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).

Chapter 7 – Getting an SMS Campaign up and running & The Costs

Firstly, of course, you need to have your data sorted out. We’ll assume you’ve got this but if not, it is covered in Chapter 1.

Let’s start with the costs. Always a popular topic! Text Marketer offer the lowest rates of text messaging in the UK for quality SMS delivery (see our SMS Buyers Guide to read more on quality).

Our highest cost is 3.7p per message, for lower volumes. But, you can get buy at 2.6p per message for much higher volumes. See our Bulk SMS prices page for the full sliding scale of costs.

So for example, an SMS Campaign of 1000 would cost just £37. If you compare this to say direct mail, which would probably be around £500 (or more) per 1000, you can see it is incredibly cost effective – not to mention more responsive! (There’s a great direct marketing comparison article which looks at the benefits of texting over other direct marketing and compares the costs and responsiveness and ROI – there’s even an environmental benefit of using texting!).

GETTING A CAMPAIGN UP & RUNNING

Here’s the easy bit. Sending out a text campaign is as easy as copy & pasting your numbers in the system, writing a message and pressing the send button! Most could have a campaign out within a few minutes and the messages would be on people’s phones within seconds.

As a great visual example, take a look at our videos page and watch the “How it works in 60 seconds” video.

I WANT TO GET STARTED – HOW TO …

Over the years, we’ve heard this from literally thousands of companies. But, they’re not sure what information they need. So we’ve produced a “Getting Started in SMS Marketing” page which has 5 categories of customer and the ‘basic’ information required as well as ‘advanced reading’.

This will provide all the information you could possibly need in terms of getting your first campaign out.

Don’t forget our 50 free credit offer below too – why not give it a go just with 50 of your customer base and see what the results are!?

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.

Getting into your customers' mobile phone address book is the 'holy grail' of mobile marketing.

People’s mobile phones are precious to them. For many already, it’s how they organise their entire lives. And this trend is surely only set to continue – well, according to every study I’ve ever read!

Getting in to your Customer’s mobile phone address book

This should be your holy grail. Most people’s mobile address books stay with them forever, moving with them as they change devices too, automatically. Most smartphones also synchronise contacts with Facebook, Google and other social networking systems.

If you can get your business name and number into their address book, there’s good chance your customer will remember you for a long time! Also, if you send them a text message in the future, it pops up as from your company name, not just a generic number – just like it does from any friend of theirs.

How do you go about this?

It’s simple. We’ve tested this on many occasions and it works.

1. You need a txtUs virtual 07…… mobile number for your business.

2. Export all your customers’ mobile numbers from your database.

3. Send them a simple message from your Text Marketer account (using your txtUs number as the Sender ID). Something like,
“Hi from Carluccio’s restaurant. This is our new text messaging number which you can use for booking or general enquiries. Please save us to your address book“.

Done.

The benefits of doing this aren’t immediate, they’re more a medium term strategy. But, from all the evidence we’ve seen, it is simply the holy grail of mobile marketing.

What’s different about texting to landlines?

The major difference is that the text is read out to the recipient. This changes the ‘tone’ of the message completely and can feel a lot more human. The current BT ‘text spokeswoman’ has a mature, calm and professional voice which can really enhance the impact of your message. Give it a try.

Timing of your text message is more critical

The landline is, of course, not with your customers all the time ….

Think about when your target audience is likely to be home and critically, when they will receptive to your message. 7.30 am when they’re getting the kids ready for school, 6pm when they’re in the middle of cooking dinner or 11pm when they’re off to bed are not likely to be winners! And although the message will queue and keep trying to deliver, don’t send them in the day if your audience is likely to be at work so the first thing they get after a busy day at work is your message.

A great way to give a new boost to response rates

When a customer's mobile number is no longer valid, you can text their landline number and ask them to rejoin your list.

It’s a fact of modern life that people change their mobile numbers on a regular basis. If you’ve been SMS Marketing for a while you’ll notice that your delivery rate to mobiles will diminish over time. But, many companies also hold the landline number for customers which hardly ever change.

So, for customers where the mobile number is no longer valid, try a separate SMS marketing campaign to their landline numbers to give a new boost to your response rates. (Tip: you could also send a landline campaign asking people to text to join your special offers list if they are still interested, using our SMS Response system).

It’s costs the same

Texting to landlines is the same cost as texting to mobiles. There are 2 critical things to do technically when you set up a landline campaign but apart from these, it’s exactly the same.

