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(Article first published in May '08. It has been modified slightly to suit its publication on our site)
In this new world where all of us use our mobile phones more and more, there is a marketing opportunity that is just beginning to take shape - Text Messaging. Just imagine being able to tell a group of loyal customers about a new service or product, or inform them about a special promotion that you are running. There are a couple of ways to do this, one is free and the other is easy.
FREE MARKETING!
Not many things in this world are truly free, but there are a few. Did you know for instance that no matter what mobile phone service you use, you have anywhere from 250 to 300 free texts to Irish mobiles on any network per month? All you have to do is login to your mobile provider's website and you are good to go. That means that if you run a business you could be texting 300 customers per month - absolutely free! There is some work involved, in that you can only send the same message to 5 people at a time. I said it was free, not easy!
EASY TEXT MARKETING
If you want an easier way to send text messages to a large group of your customers, then you need a bulk text sending service. Quite a few have sprung up over the past few years and all you need to do is supply them with a database of mobile phone numbers and the message that you want to send and they will do the rest. The cost is also a little cheaper than your standard text rates and will vary from 5c to 8c per text message, rather than the usual 11c - 12c rate.
FOLLOW THE UNWRITTEN RULES
This is such a new area for marketing, that legislation is only just now catching up to the requirements of protecting the general public from being harassed by hundreds of texts per day. This means that the laws surrounding text messaging are still a little fluid. So the best thing to do is to follow some simple rules to make sure you don't annoy potential customers.
- Only send messages to people whose numbers you have collected
- Keep your message brief and to the point
- Tell them who you are
- Include an unsubscribe message that says 'text STOP to unsubscribe to these messages'
Regarding the content of the messages, you simply follow the standard rules of marketing. Make the message interesting and include a call-to-action, such as 'Offer valid this week only'. The amazing thing about this is that the free option will allow you to test whether this is a marketing approach you want to invest in before you spend a cent on it. So what are you waiting for? Start collecting numbers and sending texts!
Franco De Bonis has worked in the field of sales and marketing promotion since 1990 and was most recently the global marketing manager for a major international technology company before setting up DG Group in January 2007.
DG Group is dedicated to delivering all the marketing solutions any company may require. Whether it's a website or leaflets and brochures, or even some product packaging; DG Group will manage the whole project and even provide guidance along the way.
The content in this section is the original creation of DG Group and is protected by copyright. You may use this content on your site or in other materials providing you acknowledge DG Group as the author and include a link our site.
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