The charity, which helps a million mums and dads each year through pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood, adopted sms as a faster and more responsive way of keeping in touch.

Members now receive subscription reminders by sms as well as receiving them by email.

More Organisations Using SMS Gateway

Many more UK organisations are now using sms as part of their communications strategy and integrating with Text Marketer’s SMS gateway, allowing them to send tailored messages to their customers, prospects and staff.
Using the sms gateway is very straightforward. Accounts are free to set up and come with 10 free text credits so you can test the sms gateway before you spend any money.

If you have any queries, please feel free to call us on 0117 9249207.

Using a bulk sms service really comes into its own at times like this. There is simply no more effective way of letting everyone know what on earth is going on. With decisions to stay open or close being made at the last minute a business text service keeps people informed instantly.

There is no set up cost or monthly subscription for Text Marketer’s sms service and bulk sms costs are the lowest in the industry.

Existing Thorntons customers have been sent a text reminder about delicious last minute Christmas gifts. Included in the text bulletin was a notification about their sale which began on Christmas day itself.

SMS Services beat direct mail for response

Using a bulk sms service to promote a retail business is incredibly cost effective and very responsive. Text credits are the lowest in the mobile marketing  industry nd you can expect response rates of up to 18%. (source – Mobile marketing Association.) In comparison, direct mail generates response rates of up to 2%.

Setting up a bulk sms account is free and you get 10 free text credits so you can test the system before making a text credit purchase.

We all know the problem with e-mail. Open rates have been dropping steadily and it’s becoming an increasing struggle just to get e-mails read let alone responded to.

SMS has presented a very effective solution that is going a long way to resolving the problem. By using a bulk sms service to send out a text to your customers, alerting them to the e-mail in their inbox, you can create a very dramatic effect on the open rate.

“We have quite a complicated product catalogue that we send out by e-mail to all our customers once a week with all out latest offers. About a year ago we had open rates of about 12%; in recent months we’ve seen this drop away to around 7%.

Last month we started sending all our customers an sms alert to let them know that the e-mail was on its way. The open rates have now risen to about 16%. We’ll be going back to customers where we don’t yet have the mobile number and a making sure that we update our customer records.” Julian Winter – AES Products

The same approach can be used to draw attention to a mailing piece that has just been sent to your customers. In the case of direct mail, where you will have spent at least 50 pence on each mailer, it make sense to maximise your return on investment by doing all you can to increase the response.

While these techniques are not particularly revolutionary, there are very few companies who are currently using this strategy. Those that are getting the biggest benefit.

Opening a bulk sms account with Text Marketer is free and your account comes with 10 free text credits so you can test the service.

Text Marketer has seen a big increase in the number of independent hair and beauty salons that are using bulks sms to communicate with their customers. SMS is very cost effective and has the advantage getting the message straight to the customer’s phone, wherever they happen to be.

Most salons are sending appointment reminders as a great way of reducing the number of ‘no shows’. Also popular is sending out texts with a specific offer to tempt customers to book an appointment.

Jayne Mahal, owner of Health and Beauty Bar in Nottingham, who has been using Text Marketer for 6 months said that sending text offers was incredibly successful.

“We sent out an offer to 213 of our customers last Tuesday when the bookings for the week were looking a bit down. From that text, we booked in 12 appointments. We worked out that the cost of sending the texts out was £31.74 (4.9 pence per text), so the first appointment easily covered the cost of the whole campaign.”

The dramatic rise in salons using the bulk texting service is mainly due to the lower costs that Text Marketer offers its customers. Text Marketer’s prices are between 34% and 55% cheaper than its competitors for salons buying a block of 100 text credits.

One Text Marketer customer Collin UK, a supplier to UK beauty salons decided to mention the text service on its company blog site.

“Text messaging can be used for just about anything…reminding a customer of their appointment, sending out details of promotions, sending out details of available “cancellation” spaces, getting back in touch with old clients… the list goes on and everyone I know loves getting texts

If you would like to look at text messaging for your business – we think we have found the best one out there for you and highly recommend www.textmarketer.co.uk. I can safely say, they are very easy to use. They are one of, if not the cheapest text marketing options around with text costs from as little as 4p and they offer a FREE trial.!!For more information, please visit www.textmarketer.co.uk.”

For the full blog article, click here.

Hair and Beauty salons can set up an account for free and all accounts have 10 free text credits. If any salons would like to find out more, please call Text Marketer on 0117 9249207.