Experiment with the message

Because the message is read out, experiment with the wording and send yourself some examples. Althought BT’s ‘spokeswoman’ is great, there’s a few words she has problems with but equally there are many words and sentences that sound fabulous.

All Text Marketer accounts can be used to send to landlines at no extra cost, you will receive delivery reports as well.

So, is it effective?

In many circumstances, yes. In truth, as with all these things, it is important to test. Follow the few simple rules about testing how your message sounds when read out by BT and thinking about the timing of delivery and you could find, if it’s right for your target market, that it’s better than texting to mobiles!

Booking enquiries can increase as much as much as 50% using a text option

Booking enquiries can increase by up to 50% using a text reply system

Booking a restaurant is often a impulsive decision but a lot of people refrain from ‘making that call’ for a whole host of reasons. Not so with text messaging. Research shows that most people are much more likely to send a text message enquiry.

Using a unique system, like Text Marketer’s txtUs product, your business can now have a standard mobile number which allows people to send text enquiries (but not call the number). These SMS enquiries are converted to an email and sent to your email address. When you reply to that email, your reply is sent back as a text message. If the conversation continues, all the history is contained on subsequent emails so you know what’s been said before.

Building more restaurant ‘regulars’

Restaurants are also finding they build a more loyal customer base too. They find that customers save their txtUs number in their mobile phones and because it is more convenient, tend to enquire to their restaurant first the next time they’re booking a table.

Building a marketing list

The txtUs system also automatically stores all the mobile numbers of enquirers. The platform can then also be used to send out bulk messages, for example to promote an event, which of course, can be booked by replying to the text you have sent.

Restaurants embracing this customer-driven technology are seeing great gains over their competition.

See http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/txtUs.htm for more information.

Over the course of the 6-week campaign, 4,531 coupons were sent to mobile phones, and these were viewed a total of 8,499 times. 2,051 coupons were opened, and of these, 1,279 were redeemed against the free bottle of Sprite, giving a redemption rate of 28 per cent.

Source: MobileMarketingMagazine

Running a Mobile Coupon Marketing Campaign ‘the easy way’

It couldn’t be easier. Simply create some promotional codes and text these to lapsed customers or customers who haven’t bought for a while. If you sell online most e-commerce packages will accept promo codes – even PayPal or Google Checkout allow you to create them. If you only take phone orders that’s fine too, people will give you the promo code they received when they order.

Other useful links;

• Get a free Text Marketer account
• Text Marketer Help, FAQ’s & Tips centre
• 5 Top Tips to increase sales with SMS Text Message Marketing
• How much does Bulk SMS cost?
• Bulk SMS costs competitor price comparison chart

Here at Text Marketer, stat’s are a daily routine of ours. We’re always looking at the latest trends, the newest ideas and what’s coming down the road.

In a flash of genius from one of the team they uttered, “ugh, wouldn’t it be useful to have links to all these stat’s and articles on the site?”. Thud, he was absolutely right!

Not for the faint hearted but we’ve put together links to some of the best mobile marketing articles around;

