want to ‘prove them wrong’.

I’ve said this to so many customers. Why not try a test of 1,000? SMS Marketing is so inexpensive and quick to do that you’ll have your results – well, if you’re fast – within 30 minutes of reading this article. A test of this size will cost less than forty pounds – the price of an average meal out!

Simply send an offer by SMS to 1,000 of your customers and see how many respond (here’s a little SMS Inspiration we prepared earlier) …. you’ll be staggered. Try SMS Marketing today would be my advice – we won’t get rich on under forty pounds but you might.

Using an SMS Gateway to send out targeted SMS campaigns to existing customers is far more effective than any other direct marketing channel. The read rate of SMS is around 98%, compared to around 21% for e-mail. If a text lands on the phone it’s going to be read. When was the last time you received but didn’t read a text? It almost never happens. So by using an SMS Gateway, Winners Bingo can quickly and efficiently schedule text campaigns aimed at driving customers to one of their venues.

The latest text offer highlights a tantalising Jackpot with a reminder of a voucher offer.

Winners Bingo Thetford – Thurs Eve 6th Dec -tonight’s Jackpot is £1400 in 51 Numbers or less! Plus it’s a birthday session, don’t forget your birthday vouchers. To opt out text ZW ZS to 88802.

It’s a simple straightforward text offer that for previous campaigns has been surprisingly effective. One of the great advantages of using an SMS Gateway is that you can get SMS campaigns up and running fast. You don’t need any technical skills and you don’t need to be particularly creative. The SMS gateway software is incredibly easy to use.

SMS Gateway – Simple, fast, effective

Although the SMS platform has a huge array of tools, for those that just want to get up and running quickly, the Quick Send tool allows users to send text campaigns from just one screen. It’s simply a case of copying and pasting a list of mobile numbers, writing your message and setting the date and time.

If your company hasn’t yet taken the plunge and used an SMS Gateway yet, now might be the time to get involved. You can set up a free SMS Gateway account for testing, which comes with some free text credits. Text Marketer operates a simple pay-as-you-go service. There are no setup fees for contracts and your text credits never expire.

We are always happy to chat about how SMS might work you, so please feel free to get in touch. Our number is on the contact page.

See you at the bingo? Perhaps not.

For some reason when anyone mentions bulk SMS, mobile marketing or SMS marketing you can almost guarantee that the next sentence uttered will refer to it as spam. That rather blunt criticism is some way off the mark though. Apart from a few rogue companies, using bulk SMS for flogging PPI or accident compensation, we none of us receive much SMS spam at all. I genuinely can’t remember the last time that a company texted me out of the blue.

In fact most of us welcome SMS from companies that we deal with and more or less all of us rely on it in some way for appointment reminders or delivery notifications. Somehow SMS is bundled into the same category as e-mail spam, which is indeed a complete nightmare and has seriously affected the channel as a communication or marketing route. Our recent survey on consumer attitudes towards bulk SMS revealed the whole picture.

So as retailers jostle for the Christmas pound, United Colors of Benetton are using our bulk SMS platform as a way of organising and corralling their additional Christmas staff. With so many new people to train and a whole set of new shift patterns, SMS is a great way of making sure that people are in the right place at the right time.

Please help yourself to a free bulk SMS account. Your account comes with some free text credits, so you can try the system at no cost. There is no contract, setup fee or minimum spend. It’s a simple pay-as-you-go service and the credits that you purchase do not expire.

We’d love to hear from you too, so please feel free to speak to us. Our details are on the contact page.

As SMS unit prices have dropped to us, we took the decision to pass on those savings to our customers. Not I hasten to add as some act of altruistic benevolence but as a pure hardnosed business decision. The thinking behind this is pretty obvious and straightforward. If we drop our prices to all our customers, then we are more likely to retain them in the long term but also we’ll attract a swathe of new customers looking for a high quality bulk sms provider at low cost. The plan worked and our customers are now sending 12 times as many texts per month as they did 3 years ago.

No Compromise on  quality

The price lowering has not in any way come at the expense of quality or service. We only use direct connections to UK networks and never ever use grey or international routes. Part of our job is to make it as easy as possible to choose us and we’re always standing by to help out when we’re needed.

The wholesale price that companies like us pay for bulk SMS has come done by about 35% in the past 3 or 4 years. So if the price your company pays for business sms has not reduced, then your provider is making more margin out of your account than they used to.

