Seven different uses for SMS marketing
- By Tiffany Smith
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- 29 Aug, 2017
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SMS marketing is one of the most cost effective mobile channels but many business owners don’t use it to it’s full potential. If you’re looking to expand on the ways you’re using SMS for your small business, consider the following seven ideas.
Micro content
The goal of content marketing is to provide customers with valuable and interesting information so as to be seen by them as a reputable source for good information and a trusted brand. Typically when businesses engage in content marketing, it’s longer form content like blog articles. Micro content sent via SMS would consist of a one- or two-sentence tip that fits within the 160 character limit. It’s a great use of the SMS channel because customers will tire of self-serving promotion on the part of the business. Micro content is a way to give something without explicitly asking for anything in return.
VIP offers
Another way to offer value to SMS subscribers is to offer them exclusive offers that can’t be obtained through any other channel. Not only does this diversify the way you’re using SMS for your small business but it adds extra incentive to opt in to receive text messages since they know that there’s no other way to get those deals. It also adds an air of exclusivity to the channel so that customers feel more appreciated.
Flash sale notifications
Especially good offers but only available for very short periods of time are especially effective at driving foot traffic. On a slow day or during a slower time of day when employees are being paid to stand around, a flash sale sent via SMS can get people to come in. SMS is an especially effective channel for flash sales because approximately 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of being sent.
Order status and shipping updates
If your business routinely ships orders to customers, the option to receive order status and shipping updates will be attractive to many customers. Emailed shipping notifications are often accidentally deleted unread or are filtered straight into a junk folder where they’re never seen. Signing up for these notifications could be a great way to introduce new customers to your SMS channel and get more opt ins as well.
Restock and new product updates
If you’ve recently got new stock of a popular product that had previously been sold out or if you’ve added a new product, sending a text to notify your most loyal customers about it will be appreciated by them and help boost sales of those products as well.
Appointment reminders
If the nature of your business includes the scheduling of appointments, SMS can be used to send appointment reminders a day, or even hours, ahead of the scheduled appointment time. As with order notifications, appointment reminders are an ideal use of the SMS channel because of its time sensitive nature. This is not only another way to make life easier for customers but it helps your own bottom line as well since fewer missed appointments translates to less lost productivity.
Mobile coupons
Last but not least is the most tried and true use of SMS: the mobile coupon. It may not be original but it’s a safe bet since the redemption rates for coupons are several times better when they’re sent via text as opposed to email or as print mailers.
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Source:mediaupdate.co.za/marketing/142273/five-innovative-sms-techniques-to-tackle-new-technology
Invest in SMS marketing
Gone are the days when buyers waited for the realtor to show them ones. More than half of home buyers find online listings on their own before even reaching out to a realtor. You can save yourself a lot of time by setting up an SMS campaign where each property you sell as a registered shortcode and prospective buyers can send off a text containing a keyword to that shortcode to get on the list to receive updates about that particular property. This way, your list of interested buyers is managed automatically by themselves and they can remove themselves by opting out so you don’t have to keep spending your time trying to reach people that are no longer interested.
Adopt a mobile first approach to web design
Though DIY website builders like Weebly and Wix have come a long way when it comes to mobile-friendly design–you build from a template and the website host detects the device being used to view the site and adjusts accordingly–you can do even better by adopting a mobile first approach. Think about what your mobile customers are trying to accomplish when they use their smartphone to view listings on your website. People are five times more likely to leave a website if it’s not easy to navigate on a mobile device. Make sure any links are far enough apart that people won’t actually click over to the wrong page and make sure your contact information is displayed prominently throughout the website. Make sure your phone number is click-to-call so you make it as easy as possible for prospective clients to go from your website to speaking with you on the phone.
Get on all the right apps
Nearly 70% of home buyers will use a mobile app at some point to look at listings. That doesn’t mean you need to go out and create an app for your real estate company. In fact you probably shouldn’t. But you should make sure that your listings are appearing on the most popular real estate apps out there or a sizable part of your target audience may never see them if they’re using apps and not your website.
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Source: realtybiznews.com/mobile-marketing-tips-for-realtors/98743528/
Myth: Chatbots will replace mobile apps
When chatbots were first making their entrance many were touting their superiority over mobile applications and some even went so far as to suggest that they would completely eliminate the need for apps and that everyone would just use chatbots to conduct mobile banking, book flights or hotels, complete online purchases, and keep an eye on the weather. So far this hasn’t happened, and in fact, it never will.