Mobile Marketing Statistics, Articles and Musings

• Text messaging in the US hits 4.3 Billion SMS every day
• 975 million mobile web users expected by 2012
• 19% of internet users now use status updates – mobile dominates
• Over half a billion people to use mobile money transfer services by 2014
• 30% of consumers communicate with brands via social networks
• 70% of print publishers step up mobile efforts
• Mobile marketing budgets growing at 26%
• DMA: ‘mobile will be the fastest growing platform for the next five years’
• IAB: ‘Mobile marketing ‘will be the best platform for younger consumers’
• Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Consumer Mobile Applications for 2012
• US mobile advertising spend 2008 – 2013
• How Much Does An iPhone User Spend On Apps? $80
• Americans Spend More Than 4.5 Hours per Month Browsing on Smartphones, Nearly Double the Rate of the British
• Average iPhone User Downloads 9 Games, Spends $7 On Them
• Android and iPhone usage patterns nearly identical
• Data Revenues Will Push Mobile Biz Past $1 Trillion
• Mobile phones to overtake PCs for web surfing by 2013
• 85% of US Internet users have cell phones – spending on mobile tech increased in 2009
• One Third Of U.S. 11-Year-Olds Have Cellphones
• Gartner: Consumers Will Spend $6.2 Billion On Apps This Year; Only $600m From Ads
• In 2010 the cellphone market will grow by 9.3 percent
• iPhone And Android Now Account For 81 Percent Of Smartphone Web Ads In the U.S.
• Revenue from mobile apps set to quadruple from 2010 to 2013
• 76% Of Users Don’t Use The Mobile Web
• Americans Sending 4 Times as Many Text Messages as Brits
• Mobile Advertising Grows By 41% in 2009
• More Than Half Of Mobile Pageviews Are To Social Networking Sites
• 2 million mobile tickets have been redeemed worldwide
• Facebook dominates UK mobile internet engagement
• One third of phones will use accelerometers in 2010
• Gartner: Mobile To Outpace Desktop Web By 2013
• 80% mobile websites attract global audience
• Mobile shopping will balloon to $119B by 2015
• Mobile marketing to reach $24B in five years, says study
• 300m fewer female mobile phone owners than male around the world
• Mobile gambling estimated to grow to USD 16.6 billion by 2011
• Mobile MVNO revenues expected to rise to USD 67.4 billion in 2012
• 68% of Americans get news and current events information on their cell
• Juniper Forecasts 15bn Mobile Tickets by 2014
• There will be 288 million mobile VoIP users by 2013
• 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites in January 2010
• Juniper Research: Mobile retail market to exceed $12 billion by 2014
• LBS Revenues to Top $12.7bn by 2012, says Juniper
• ABI Research: Enterprise mobile data revenues to hit $43 billion by 2014
• Mobile apps industry to hit $17.5B by 2012 with 50B in downloads
• Shipments of GPS-enabled handsets increased 92% in 2009
• Google sites accounted for 9% of all mobile internet page views by US users on Opera
• Mobile apps to generate $1.6 billion in revenue in 2010
• Mobile advertising spend to rise 80 percent in 2010
• Mobile Web users increase to 69.9M: Study
• Mobile Data Traffic Expected To Rise 40-Fold Over Next Five Years
• Mobile Web More Popular Than Reading
• Study: 80% Of SMS & MMS Users Report Dropped Texts
• 29% of all parents don’t allow texting during family meals. 36% of parents of teenagers don’t allow texting during family meals.
• 10% of Under 25s Think It’s Okay to Text During Sex
• Mobile Barcode scanning up 700% in 2010
• Mobile will consume 40bn gigabytes of data in 2012
• Record 77 Million Smartphones Shipped In Q3 2010, Growing 78 Percent Over Last Year
• 6.1 trillion text messages to be sent in 2010
• Mobile ad revenues to hit $3.5bn this year, $24bn by 2015
• 49% of Small Business Owners Use Smartphones
• Survey says that 20% of Americans are planning to switch to prepaid in the first half of 2011
• Only 4.8% of U.S. retailers have mobile-specific Web sites
• Research: 500M Consumers Projected To Use Mobile Health Apps On Smartphones By 2015
• App Store Tops 300,000 Applications
• Facebook generates 25% of all US pageviews in one week – excluding mobile traffic

These are two of the key findings of a study carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). The first wave of the study, which was conducted in association with the Association for Interactive Media & Entertainment (AIME) and the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG). questioned 141 professionals from the retail, advertising and IT sectors. The second wave, which was an IAB piece of work, asked consumers about their attitudes towards, and use of, m-commerce, which was defined as using the mobile to research a purchase; to enhance the buying experience (checking stock availability etc.); to have a purchase charged to a mobile phone bill; or to buy from a mobile site or app using a credit or debit card.

Using these terms of reference, 51 per cent of mobile phone-owning UK consumers (22.95m people) have used m-commerce, breaking down as follows:

• Research – 43 per cent/19.35m people (smartphone users: 75 per cent/33.75m)
• Experience enhancement – 35 per cent/15.75m (smartphone users: 62 per cent/27.9m)
• Charged a purchase to their phone bill – 37 per cent/16.65m (58 per cent/26.1m)
• Bought off mobile and charged to a debit/credit card or PayPal – 27 per cent/12.5m (53 per cent/23.85m)

But note those smartphone figures. Smartphone users, in fact, are 63 per cent more likely to engage in m-commerce than non-smartphone users. Given that most new phones sold these days are smart to some extent, this is a stat that should get any brand’s attention, particularly in the retail sector.

