E-mail, text and social media marketing represent some of the most efficient and cost-effective means of advertising today. The influx of internet-ready portable devices has expanded the internet and increased the possibilities for advertisers. However, privacy concerns have prompted authorities to implement laws and regulations limiting the use of e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Unwarranted e-mails are marked as spam by servers and may impact negatively on business. So, given the power of the internet and the stringent marketing rules governing it, how does a business leverage this power to create legitimate e-mail lists and drive customers and profits its way? SMS marketing may have the solution.
SMS campaigns represent a simple yet powerful marketing campaign for any business. Over 86% of consumers send a text message every week, with 30% of the 320 million wireless service subscribers having interacted with a brand via SMS. Since sending an e-mail requires that the sender must have permission to send the e-mail to the recipient beforehand, SMS campaigns represent the best way in which to obtain this consent. Unlike e-mail marketing where someone can send e-mail to anyone and risk being marked as spam, sending an SMS requires the receiver to first opt-in or accept texts. This reduces the instances of messages being marked as spam and having the desired marketing effect.
Another way to encourage opt-ins is by implementing mobile text-to-win or mobile sweepstakes. The basic idea behind these types of campaigns is that people generally love free giveaways and gifts depending on how legitimate the offer appears. For a business that attracts referrals, the text-to-win strategy works extremely well especially because of the ease of texting and the high number of text-savvy individuals. A basic text-to-win campaign would begin by creating the call to action to promote your campaign – simply asking participants to text in a KEYWORD to a SHORT CODE. a text with a keyword that represents your industry and business niche with a prompt to reply to win. Once the user replies, a follow-up text is sent prompting the user to reply with relevant details, such as their email address. Once you receive a reply with this information, you can then proceed to carry the draw and pick out the winner. Other methods that can be used to get emails for your email database include text-to-vote and text-4-info which provide good platforms to engage subscribers.
It is important to remember to send an email as soon after receiving feedback from the subscriber to maintain engagement. Maintaining a clean e-mail database is almost as crucial as hunting for one. Therefore, it is important to remember to send regular emails and promotions to keep subscribers engaged and to ensure good ROI for your business.
One of ProTexting’s clients create a simple, but very effective messaging campaign, utilizing our email integration tools. Buzzufy, a vintage watch brand, started collecting emails, by offering new leads to sign up and receive a promotional code via SMS. After participants signed up, by providing their email, Buzzufy integrated their MailChimp account with ProTexting. An email was sent, asking to provide Mobile number or text in a keyword, in order to receive the special promo code. All new emails were automatically synced with ProTexting, and added to a Drip SMS campaign. The DRIP messaging campaign sent an instant PROMO CODE. This way, new leads had an incentive to sign up. In addition, within the drip campaign settings, our client setup follow up SMS messages to boost even more customer engagement.
By integration Email Marketing Services with your Messaging account @ProTexting, you will be able to seamlessly automate many of the marketing processes.