The Truth: Chatbots will augment mobile apps
Chatbots can’t completely replace mobile apps because apps have an interactive graphical interface that a chatbot simply can’t recreate. Take a very simple application like a weather app; you could open the application and immediately see the current temperature and weather as well as an hour-by-hour forecast for the area you are currently in. You could also open a messaging app of some kind and ask a weather chatbot for the same info. It would take longer of course to type out the question you want to ask and it would be entirely text-based whereas your mobile app can show you the weather with animations of clouds, rain, or snow. Apps are here to stay but that doesn’t mean chatbots will have no impact on them. Tasks more complicated than asking about the weather, such as disputing a charge on your credit card statement or making a change to your insurance coverage might be better handled by a bot than a mobile app. Expect to see more integration between chatbots and apps in the future where an app user can be seamlessly transferred to a conversation with a bot when the mobile app can’t help.
Myth: Chatbots will displace customer service representatives
If chatbots can simulate conversation with a human, who’s not to say that chatbots can simply take the place of customer service representatives who answer questions and resolve customer’s problems? As is often the case with new technologies, many are afraid that it will take away jobs.
Truth: Chatbots will make customer service jobs better
Chatbots might be able to sound like a human at times, but they can’t do everything a live agent can do. What chatbots can do is automate some of the easy stuff like looking up the account, determining the nature of their issue, providing the appropriate answer to frequently asked questions, and passing the customer off to the appropriate department for a chat session with a live agent. This will remove the more mundane elements of customer service work. Even if do chatbots do lead to a reduction of customer service jobs, the will create many more jobs in chatbot development and testing.
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Source: mobileworldlive.com/apps/blog-apps/blog-the-hype-around-chatbots/
You don’t have one
Okay so on the surface this one seems obvious. Of course, your mobile marketing strategy isn’t effective if you aren’t doing mobile marketing. And there are a surprising number of businesses that aren’t. An estimated two-thirds of businesses don’t really invest in mobile marketing and 70% don’t do any SMS marketing—the foundation of any great mobile marketing strategy.
But even if your business is dabbling in mobile marketing, that doesn’t constitute a mobile marketing strategy. Having a strategy means having a clear objective or purpose behind your mobile marketing efforts. If you don’t have an objective and if you aren’t looking at metrics, then you don’t have a strategy and there’s no way your efforts can be effective because you don’t have a way to measure success.
It’s not integrated
Mobile marketing works best when it is integrated with other marketing channels and efforts. Approximately 95% of text messages sent by businesses to consumers don’t include a link to a mobile optimized website. Of the texts that do contain a link, 72% of them are links to websites that aren’t optimized for mobile. Information isn’t displayed correctly on smaller screens and they usually have slower load times which is problematic since mobile users have much less patience and will usually wait just five second for a page to load before giving up. Your text messages should be steering customers to your website and to your social media pages. They should be converting into sales. Similarly, your print mailers, emails, and social media posts should be directing customers to opt in to receive your text messages.
You gave up too quickly
Like all advertising, mobile marketing won’t produce earth-shattering results over night. It will take considerable time and effort to get your mobile marketing strategy to produce results consistently. It’s a different channel than all the others and tips and tricks that work for other kinds of advertising may not transfer well to mobile. There’s a learning curve and there’s lots of fine tuning before you begin to see the results. If you give up after the first text message you send doesn’t result in a huge boost in sales, you’re quitting before you can reap the benefits of this powerful marketing channel.
It’s one-dimensional
When most people think of mobile marketing, they think of SMS marketing. But mobile is about so much more than sending texts. Think of texting as the foundational piece that the rest of the strategy is built on. Social media is inseparably connected to mobile. A mobile website is also crucial for the success of any SMS marketing campaign. In-app advertising and mobile optimized emails are also key components. So if you’re spending all your mobile marketing dollars on SMS, you won’t be maximizing the results.
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Source:business2community.com/marketing/5-reasons-mobile-marketing-strategy-stinks-01846836#UcereOYbf7BS71BQ.97
Competition focusing heavily on social media
Your competition knows that focusing on mobile and social media marketing together is the way to go. In fact, in 2016, mobile advertising took more than half the share of digital marketing dollars. Not only are most businesses focusing more on digital marketing efforts, the majority of those efforts center on mobile.
Number of social media users growing
There is an increasing number of users on social media platforms being reported every year. In fact, it was recently reported that Instagram now has 700 million users, and Twitter reported that 328 users are visiting its site every month. Mobile makes it significantly easier to use different social media platforms, paving the way for customers to regularly interact through them.