The research also looked at the drivers of, and barriers to, m-commerce usage. When asked why they used their mobile for research or buying goods and services, 47 per cent said it was because it meant they could research or buy while they were out and about; 42 per cent because it was the easiest way of doing it; and 32 per cent because it was spontaneous or an impulsive decision.

Looking at the barriers to m-commerce adoption, 61 per cent said they would prefer to use a PC; 37 per cent that it was “too expensive” – a reference, no doubt, to the perceived data costs; 28 per cent said their mobile was not able to access the internet; and 16 per cent that it was “too complicated”.

A couple of final stats from the event. The average transaction value for purchases charged to a phone bill is £3.90, and for purchases made via the phone but charged to a credit/debit card or PayPal, £12.20.

Comment: Obviously M-Commerce is fast becoming an essential for companies wanting to expand on-line and coupled with this Mobile Marketing is going to be a must to keep the communication chain ‘mobile‘.

Text Marketer Ltd

This is a relatively advanced feature of the system and the process outlined below should be followed precisely to ensure a successful campaign.

Overview: The step by step process
1. What is a CSV file and how the data should be formatted
2. Creating a “merge group” in the system
3. Uploading your CSV file to the “merge group”
4. Creating the campaign and inserting “merge” fields into the message
5. Previewing the campaign, editing & submitting the campaign

Step 1: Understanding & creating your CSV File

A CSV file is a Comma Separated Values file. They are easily exported from Excel or almost any other software. If you are not familiar with CSV files, you should seek technical help within your company.

Above you’ll see an example CSV file, ready for merge upload. Each line is a “record” or “row” and each bit of data between each comma is a “field”. So in each line of the example above, we have the following data:
“mobile_number,name,username,password,code”
There are 5 records in our example CSV database.

Create or export your CSV file, following the rules shown below and save it on your computer ready to upload to your account. (Step 3.)

VERY IMPORTANT - Rules for CSV files for Text Marketer:
1. The mobile number MUST be saved as the first field in each row
2. You can have up to a maximum of 4 additional custom fields in addition to the mobile number
3. There is a maximum of 60 characters for each custom field
4. Commas are used to separate the fields, do not use them in your data
5. The maximum number of rows you can upload at one time is 50,000

Step 2: Creating a “merge group” in the system

Now we have the CSV file prepared, the next step is to create a special “merge group” in your system.
Log in and go to Groups -Create a Group. Give the group a name and tick the box “Is it a Merge Group?”. This tells the system to expect a merge group CSV file instead of the normal single column of numbers used in non-merge campaigns.
Then press Submit.

Step 3: Uploading your CSV file to the “merge group”

After creating the “merge group” you will be returned to the screen above with the group you have created already selected.
Next to Select File, click the  grey Browse button.
Navigate your way to the CSV file you created and saved in Step 1.
When you have found the CSV file, double click the file or highlight it and select open.
(You will see the path to the file now appears in the window next to Select File.)
Then click Submit.
If any errors are found in your file these will be reported. If this is the case, please go back to Step 1 and see the “Rules for CSV files”. If your file uploads successfully, you will see the “Numbers in Group” for your “merge group” change from zero to the numbers of records in your CSV file.

In our example CSV file we had 5 records which we uploaded to the group “MergeData1″ so it is now displaying 5 records in that group as per below.

Step 4: Creating the campaign and using “merge” fields in the message

To create a merge SMS campaign go to Send SMS – Send to Merge Group
Then select the merge group you are sending to (MergeData1 in our example).
Give the campaign a name for your records (this can be anything useful to you but is not set as the sender name for your campaign).
Select the date and time to send your campaign and then we’ll create the message.

How To Create A Merge Message
The code you need to insert into a message to pull through a custom field is {1}, {2}, {3} or {4} where the number corresponds to the position of the custom data field in each record in your CSV file. The custom fields exclude the number column so {1} is the first data field.
If you only have one custom field then you will only ever need {1}. If you remember, in our example CSV file (from Step 1) the order of each record was “mobile_number (which is ignored for data merging),name,username,password,code” so in the message above we have created:

“Hi {1}, your username is: {2}, password {3} & your voucher code is {4}. Thanks.”
You can now create your message following this example and insert the {1}, {2}, {3} or {4} (if you are using all 4 custom fields) in your message as appropriate.
Then click Next >> Don’t worry, there is a preview screen next to check your message before it is submitted!