Reliability is not an ‘add on’

Our approach has ruffled a few feathers in our small world of SMS providers. I think we’re seen as slightly dangerous or reckless, with a cavalier ‘win at all costs’ attitude to pricing. To some extent that is true, if a customer’s main buying motivator is price then we’ll do our best to accommodate that. Whether the industry likes it or not, SMS is now a commodity. You shouldn’t have to pay more for reliability; that should be part of a standard product. At Text Marketer, we only use direct connections to UK networks as do most of our main competitors. I think that using reliability as a key benefit is wearing rather thin now.

Feel free to open a bulk SMS account and try us. You’ll receive some free text credits for testing. We’d also love to hear from you, so please don’t hesitate to give us a call. Our details are on our contacts page.

Click the icon to download the FREE Excel Campaign Calculator

What response rate will you get from your Marketing Campaign?

I’m often asked about the relative differences between different marketing communication channels and which one might provide the best return.

Of course, there are many factors that have an effect on the success or failure of any campaign (list, creative, offer, etc.) but there are some well-respected organisations that conduct research on these things and publish ‘industry averages’.

To help you gauge a likely cost and return and compare the differences between SMS, Email, Telemarketing, Fax Marketing and Direct Mail I have built an Excel tool which gives you you the ability to change the parameters of the campaign and see the likely cost and return implications.

A quick video demo’ of how easily it works;

STEP 1

First, you enter how many people you’re going to contact, what is the cost per hour of your staff/agency running the campaign and the likely revenue you’d expect to earn from each response (averaged across all responses).

STEP 2

The areas in green use industry standard figures for costs and response rates across the channels but you can amend these should you have more relevant figures for your industry sector. In particular, if you had a large direct mail campaign, you might want to up the printing costs.

STEP 3

The results are then calculated in the red area (do not change these cells). You will see the estimated total costs & revenue for the campaign and then the likely net revenue received by you.

I hope this will provide some ‘science’ behind making decisions on what type of marketing channel has the most likely chance of success for you.

FREE DOWNLOAD

The Excel Marketing Campaign Calculator is free to download (it’s in 97-2003 format so should work for most people).

Embed this Infographic on your website:

</p> <p><a href="http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/blog/2012/01/business-sms/the-rise-of-business-sms-infographic/"> <img src="http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/img/TheRiseofBusinessSMS-700px.jpg" width="700px" /></a><P>Source: <a href="http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/">Text Marketer Bulk SMS Services</a>

What’s “Marketing”!?

Probably one of the most misused terms in business is my first reaction! But, seriously, for the purposes of this article I mainly mean ‘communication’. Business people often say things like, “we need to DO some marketing”. What they mean is they want to blast out something which will get new business. That’s better described as ‘advertising’ really.

In any event. Semantics aside. What we want to look at is SMS Marketing vs Email Marketing. Or, put more succinctly, which of these communication methods is best for your business?

Truth 1: Customers are fickle

No, really. One minute they like your emails, then they subscribe to your twitter feed, then they want a call. The next week, they’re not into email or twitter because they’ve gone off the idea!

OK, this is possibly a person with an extremely short attention span but the point it is true. Any list of people is exactly that, a list of ‘people’. It’s obvious but it’s something that’s often overlooked. Companies segment people into groups to make their communications more relevant and (hopefully) more effective. That’s no bad thing, it’s the right thing to do (in fact, I wrote an article about database segmentation in 2009).
BUT (and here’s the first nugget of the truth) … ‘Customers ARE fickle‘.

Truth 2: Emails & SMS’s are very different in your customers’ eyes

We’re back into ‘human emotion’ here (starting to feel like a psychology article!). This point is important though. I only look at my emails when I choose to. I open up Outlook, hit send and receive and browse the messages I want to. If I get a text message, maybe when I’m out biking, my phone beeps and vibrates in my pocket and I’ll pull over, take off my gloves, get my phone out of my pocket and read the text.

One is passive and one is active. My phone is fundamentally a personal device of mine. If you’re going to send a message to my phone, it had better be relevant. The lesson here is, “does the message I’m going to send out fit with the channel I’m using from my customer’s point of view?”.

Truth 3: SMS’s are opened more than emails

Well, yes, of course. Stat’s vary wildly on email open rates but globally it is said that just 22% of all emails sent are opened vs 98.7% of all text messages.