As a business, your focus should be on being in the same place as your customers. When a customer is trying to decide what they want, sometimes they simply don’t remember all their options. By being somewhere that you can quickly and easily remind them you exist, you are able to retain customers and get them to repeat business more frequently.
Much of the increase in social media platforms has to do with teenagers and young adults joining the networks for the first time, which also gives your business a new opportunity to get new customers and develop loyal relationships. By using mobile to develop relationships through social media, your company will get new customers who you may have never been able to reach otherwise.
AI Chatbot possibilities
Social Media companies such as Facebook and Twitter have been developing AI Chatbot for chat to give businesses an easier way to communicate with their customers. Customer service texting is essential because it means your customers can easily send you a message, whether through social media or their phone’s texting system, and then get an answer to their question immediately. No customer service agents have to be available, and the system can still run 24/7 answering questions or concerns. In fact, some businesses such as Starbucks. have even been experimenting with using AI Chatbot to order product.
If most of your customers find you while browsing the web on their phone, then you won’t be surprised to find out they also prefer to be able to send a quick text message to get more information about your business instead of having to go to a desktop version of your site or to call. If it seems like extra work, potential customers simply won’t do it, and you could lose them before you even had a chance.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source: adweek.com/digital/6-interesting-social-and-mobile-marketing-stats-from-this-week/
marketingland.com/mobile-now-accounts-nearly-70-digital-media-time-comscore-210094
So why are some companies hesitant to switch over to AI-backed customer service? Many are afraid that customers will feel distanced or isolated by the lack of personal connections. Well, there might be a solution for that.
Realistic AI Paves Way for More Personal AI
Mark Sagar, digital animation technology expert, is changing the face of AI, literally. Sagar is CEO of Soul Machines, which is creating digital faces for customer service chatbots. Basically, the technology creates virtual faces to represent your once-faceless AI customer service. So when customers want to talk to someone at three in the morning about a problem, rather than sending a message to an anonymous receiver, they can use device with a front-facing to chat face to face with a customer service agent, or AI agent.
This new technology is a huge step forward for personalizing the AI-backed customer service experience. Soul Machines technology can even read facial expressions and react to those very facial expressions. Soul Machines can utilize facial expression cues to imitate an illusion of empathy, a valuable trait of customer service representatives.
The Growth of AI Technology
Realistic faces for AI customer service is an impressive step forward for AI, especially in helping with customer service needs. While not everyone is going to be using realistic faces to front their AI chatbots, there is an important take away: AI technology is always improving.
With a group of customer service representatives, there is little potential growth aside from training and language development. However, with AI, there are no limitations to growth. AI can handle a variety of languages and cultural understandings. They can work around the clock without growing tired or frustrated. AI chatbots can learn and follow customer habits and transactions to better understand them and their needs.
But the greatest advantage of AI is its potential for growth. Soul Machines is only one aspect of such growth ability. Now AI can become more personal, whether through voice response or face-to-face chats with digitally-created AI customer service agents. So companies will not have to choose between the personal touch of a real customer service agent and the varied talents and abilities of AI chatbots. With the limitless potential for growth, companies would be smart to invest in AI technology, especially for their customer service needs.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source:technologyreview.com/s/603895/customer-service-chatbots-are-about-to-become-frighteningly-realistic/
The first step to any good marketing plan is to identify your audience. You need to determine the age, gender, education level, etc of the people who are buying your stuff. Once you have figured out who is buying your products and who will be most likely to buy your product, you can start marketing towards the specific audience.
One of the groups you will be differentiating between will be generations. Are you marketing to Millennials? Baby Boomers? Generation X? Here are some tips for marketing towards the specific age groups.
Baby Boomers
The hardest group to steal business with is the Baby Boomers generation where they are very brand-loyal. That’s great if you can get their business, but it is very hard to take them away from a brand they love. Fortunately, they are also usually fairly receptive to ads and discounts. So if you offer them deals, they are more likely to try out what you have to offer. And with just a good deal, you may have their business for life.
While Baby Boomers are generally on social media, they don’t like to use it as a way to interact with businesses. So while it is still important that you have social media in place for those who do want to use it to interact with you, try not to bombard their social media pages with ads.
Generation X
While Generation X is on social media, it is more like something they check once or twice a day instead of something they spend all day scrolling through. They do have smartphones close by all the time and have learned to rely on mobile for much of what they do. That means you can easily access them through text marketing, mobile site optimization, and emails.