Step 5: Previewing the campaign, editing & submitting the campaign

Once you have clicked Next >> you will be given a preview of up to the first 20 merged messages.
This allows you to check the messages look OK.
The message box also re-appears so you can make amendments to your message if it doesn’t look right. If you do make amendments in the message box, click Preview >> afterwards to preview the first 20 messages again with the amended message text.

IMPORTANT – Information on credits usage with merged campaigns
Merging data can and will produce different message lengths depending on your data  (if someone has a long name for example).
This can have the effect of using more credits for a particular message. Therefore this screen also shows you the total credits required for the campaign and the total volume (or, number of mobile numbers you are sending to).
Should these numbers differ it means that some of your data fields are pushing the total character count in those messages over the limit.
You can either choose to accept this and submit the campaign or you may wish to trim the message (remember to hit Preview >> to reload the new message) until you are happy with the credits required number.

In our example everything looks fine with 5 credits needed to send our 5 text messages so we can now Submit the campaign.

You will then see your normal campaign log screen with the campaign details. If you are happy with this then simply leave the campaign to process. If you are not happy, hit the Abort? link next to the campaign to abort.

Time for those Christmas Marketing hats to come on

The Text Marketer creative team have been at it again, coming up with fabulous new ways for our customers to use SMS Marketing which makes a real difference to their business.

There’s an old adage I always think of in our business, “you never know until you try”. How true this is. So many companies still don’t ‘get’ the use of SMS in their business, yet, as soon as they’re out of the office they’re on the phone texting ninety to the dozen! What could be a more obvious advert for texting!? This is how people want to be communicated with nowadays.

Anyway, to those who have realised that using SMS is 5-10 times more responsive, 90% cheaper and 100% greener (probably the ones reading this, let’s face it!) – let’s get on with how to make this Christmas a stunning one for your business.

The GOLDEN Rule

True in all direct marketing but because of the mobile phone’s ‘personal’ nature, even more so with Mobile Marketing …. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes before you send them a message, ask yourself (amongst other things);

• What’s their lifestyle like – student, working mum, shift worker, retiree?
• When will they be most likely to read the message you’re sending them?
• What will be the most important things on their mind right now?
• How can we give that particular customer exactly what they want!?

See database segmentation for SMS Marketing for more

Once you’ve done this you’re (according to Direct Marketing Association research) you’re about 70% there in terms of a winning SMS campaign.

Top 5 winning Bulk SMS Campaigns this Christmas

These won’t ‘exactly’ fit every business but with a little tweaking the concepts are the same for most:

Giving your customers a 'virtual present' by SMS really boosts positive word of mouth, attracting new customers.

1. Inform customers about opening hours, ordering deadlines, etc’ for the Christmas period
Whilst this seems mundane, it is proven to have an excellent response rate. It shows you care about your customer and also communicates a sense of urgency about ‘getting your order in’ before the big rush.

2. Contact customers who ordered from you this time last year
An often overlooked strategy. If they bought from you last year, there’s good chance they’re still in the same market this year.

3. Drive traffic to your website
Some companies are paying £1 or (sometimes much) more per click on Google AdWords when a text message costs just a few pence! If you’ve got something special on your website for the festive season, tell people about it by text.

4. Get a much better sales response to your E-mail campaigns
Much in the same way companies used to advertise on TV, “New Christmas brochure out in our shop tomorrow”, text customers to tell them, for example, “Latest Christmas offers arriving by E-Mail tomorrow – please order early to avoid disappointment”. This will boost open rates and orders significantly. See get better e-mail open rates for more.

5. It’s Christmas – send them a present!
This will depend on your business but try to think of a small gift you can give your customers – maybe a Christmas ringtone (has viral marketing benefits too!), a virtual advent calendar, a free Christmas mobile game, a money off voucher, etc. etc. A small gift can go a long way in a customer’s eyes and will also help positive word of mouth advertising.

If you need any help, support or advice, don’t be afraid to give us a call. If you don’t already have one get a free Bulk SMS account and give it a go.

Merry Christmas and an SMS-powered prosperous New Year!

Your Certificate Screen

You can access your certificate showing how much woodland you have created under “Reports” menu, option “Plant-a-Forest Cert”. This will pop up a new screen with your certificate which will constantly update itself with every purchase you make.

Sample of a Plant-a-Forest certificate detailing the contribution your company has made.

Click "Reports" menu to see certificate option, where enabled.

I’ve just sent a campaign and my certificate has not updated? This is because the certificate is updated when you purchase credits, relative to the amount of your purchase.