Truth 4: EVERYBODY HATES SPAM!

(Forgive the shouting) … If there is a person out there that likes SPAM, I apologise. But I don’t think many people will fall into this category!?

The Mobile Marketing Association in 2009 did a study. They found that 90% of all emails received were SPAM! Wow. What about SMS? That was just 1% of messages received.

Because of the incredibly strict laws and controls now in place in SMS Marketing, there is basically next to no SMS SPAM.

I hope you’re thinking what I’m thinking!? ….. The lesson here is the same as in Truth 2 …. “if you’re gonna send a message to my phone, it had better be relevant …. and I had better not think it’s SPAM!” (I hope you weren’t thinking, “cool, plenty of room for spamming then!”)

So, come one then. Which one is best!?

Hold your horses. We haven’t got to the best bit yet.

Let’s roll all these ‘truths’ into a perfectly executed example of ‘marketing communication’

• I buy my groceries online at Sainsburys. Usually it’s a few days ahead of when it’s due to be delivered. After I have gone through the checkout they email me with a receipt of my purchase and confirmation of delivery times. Fair enough, it’s usually quite a bit of shopping and that list wouldn’t fit in an SMS. Furthermore, I actually look for the email to make sure the order went through fine.
• Sainsburys allow you to amend your order up to 9pm the night before delivery day. At 5pm I get a text. “Just to confirm your shopping will be delivered between 3-5pm tomorrow. Don’t forget you can amend your order online up until 9pm this evening”.
• Actually I did need a few other things. Off I go to give them some more of my hard earned.

Spot on Sainsburys.

You emailed me when it was relevant, after the order and because it contained a lot of information.

You texted me when it was relevant because it was a short message to confirm my delivery (sometimes I forget!) and contained a timely piece of information about amending my order by 9pm if I wanted to (I probably would have missed the email).

So, is there a conclusion anywhere in the offing!?

The ‘truth‘ is that SMS is ‘best‘ AND Email is ‘best‘ (collective groan!). What can that possibly mean?

Do I not understand you can only have one ‘best‘!?

Well, each is ‘best‘ when it is most relevant to the communication in question:

• I’m happy to get a monthly email newsletter from my local restaurant but I’d need a text if they had a special deal on tonight
• I’m happy to get my train tickets in the post but I’d need a text to confirm an order code if I’m travelling in 2 hours time
• Email me confirmation of my entire order but please send a text if anything’s urgent about my delivery
• …. and so on

As with a lot of things the answer is then, “it depends”. An SMS will hit the phone instantly. It is almost guaranteed it will be read. Just make sure it’s relevant. An email is going to be an altogether more hit or miss affair (with only around 22% getting read).

When deciding which to use, I always ask myself, “would I like to receive this on my phone”, “is the time of the day relevant” and “does it come across ‘spammy’ at all”.

If you want to find out if you’re customers are happy to receive text alerts, try a bit of Customer Research by SMS first.

It would seem an almost impossible task in just 160 characters. There is however a blindingly obvious solution, that most people seem to ignore. Why not just send a longer text? A standard text is just 160 characters but you can send a message of up to 612 characters long. Sending a long text will cost more than one text credit but often this is a small price to pay compared to the benefits that the longer text brings.

I suppose it’s the very thought of doubling the cost of the business SMS marketing campaign that puts most people off. But when you consider that a single text costs just a few pence, in many cases this sort of frugality is a false economy.

Compelling argument for using a long text

One Text Marketer customer who operates a Domino’s Pizza franchise in the North West has been sending out text campaigns to his customers for many years. If he sends an SMS out to his database, he knows exactly what sort of response to expect. Following a conversation with us, he decided to send a longer text; using two SMS credits for his next business SMS marketing campaign. We offered to share the cost of the campaign, so that his budget wasn’t increased. By sending a longer text the message was given more air and he was able to avoid using text speak. Results were startlingly positive. The overall response rate rose from an average of 3.8% to 4.9%, a percentage increase of about 25%.

Omer Shabir, the franchisee commented:

“I was very surprised that we took so many more orders using a long text. I was expecting there to be a small increase but not as much as there was. Even though it’s going to cost me more, I’m still going to send longer messages for my next batch.”

So it’s definitely something that’s worth testing. Using a longer text gives you the opportunity to get your message across much more clearly and more powerfully than the standard 160 characters.