Millennials
The average Millennial is on many different social media sites and is actively engaging through mobile for most of the day. Even while they are at work, they typically have their smartphones close by. This is a tremendous opportunity for your business to use text marketing to stay in contact with customers and send them ads.
One thing that is important to note is that Millennials are very interested in the bigger picture and creating meaning in their lives. As a business, that means you can do a lot better with them if you somehow touch on something important to them through your advertising. It is part of the reason why businesses have been having a lot of success by offering campaigns where they donate money to charities based on their sales. It is also the reason why new, exciting, small startup companies with passionate owners have been having so much success selling to them.
Generation Z
The youngest and newest generation of buyers grew up with technology and understands it a lot better than previous generations. These kids know how to spot a fake news story on the internet in seconds because they have grown up with the internet that they know is loaded with a bunch of fake stuff. That means when you are advertising to them, you should be as real and transparent as possible. If you lie to them, they will find out. And they know how to easily tell everyone they can reach on the internet about the betrayal too, so you will lose a lot of other business with them. Just be authentic with them, and use text marketing and social media to your advantage in communicating with them.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source:forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/02/15/how-to-target-three-generations-with-social-marketing-not-stereotypes/#79f8629036f5
Marketing to your audience can be tricky, but influencer marketing is a huge step in the right direction. You are able to use their fan base to build your own customer base, and it gives you a chance to showcase your product. Plus, companies that are using it find it to be extremely effective, almost as effective as text marketing efforts. But how can you get the most bang for your buck? Here are some ways you can get the most bang for your buck with influencer marketing.
Search for the right influencers
Getting the right person to promote your product makes all the difference. You can recruit politicians, bloggers, another business, a model, or even one of the bachelorette girls. You’d be surprised how many followers someone can have that you have never heard of. Look for influencers who fit with your industry. Make sure promoting your product would be a part of their image they have already created through social media. If they wouldn’t have chosen to buy your product on their own in real life, their fans probably won’t believe anything good they have to say about it.
Agree on payment
Make sure you agree on payment ahead of time. Some influencers with smaller followings will often agree to promote your product in exchange for the free product instead of having to pay out cash. Even if they want you to pay $5,000 to $10,000 for a post about your company, you can usually negotiate down, so make sure you always negotiate and try to get the best deal possible for your company. You’ll need to predetermine a budget before the year begins, and then spread it out throughout the year instead of using it all at once in one shot.
Don’t tell them exactly what to do
People who have large followings on social media typically already have a brand of their own they are trying to work with. They know what gets “likes” on their posts and what doesn’t, and they know how their audience responds to different things. Avoid telling them exactly what to post, so they have the freedom to do it themselves. It is especially bad when you pay five or six people to post the exact same thing on the exact same day. If their fans follow each other (as they usually do if they are in the same industry of people), then they immediately can tell it is a fake ad and that they aren’t getting the true opinion of the person posting it.
Continue other marketing efforts
Just because you think influencer marketing is going to work really well for you doesn’t mean you should focus your efforts all in one place. Use your budget wisely, and spread out among many different marketing tactics. Text marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing are still just as important as ever. And remember that your marketing efforts need to last all year long, so spread out your budget accordingly.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source: smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/small-business-marketing-tips.html entrepreneur.com/article/288283
1. Interacting with your customers
Customer interaction is big, and it is easier than ever with social media. The whole point of social media is it gives people a place where they can talk about themselves, so asking about their lives and for their opinions in your posts will bring a lot of interaction. It is amazing how much value you can get by simply asking your customers about their preferences, and it gives your company an idea of where to prove with the product or service.
2. Livestreaming on social media
Live Streaming was launched on Facebook in perfect timing for the election. Politicians were able to livestream their events and make the people feel like they were there even if they were really sitting in their living rooms. It is a tool you can expect businesses to be using often in 2017, as it gives them a good opportunity to reach out to their customers and make them feel a part of whatever is happening in the business.
3. Content that disappears
The younger generations have built Snapchat into much more than a social media platform for hanging out with friends. It gave businesses the opportunity to learn that customers really like short-lived content, according to Forbes. Something that soon disappears makes it feel more exclusive to the customer.
4. Mobile for everything
It is important to note that mobile is the future of marketing. People are spending more time researching companies and making purchases on mobile than they ever have before, and it is quickly becoming the best way to communicate with your customers. Consider mobile for the majority of your marketing tactics in the new year.
