We are living in the 21st century now and as much as people want to fight it, we do really focus our lives around technology. This is mostly not a bad thing and local businesses can use this to their advantage. One of the increases has been the introduction of SMS marketing. Have you noticed that companies have now been texting you? Well it’s on the rise. Read on for some tips on how you as a small business can make an engaging SMS marketing campaign;
- Make the SMS campaign fun!
Kavassalis et al. (2003) suggest that the increased use of mobile permission marketing will rise due to the ‘distribution of useful or fun content’. This basically means that if you want to get on the mobile marketing train, you need to give your customers something fun to read. Such as a link to a viral video your company has made who a clever way of giving them discount.
- Target the correct audience with the correct content
This is very important…It is the same as if you were a customer in a shop, if nothing in the shop is targeted towards you, you will not go in and buy anything. If you are texting customers, make sure to text them something relevant, O’Neill (2016) implies that in order to do this, you need to use ‘purchase history, demographics and any other data you have’, to send the correct messages to customers. However, this may be slightly challenging if you are a small local business. If this is the case, there are many companies that will be able to do this for you. It may result in a higher cost however, which is something that you would need to think about carefully.
- Know what you are aiming for
Well this makes perfect sense…you wouldn’t do any other sort of campaign without knowing what you could potentially get from it. As Hickman (2015) suggests, it is important to ‘review your business and marketing goals’ before you make your SMS campaign. This is mainly so that you don’t go off track with your company’s marketing. You don’t want to head down the completely wrong path, ruining everything you have already achieved. Having a structure and knowing what your aims are will keep you on course to reach your goals.
A SMS marketing campaign that went wrong…
If you haven’t already heard, Parklife got themselves into deep trouble by sending an SMS text to festival goers, under the name ‘mum’. This was obviously distressing and heart breaking for those who had sadly lost their mother. Collinson (2014) details that the festival ended up getting fined, for such an inappropriate SMS marketing campaign. Don’t make the same mistake as Parklife! Make sure that your texts are appropriate and also respectful, because anything that goes wrong means a lot of bad press, which you do not want to deal with.
Final few thoughts
In conclusion, SMS marketing can be good for your small business, but you need to make it fun, target your audience correctly and know what goals you are aiming for. However, the costs with SMS marketing may not be suitable for your business. If you are going to use an external company for it, you will need to work out numbers and prices with them first, to see if it is suitable.
Thanks for reading!
Lordoftheblogs
References
Collinson (2014) ‘Parklife festival fined for ‘distressing’ mum text’ BBC News, 5th December 2014 [Online] <http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/30335528/parklife-festival-fined-for-distressing-mum-text> [accessed 6 May 2016]
Hickman (2015) ‘Everything You Need to Know to Run a Successful SMS Marketing Campaign’ Convince & Convert, 28th December 2015 [Online] <http://www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/10-keys-to-a-successful-sms-marketing-campaign/> [accessed 6 May 2016]
Kavassalis, P., Spyropoulou, N., Drossos, D., Mitrokostas, E., Gikas, G., & Hatzistamatiou, A. (2003) Mobile permission marketing: Framing the market inquiry. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 8, No.1, pp55-79
O’Neill (2015) ‘Six tips for a successful SMS Marketing Campaign’ SparkPage, 9th May 2015 [Online] <http://www.sparkpage.com/six-tips-for-a-successful-sms-marketing-campaign/> [accessed 6 May 2016]
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