If you haven’t yet got a Text Marketer account, you can set one up here for free. You will receive 10 free text credits for testing. There is no setup cost or monthly fee, you just buy as many text credits as you need.

We’re always on hand to give you some advice if you’d like, so please feel free to call us on (0117) 205 0202.

It turns out that SMS is as popular as ever and SMS use in the US, Asia and Europe is still growing fast rather than shrinking as many pundits predicted. So SMS as a communication channel is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

So where does that leave business SMS services? 

Business SMS has always had some massive advantages over other communication channels. Firstly, over 95% of all text messages that are delivered are actually read and the vast majority within 5 minutes. Compare that with e-mail, where you’re lucky to get an open rate of 25%. Business SMS as a marketing tool is also five times more responsive than direct mail. (Source – Mobile Marketing Association)

In addition, SMS has the distinction of being the only instant messaging solution that works across all operating platforms and all makes and models of mobile. So business SMS is as solid, dependable and responsive as ever. The fact that you have to pay for business SMS means that we don’t all receive titanic quantities of junk.

Despite the massive growth of the use of business SMS in the UK, most companies still don’t use SMS at all, a fact that always surprises us industry types. Our estimate is that around 30% of companies use or have used business SMS in the last few years.

So if your company makes up the 70% that are new to business SMS, why not try it out today. Setting up an account takes just a minute or so. So that you can try the service at no cost, your business SMS account comes with 10 free text credits for testing. There are no setup costs or monthly fees and your text credits never expire.

Or you can always give us a call on (0117) 205 0202. We got some very experienced people who will be able to advise on the best way forward.

With no real signs of jobs growth, the focus inevitably turns to cost saving. Agencies are increasingly looking to find ways of trimming their spending as a way of helping them through the current slow patch.

SMS Costs Cut by 48%

An analysis of Text Marketer’s recruitment consultancy customesr has revealed that there are huge savings to be made by switching sms supplier. Taking 47 agencies who switched to Text Marketer in the past 12 months, the average saving was 31% with one company slashing their sms bill by 48%.

SMS costs have come down dramatically in recent years and it’s clear that there are significant and worthwhile savings to be made. Cost reductions within the industry have not readily filtered down to businesses, so by shopping around for lower cost sms providers, agencies can make a worthwhile dent in their spending.

Stuart Melville from Ashley Wells Recruit in Leicester commented:

“We came across Text Marketer by doing a quick search on the web. What was immediately obvious to us is that their costs are much lower than the company we’d been using before. We had been paying about 7 pence per text and we now pay just 3.7 pence. We send several thousand texts a month to our applicants, so our annual sms bill has reduced by about £3500.”

Making the Switch

Adapt users can switch to Text Marketer with a few small in account changes.

Most consultancies use specialist industry software to run their agencies, which usually have an sms sending tool within them. Text Marketer have agreements with many of these software companies so switching from one sms provider to another is very straightforward. Users of market leading Bond Adapt can integrate immediately just by making a few small change within the account. If you’d like to find out more about integrating your recruitment software with Text Marketer, call us now on 0117 2050202.

If you currently use a stand alone bulk sms system, switching couldn’t be easier. Simply set up a free account here. Use the promo code JOB when you sign up and you’ll receive 250 free text credits to trial the service. You can then buy additional low cost sms credits by credit card or by invoice.

Get up and Running in 90 Seconds

1. Set up a free account in 90 seconds.
2. Use promotional code JOB to receive 250 free text credits.
3. Login to your account and start trialing the system

Text Marketer’s job is to give you all the right tools and support to make switching bulk sms provider as painless as possible. Please feel free to call us for a chat on 0117 2050202. We’d love to hear from you.

A quick Google search by project leader Simon Pearce, unearthed Text Marketer and a few other likely looking sms gateway providers. We were lucky enough to be the first company that Simon contacted. Having explained the urgent predicament, Richard Hawley talked Simon through the simple process of getting a test sms gateway account set up. 1.5 minutes later, account set up was complete.

Show me an example

Now to the potentially tricky part, the sms gateway integration itself. The last thing Simon needed at this stage was to be presented with a massive technical document detailing all the intricate tools and features. What he needed was an example.

“How do your send data using Text Marketer’s sms gateway? Show me an example and I’ll be able to pick it up from there.”

Richard directed Simon to his ‘sms api account settings’ page where there is an preformatted example of how to send sms.