5. Chatbots
Chatbots have developed into the point where customers often don’t even realize they are speaking with a chatbot instead of a live representative. Artificial intelligence has played a huge role in this. It is one of the best ways to offer quality customer service to people all the time rather than just during limited business hours. Plus, they can offer users personalized preferences and news updates.
6. “Buy” buttons through social media
The newest thing for businesses that are selling goods is to offer them directly through social media. Some customers don’t like to go through the effort of going to another web page, putting in all their credit card information, and buying everything. The new “buy” buttons through social media allow them to do it then and there, and it will increase the number of impulse buys you get to your site. This is a trend to look forward to in the new year.
7. Get personal
It is extremely valuable for a business to be able to personalize their advertising to each individual customer. And it is more possible than ever before because of Google and Facebook and their ability to track user preferences to determine ad space. 2017 will be the year we see personalization go through the roof, so customers will have exactly what they want catered to them.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source: forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/12/15/17-marketing-trends-to-watch-out-for-2017/#468bd70f4782
AI Chatbots
The concept behind AI Chatbots is simple. You will be allowing a computer to communicate with your customers instead of a human being. While customers who call in for help don’t often respond well to automated machines, they may never even know they aren’t talking to a real person when communicating through messaging. Chatbots are programmed to be able to recognize and understand a conversation and will put together the pieces of what the customer asked in order to come up with a solution and answer.
This method of communication engages your customers without having to have customer service available 24/7. It is something every business should consider because it allows customers to communicate through texting, Facebook messaging, and even email. According to Forbes, having chatbots available for Facebook messaging is smart because you are using a platform your customers are already used to, and it removes the repetition that often occurs during customer service calls or chats.
Social Media
As already mentioned, allowing for customers to get answers to their questions through social media is very helpful to your audience. You are communicating with customers in a place they already spend a lot of their time, and so it isn’t too far out of their way to go to your Facebook page and ask you a question. It is important that you are answering messages being sent to your company, but it is equally important that you are answering posts on your Facebook wall. If someone is upset with your company, they will post it publicly on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. And as a company, being able to respond to that immediately to help resolve the issue will show future customers that you take complaints seriously and want to be able to resolve problems.
A couple of ways to really engage customers through social media is by asking about their lives and through giveaways. Social media was created based on the concept that people like to talk about themselves and show off a bit of their lives.
That means asking people something will get much more involvement, and the more they respond, the more their friends will see your post as well. For example, you could ask customers what their favorite food was during their Thanksgiving meal this year or what gifts ideas they have come up with. A giveaway also helps engage because a customer is much more likely to comment on your post if they think they can win something for it. It is all about engagement because a customer who engages with you is more likely to remember you.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source:forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2016/11/28/3-reasons-facebook-chatbots-are-good-for-customer-service-2/#3fb4f7674ad5
Say goodbye to keyboards?
With artificial intelligence taking over in the coming years, the need for keyboards diminishes significantly. Instead, you are able to speak into your phone or computer what you want to type, and it types for you. Of course, we don’t expect to see keyboards going away altogether, but the more accurate voice-over becomes, the less likely you are to spend time typing what you mean. Artificial intelligence allows computers to hear what you said, analyze it, and type out what you said. The more you do it, the more accurate it becomes as it learns your behaviors and the things you typically say.
Replacing 24/7 customer service
Another thing we will see with AI Chatbot is that it will replace 24/7 customer service. Having customer service available to call anytime of day used to be very important to customers, but now, they would much rather get fast responses from a computer than from you. We are seeing a transition where customers are no longer willing to wait on hold but would prefer to get their answers sent via text message or, if they have to speak with someone about their issue, they’d prefer to get a call back from you instead of waiting on hold for 30 minutes. As a business, this means you can hold reasonable customer service hours instead of offering them 24/7 and offer all day and night artificial response to text messages or other forms of customer service.
Analysis of data
One of the ways artificial intelligence can really improve our marketing in the next year is through its ability to analyze data and make decisions based on advanced algorithms. Many of the mundane parts of marketing can be automated this way instead of having to have a person sit there and analyze it themselves. This is already happening pretty frequently and is only going to improve over the years. For example, Match.com analyzes the data on each person’s profile and then automatically sends people matches to their profile. This process is only improving as better artificial intelligence data is released, and more technology becomes available to help in this process.
Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com
Source:forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2016/11/21/artificial-intelligence-ai-and-the-future-of-marketing-6-observations-from-inbound-2016/#5374916b33bd
