“Dude, that’s not what we do! We don’t make money from people texting… We only succeed when our customers are successful.” This is how the conversation was going with most of my friends and family who didn’t quite understand what we were doing. That was until recently.
It’s not that I blame them for not “understanding it”. Text messaging marketing has only recently emerged as a de facto marketing method for small and medium-sized business owners. It’s an industry that didn’t even exist a few years ago, but now it’s exploding right before our eyes.
Why did this trend catch on so quickly? What is attractiveness in text message marketing?
There is a simple answer to these questions. They are: value and access.
Value is an arbitrary concept defined by each individual, but with text message marketing, this value can be determined by the results the business owner receives and the number of subscribers to each text message alert campaign. The value of each marketing campaign can now be tracked and stacked against all other marketing efforts and the results show the business owner that there is no better way of marketing and advertising.
When the light shines on, it really shines…
I have an older brother who is very good at work; He is well known and considered an expert in starting businesses in the technology industry. You might think he’s the type to think that he’d pick up on this text messaging marketing concept from a mile away and would then have a million and one apps.
This was not the case. I don’t know if my lack of being able to clearly explain to him the benefit of texting an employer or just the simplicity of the way it worked didn’t fade with his forward thinking, and neither did he-she.
Few days ago I got a call from my (genius) brother. He was so excited… well, excited about it. He tells me, “I get it, this texting thing works great for Central America! People can text and get an alert, a deal, or a special kind instantly on their phone!” It was like the light had just turned on! I said that’s exactly it. What made him finally see it? He had walked into a Chick-fil-A restaurant and saw a table tent with the CFA text on 411247 to receive freebies and specials. Tried it, turned on the light!
Of course I explained to him that text messaging marketing was great for this app.
The customer gets instant value and the business gets unprecedented access to the customer’s personal communication device, which is their cell phone.
But that’s not where the story ends… Text messaging is now used in almost every aspect of business and embraced by thousands of organizations to create a community, mobilize people, drive traffic to events and websites, save money, and provide user-generated content like Weather reports and movie showtimes. There is seamless integration into existing software through API portals, all of this is now possible. Just take a look at Obama’s recent campaign to see the dramatic effect texting has had on the country.
I’ve been amazed at the results companies have achieved when they use text messaging to enhance their marketing efforts. I’ve had the opportunity to hear personally from business owners across the country who have used text messaging to drive sales, drive traffic and communicate more effectively, they’re really using this technology to grow their business. What started as a way for a pizza parlor to submit its own weekly offer to a database has evolved into the most powerful and effective marketing method on the planet.
One thing I noticed right from the start is always mobile operator.
When someone walks out the door in the morning he takes 3 things with him… his wallet, his keys and his cell phone. In church on Sunday it is announced that your cell phone is turned off and the same thing happens in the movies, our cell phones are always with us. We give our clients a vision to put their message in their clients’ pockets whenever they want and then give them the tools to make it happen.
SMS is an advanced communication method that continues to expand by more than 250% year after year.
A study from Emarketer showed that for the average US mobile phone user, the number of text messages placed is greater than the number of mobile phone calls made. Companies now connect to their target market and the customer responds. I’ve never seen response rates this high in any other marketing medium. I keep seeing response rates between 12-30% and read rates as high as 95%!