By clicking on the example shown, Simon was sent a test sms, so he could see the sms gateway actually working.

http://www.textmarketer.biz/gateway/?username=xxxxx&password=xxxxx&message=test+message&orig=test&number=44790012234X

This gave Simon all he needed to get started. A quick reference to the simple, clear sms gateway documentation and 5 .5 minutes later, the live system was sending texts again. So the total time from picking up the phone to getting the first text delivered was 7 minutes. (Admittedly, there was some further refinement for collecting delivery reports and setting up long messages.)

Set up a free sms gateway account. We’ll automatically give you 10 free text credits for testing. You’ll probably need more, so do give us a call on 0117 2050202 and we’ll gladly add as many credits for testing as you need. I’m sure it won’t be quite as quick as Simon but we’re always standiing by to answer any of your questions.

It makes sense. Text Message Marketing is the most powerful marketing channel available today. It has the highest ROI of any channel and provides instant success. Nothing comes even close.

Decision One

Do you want to manage your clients’ SMS activities or let them run their own campaigns?

We provide the ability to do both.

- If you want to manage your clients’ activities then you simply need a Text Marketer account. Every account has the ability to run multiple databases, multiple campaigns and multiple response keywords. Everything can be labelled so you have full tracking of what’s gone on for billing purposes. In this model, you would be buying higher volumes of SMS credits from us and thus achieving very low bulk SMS prices and can therefore mark these up to charge on to your client.

- If you simply want to introduce clients to our system so that they each have their own account and run their own activities then the reseller option is for you. In this model, you sign up for an account and go to Financials | Become a Partner in your account and get a Partner Code. Each of your clients uses your partner code when they sign up (there is a benefit to them of additional free credits for this) and then you receive 10% commission on all the spend in every account, for the life of the account. (See more about reselling SMS Marketing services here).

Decision Two

Why partner with Text Marketer? Some competitors offer slightly higher commission rates.

In 2 words. Price. Experience.

We offer the lowest prices of any UK premium SMS company. Of course, that means there is a little less margin to share around compared to our expensive competitors.

Here’s a scenario. You put the time and effort into selling text marketing to your clients. Eventually they agree, great! They now type “Text Marketing” into Google and voila, we’re at the top and they come across us as the lowest cost provider. Guess who they sign up with!? Offering your clients the best value makes sense, not only because it shows your client you are recommending the best for them but from your financial point of view as well. 10% of something is better than 15% of nothing.

We are also the oldest UK bulk SMS supplier, since 1999, with 1000′s of clients. We are proven. So is our technology. It is stable and reliable. Over the years we have built up a massive help centre and even training and promotional videos which means that you can provide your clients with all the material they need with one simple link which reduces the time you have to spend.

The Final Decision

Is it really worth putting the time in to resell SMS Marketing services – it seems low value?

It is a volume business, that’s true. But the potential is huge and is growing exponentially. It is estimated that by 2016 texts sent by businesses will outstrip personal texts sent (there are 4.3 billion mobile phones on the planet!).

What we’re seeing at Text Marketer is that all companies are gradually growing the volume of texts they send. It works for them is why. It’s slowly becoming the default replacement to faxes and emails – and imagine having a small % of that market in the beginning!

Here’s a scenario. One of your customers sends 5,000 SMS’s per month for example. At current rates, that’s only £222 commission per year. But, if they continue to do that for 5 years (as SMS is simply a communication channel so is long term), it’s £1,110 commission. Put the time in to get 20 or 40 of these clients and the amounts soon add up to a substantial and sustained income. And some bigger clients can easily send hundreds of thousands of messages per month!

In Summary

- Get started now. Your clients will be thinking about it or maybe even doing it now (in which case you can offer them our lower prices)
- Decide whether you want to manage activities for your clients or become a partner (being a partner is best as allows you to grow more quickly with less time spent)
- Get an account, become a partner and get your partner code
- Start promoting SMS Marketing to your client base, using your partner code
- Build your client base by making use of our extensive self help material, tips and tricks and videos

If you need any more information please do contact us or simply read more information on reselling SMS Marketing services and see the instructions at the bottom of that page to get going automatically. Best of luck.

To my relief, their latest mobile marketing campaign has given me the option to get the hell off their list and never be contacted again. I’ve texted in the stop code, so that should be it from Bannatynes I hope.

