Sms Marketing – A Great Way To Build Repeat Business

It costs a lot of money to acquire a new customer and for this reason, it is very important to increase the value of each customer you acquire. Generating repeat business is thus crucial to maximizing the profitability of your advertising efforts. Short message service (SMS) messages provides a unique opportunity to generate repeat business for your company.

SMS marketing has blossomed with the expansion of the mobile phone market. The general concept is to get people to add their mobile phone numbers to an SMS marketing list that you own. Then you are given permission to send periodic messages to their mobile phones. These messages can be quite cheap to send out, in the order of a penny per message.

Email marketing is quite effective in getting repeat business. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of email messages are not opened. SMS messages are ever more effective because over 95% of mobile phone SMS messages get opened. It really represents instant low-cost advertising to people who have already shown an interest in your product. You can use the messages to advertise weekly specials or even a flash discount if you are having a slow day and need to liquidate some inventory with a limited shelf life real quick.

The most important first step in getting started with SMS marketing, is to create a program to incentivize people to sign up to your SMS list. This should be made as easy as possible. You can have a customer text in a certain code to a cell number to sign up. An even better strategy is to use an online portal that automatically signs up a person with a click of the button. The use of QR codes in advertisements can make this process even easier. The user only has to take a picture of the QR code, and it will automatically bring up your subscription portal.

In order to get people to sign up, you will likely need to offer them some benefit. One great way of doing this is by offering a customer discount for signing up. You might lose a little bit on the initial discount, but the long-term revenue you make in repeat business from SMS advertisements should more than make up for it. Remember, the more compelling you can make the offer, the more likely a person is to sign up.

 

Another way of successfully implementing an SMS strategy is to introduce a customer loyalty program. When a customer comes in they can check in with their mobile phone number, automatically signing them up to receive SMS messages. They can then earn discounts by making a certain number of purchases. This system also works well because you can also provide incentives for them to share your loyalty program on their social networks. This can virally expand the number of people signing up for your loyalty program, and thus expand your SMS notification list.

SMS marketing will one day be viewed as an important component of any consumer driven local business. It is best that you get in on the trend before your competitors do.