The Foxy Marketer Blog

Ok…I’m certain you’ve already seen this, admittedly or not, on a program like American Idol, or at your local Starbucks (if you’re lucky, yum!).

Text Message Marketing is the fancy new technology marketing piece which is quick becoming a small business must. Just when you’ve finally gotten around to putting up a website and having some type of customer e-mail in place, along comes the next wave of ‘advertising necessities’.

But no worries, because this is one that gives you direct control over its implementation, and you’ll know if it’s working very, very quickly!

Let’s start by placing ourselves in a scenario I’m sure you’re familiar with, or if you haven’t yet started your business, you will be soon:

It’s a pretty slow day at your business. Maybe it’s just a dreary day, and you’re wishing you were at home where all of your potential customers apparently have decided to stay. Maybe it’s just that typical slow Tuesday or Wednesday, or whenever your seemingly unavoidable downtime occurs.

So you go to your back office and log into your Texting Program, type out a nice little diddy like:

“Wow! It’s raining like crazy today.. Brave the weather and get 20% OFF today’s purchase!!”

You of course proof read it (see my article on grammar!), and send it out to all of your clients that have opted-in to your Customer MVP Club.

So let’s say you have 250 people in your club…

Some of the coolest benefits with Text Message Marketing is that everyone nowadays carries a cell phone with them. Which means they IMMEDIATELY get your message! And guess what… a Marketing E-mail (which your customer would have to be checking their e-mail to even receive) has about a 5% read rate. But, Text Message Marketing has a 95% read rate!! This puts the goal of your Return-On-Investment at around 10%.

So, with a little creative “carrot dangling”, you’ve brought in about 25 customers on a day they might have been cozied up at home instead of at your business. One example of a store that did this began with about $200 in their drawer, and two hours after the message went out had $2,900. Not bad, huh?

In fact, this is just one of the many ways you can benefit from something like this. It’s only limited by your imagination and how well you know your customers. Alright, so now you understand ’why’ this works for you, so let’s explain the  ‘how’ of a successful Text Marketing Program.

As a rule of thumb, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. This means that it is much easier to bring a customer back through your door than to get a new one in for the first time. It is a must to develop a strong customer base! They’ve already demonstrated that they are willing to spend money in your business, so take care of them, and they’ll come back and recommend you.

The Opt-in
Most businesses recognize the need for some type of loyal customer program. In a boutique you’ll sometimes see the book at the counter where you enter your name and e-mail to stay up-to-date. At the local grocery store, you can often fill out a form and receive a card that gives you some special discounts. These are great ways to develop your base and customer loyalty.

So when your customer comes to your counter, you have a sign in a clearly visible location saying, for example: ‘Text BagelCafe to 74700 for your FREE fountain drink!’ The person at the counter follows up with: ‘Would you like a free fountain drink with your purchase today?’ while pointing to the sign.

If the customer decides he wants your ‘irresistable’ offer, they proceed to opt-in. They then receive a text immediately back saying welcome to the MVP Mobile Club and to show the text at the counter to redeem. They get a free fountain drink (or whatever you feel comfortable offering), and you my friend have a Loyal Customer Program!

Compared to most forms of advertising, such as print ads, your business just spent almost nothing for that customer to be a part of your Program. There was no long form for your customer to fill out like at the Grocery Store, it is easy and simple.

Text Message Marketing is one of the many great things that we offer at TheFoxyMarketer.com. Besides instant results, a better read rate and ROI, it also has another thing going for it when we help you implement it into your business…

For one it is month-to-month, so there is little commitment. Once you perfect it, you’ll see for yourself why we don’t need to ask for a commitment. And guess what… It’s so much more cost effective than any decent print advertising. We start at $79/month, which allows you 1000 Text Messages per month. How much have you spent on print ads?

I’ve actually had an advertising publisher for a local magazine tell me “If you wanted a return on investment you would have been better to take $1,000 to the race track, than to put an ad in my magazine”…Their circulation is over 78,000. Well, I guess he was at least honest, although I’m sure the magazine owners aren’t pleased! I would have actually rather spent it on some top shelf magaritas, but oh well!

So the point is.. Text Message Marketing is something that if you don’t adopt now, you will in the near future when you see your competition using it. It’s not just for big companies anymore!! It is for you!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Small Business Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.