What is the Plant-a-Forest option for my SMS Marketing account?

It is a scheme whereby we donate money for every message you buy to create native woodlands. It is an opt-in scheme so please do conatct us if you would like to opt-in.

If you are a new customer please create a free bulk sms account and let us know if you would like to opt-in.

Text messages get straight to your customer, wherever they are.

Having been in the business for over a decade now, we have seen just about every type of Bulk SMS Marketing strategy, with varying levels of success. The one common denominator between all the strategies employed is that companies who embrace this relatively new (for businesses anyway) communication channel is that they are almost always successful.

Often the first thought when people hear, “business text messaging” is, OH NO, you’re not going to be one of those spammers are you!?
True, in the past Bulk SMS for businesses usually consisted of getting a big list of mobile numbers and sending them all a spam SMS message! Nowadays though, the law and the savvy UK customer has caught up with these rogue companies and they are virtually non-existent.

In fact, here are some recent “Business Texting Fast Facts”

• 65% of people send business text messages from their mobile phone on a daily basis
• 50% of people receive business text messages from a member of their team/ department/ office
• 47% of people receive business text messages from a colleague
• 36% receive business text messages from a customer or client
• 71% of people use business texts for setting ‘reminders of meetings and appointments’
• 18% of people used business texts for ‘notifying people about new meetings and appointments’
• 14% of people use business text for ‘chasing up suppliers or new orders’
• A third of respondents (36%) said that they receive text messages from a customer or client
• 11% of people receive text messages from suppliers.

So, what are the most effective ways to gain increased sales using Bulk SMS?

In reverse order of success rating;

Number 5
Start a text club. Allow people to text in to a keyword to receive special offers from you by text message.

Number 4
Keep a customer informed during the order process. Text them when you have received the order, when payment has been taken & when it has been despatched with a delivery time estimate. This has been proven to dramatically increase repeat orders and positive word of mouth.

Number 3
Text enable your adevrtising. Allow people to respond by texting you. On average around half of respondents will choose to do so if you include a text response on your advertising and often those people wouldn’t have responded so you increase response rates.

Number 2
Text lapsed customers. Try to get a list of customers from your database who haven’t bought for X months and text them out an offer to encourage them back to you. So long as they had a good experience last time, this is one of the fastest ways to gain new sales.

And, in at Number 1 …..
Follow up your sales. Customers like nothing more than to be assured they have made the right choice buying from you. Text them X days after the sale thanking them for their business and offering a number to call if they need any help or anything further. We have seen this increase recall rates, increase repeat purchase and hugely increase positive word of mouth amongst peer groups – essentially free advertising!

Take a look at a few SMS Marketing Case Studies for other ideas but if you do only the 5 above, you’ll notice immediate results and sales increases.

By segmenting your database and talking to people in a more relevant way you can often see the response rates to your SMS campaigns increase by a factor of three or four times.

8 ideas of “what” to segment your list by;

1. Propsects that have become clients.
   Once a list member has bought from you you should move them to a ‘client’ list. They are now more valuable and should be spoken to in a different manner to prospects.
2. Product lines purchased.
   If you have distinct product lines then it makes sense to speak to customers about the product lines in which they have expressed an interest, or bought from in other words.
3. Average revenue earned.
   Split customers into ‘average spend’ categories as this will help you to talk to them in a price range they have demonstrated they are happy with, increasing your chance of selling to them again.
4. Major clients.
   VIP clients should be in a special category. Give them better attention, exclusive offers or information.
5. Purchase lifecycle.
   Is there a pattern to repeat purchase or an obvious trigger? For example, if you sold service items for cars then it would make sense that the purchase would probably be every year just prior to their next service/MOT and whatever offers you have throughout the rest of the year and probably not of interest to those clients until their next service/MOT date. Not only does this make the likely response rate to campaigns but it saves you money and removes the risk of annoying the customer that they ‘just don’t need’ service items half way through the year.
6. Demographics.
   Demographics might include age, race, gender, education levels, occupation, location of residence, marital status, number of children, income or other socio-economic factors, etc.
7. Sales create sales.
   Create a sequence of communication to existing customers. Your goal being to praise their wise decision to purchase from you in the first place and then to ‘be there’ for them when they’re ready for their next purchase decision.
8. Geography.
   You product or service might operate very differently in different areas of the country or you may have different promotions in different sales area. You might simply be able to point customers to different stores by knowing their location.