This whole experience made me realise just how important it is to include an unsubscribe option on mobile marketing campaigns. In fact you’re legally obliged to according to the Information Commissioner’s Office. I’m not sure what the penalties are for those companies that transgress but it’s better not to even run the risk.

As this is such as important issue, Text Marketer accounts automatically come with an unsubscribe tool when the account is set up. So to unsubscribe from receiving further mobile marketing messages, all a customer has to do is text a 4 letter code to 88802. The account will then not allow you to send any further texts to that number. It’s a failsafe system that means you can’t send mobile marketing mesages to anyone that has opted out.

Feel free to set up an account if you’d like to see how it all works. You’ll get some free text credits for testing. If you decide to buy some text credits, there is no minimum order and your credits don”t expire, so you have as long as you like to use them. We’re always happy to chat through your mobile marketing plans, so do call us 0117 2050202.

Fans can sign up by using a text response service provided by Text Marketer. By texting in FFIT to 88802, they’ll receive a call back asking them at which club they would like to attend a training session.  The informality of using an sms response service for this type of initiative is a smart move. The programme is basically making it easier and more appealing for Scotland’s overweight blokes to get themselves moving. The text response option is far less daunting than filling in a form or ringing in to a call centre. They’re just giving people more choice about how they can get in touch.

The programme is being widely promoted in a number of channels including extensive coverage on the BBC website.

There are a few options to choose from if you’re considering having a text response on your advertising and marketing camapaigns. The first decision is whether you should use a short code like 88802 or whether a virtual mobile number would be a more suitable option. There’s a more detailed explanation of which tool is appropriate for which job here. Essentially, short codes are better for generating response from advertising and long codes are more suitable if you’re asking people to reply to a text that you send them or for more general enquiries.

Setting up an sms response service is very straightforward and low cost. Stage one is to open up a free account. From your account, you’ll be able to check the availability of your chosen keyword. Then it’s simply a case of setting an optional automated  sms response and email alerts.

If you like to find out more about sms response or discuss any other element of your mobile marketing campaigns, please feel free to call us on 0117 2050202

The future looks bright for business sms?

At Text Marketer, we’re continually surprised how business sms is still really in the early stages of development. Most companies are still not using business sms as part of their communication strategies. Surprising really, when you consider how easy business sms services are to set up.

Why is the take of business sms so slow?

We believe it’s a kind of inertia really. Business sms is simply not on many marketing manager’s list of things to consider. People tend to be happiest spending money on the campaigns that they have always been involved in. Perhaps a href=”http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/sms-bulk.htm#features”>business SMS software is still perceived as only useful for companies that have a youth target market.

So what’s in store for the next few years?

Continued steady growth! We can expect Business SMS prices to remain fantastic value for money compared to other marketing channels. We’re looking forward to helping companies realise the potential of mobile marketing in today’s challenging business environment

The SMS gateway debate.

Buying from the mobile marketing industry is a tricky business. There are a vast range of similar looking sms companies all seeming to offer the same service. What should be near the top of your list of things to look out for is which sms gateway the company use. The sms gateway can make the difference between your message arriving on the customer’s mobile phone as planned or disappearing into a black hole.
The main thing to check is whether the sms gateway is a direct UK connection. A UK sms gateway delivers the highest level of reliability.

Why not use an overseas sms gateway?

This is simply a question again of reliability. An overseas sms gateway is far more likely to lose messages and will probably not support features such as delivery reporting or dynamic sender ID. Our view is that an overseas sms gateway is serious false economy.

Won’t a UK sms gateway be more expense?

We don’t believe it should! Text Marketer uses a UK sms gateway and our sms gateway prices are highly competitive.

Use sms advertising wisely!

SMS advertising is simply using the mobile phone as a way of communicating by text with your customers and prospects. Think of sms advertising as just another communication tool that can work alongside your existing activities such as e-mail or direct marketing. Sms advertising should be targeted very carefully as the mobile is a very personal object. So while sms advertising is extremely responsive there is no quicker way to annoy, infuriate and alienate your customers than by sending them badly timed and poorly targeted offers.

Use Bulk SMS sparingly and the results will be impressive.

How do I get started in sms advertising?

Text Marketer’s sms advertising solution has no set up fee or monthly subscription and message costs are among the lowest in the industry. For a free account simply give us a call on 0117 2050202, we’d love to hear from you.