Text Message Marketing Campaigns

4 Marketing Trends You Need to Watch

How well do you keep up with the latest changes in marketing? If you want to have a fresh and engaging brand, it is essential that you remain on top of marketing trends. Here are four you should be watching right now.

Revival of Email 

Email marketing is not dead. In fact, some companies are reviving their newsletters and other email marketing tools. Social media algorithms have changed, making it harder for brands to have control over which of their followers see their posts. As a result, social media marketing has lost some of its luster; instead, they prefer email marketing thanks to its direct route to consumers. 

To take it even further, consider implementing a text message marketing campaign. It gives you the control of what content your users see. Unlike email marketing, which has about a 30 percent open rate, texting has an almost 100 percent open rate.

Company Culture and Authenticity Matters 

Consumers often make decisions based on their emotions and experience with a company rather than price and other objective factors. This is especially true for millennial consumers, which is why branding and customer engagement have become so important in marketing. Expect these factors to become even more important in the coming years. Focus on creating an authentic brand and make the customer experience a priority. 

The Importance of Mobile Marketing Grows 

At the end of 2016, more consumers used mobile devices to access the internet than desktop computers. To further emphasize the importance of mobile, Google is ushering in a mobile-first index. This prioritizes the web version of a company's web page rather than the desktop for SEO ranking purposes. This makes having a mobile marketing campaign that much more important. 

Chatbots and AI

Chatbots and artificial intelligence continue to drive the future of marketing. More and more businesses are implementing chatbots so they can provide 24/7 service for customers without needing to hire additional employees. 

Chatbots and AI also will alter the way in which people search for things. As more and more people adopt devices like Siri, Alexa, Google Home, they are relying on voice search more frequently. This changes the way in which they receive the information as well. As such, businesses will need to aggregate their information to ensure that their website and company information is found in these type of searches in the same way as traditional website searches. 

Paying attention to marketing trends can help you stay ahead of your competition and provide better service to your customers. Interested in learning more about you how can improve the customer experience? Text message marketing can have a big impact. 

Contact us to learn more about the great ways that text message marketing can help your business grow.

How a Texting Campaign Broadens Your Reach

To continue to grow your small business, it is essential to find new leads. One way to do this is to broaden your reach to engage with a wider pool of potential customers. There are many ways to do this, and one of the most successful is SMS marketing. What's more, reports indicate that people do want to receive texts from businesses, so you are reaching out using a medium to which people are responsive. 

How does texting help you broaden your reach? There are a few key characteristics to consider.

Everyone's a Potential Lead 

One of the best reasons to add texting to your marketing strategy is that it opens up the potential pool of leads to almost everyone. Granted, texting is a permission-based medium, so it does have some limitations. However, over 95 percent of Americans own an SMS-enabled cell phone. 

It's clear that a high number of people own SMS-enabled phones, and the good news doesn't stop there: most of them actively use texting. More than half of consumers also feel that text messages are an effective way for businesses to get in contact with them. Therefore, when you run a texting campaign, every mobile user becomes a potential lead. 

Cross-Generational and Socioeconomic Lines 

The numbers above are not just related to a particular demographic. A texting campaign gives you a chance to interact with customers across generational and socioeconomic lines. Although Millennials and Gen Z'ers are known for texting, older generations text almost as much as their younger counterparts. Texting provides a way to connect with all your potential customers, whether your clientele is mainly made up of young people or older people. 

Texting campaigns also allow you to broaden your reach by crossing socioeconomic lines. For many people, owning a computer and having continual access to the internet remains out of reach due to the expense. However, most people still have an SMS-enabled phone. For many families, this is a primary communication tool, and it may also serve as their only means of access to the internet. This population might not be able to connect with you on social media or through email, but they will have the ability to communicate via text message. 

No Special Equipment Needed 

Potential subscribers require no special equipment, other than an SMS-enabled phone, to receive texts from your business. With a texting campaign, mobile users do not need to worry about downloading a special app to get alerts from you or to take action on an ad. This also makes it simple for new subscribers to join your program. They already have their phone, and they simply have to text a keyword to a special code in order to participate. The easier an action, the more likely people will do it.

Running a texting campaign has the potential to connect your business with a much wider audience. You do not have to worry about alienating any particular demographic since everyone has access to the same information.

Ready to see how texting broadens the reach of your marketing efforts? Try ClubTexting for free and grow your business.

How to Promote Community Events with Group Text Messages

No matter the purpose behind your organization, it is essential that you promote and encourage people to attend your events. There are many different potential routes for promotion, and one that should be added to your arsenal is group texting. 

A group texting program is a versatile tool for promoting your event. The following are just a few ways in which you can use your texting program to increase awareness about and attendance for your events.

Marketing

A group texting program provides an excellent way to market your event to your current members and others in your community. For one, you can simply send out a text message about your event to those who currently subscribe to your texting program. However, texting's role in marketing goes further: it is an excellent call-to-action

For truly impactful marketing messages, whether online, in social media, on print ads or in other mediums, it is essential to have a strong call-to-action (CTA). Asking potential group members to take action via text works well thanks to a few main factors: 

  • Ubiquity of cell phone usage
  • Easy action to complete
  • Simple to include a call-to-action on existing marketing and advertisement collateral 

Include your keyword and short code or long code on your advertisements to provide a simple yet effective call-to-action. Most people carry their phones with them at all times, so they can easily grab their phones and opt-in for more information about your event, even if they see your ad when they are on the go. 

Generate Interest 

Group texting also provides an avenue for generating interest and excitement about your event among your current members and other subscribers to your texting program. In the weeks or months leading up to your event, occasionally send out a message with event details. Include exciting information that sparks their curiosity and gets them talking about it. 

You can also create text message polls to help you make decisions so that your members feel they have more of an investment in the event, even if they are not technically helping to plan it. There are many other ways to use your regular texting program to keep the event fresh in people's minds and to encourage them to attend: 

  • Offer incentives for signing up early 
  • Give your text subscribers a deal on registration 
  • Motivate people to share the event with friends 
  • Text out teasers about the event content and agenda 

Easy Registration or RSVP 

Your group texting program can also be used as a registration tool. Simply text your group asking them if they plan to come to your event. They can then respond with a YES, NO or MAYBE. Then, you can mark it in your files so that you have a headcount. This can work for any type of event, including a meeting or last-minute activity. As an added bonus, it provides accountability, even for events where it is not necessary for participants to register ahead of time.

Events that require more complex registration can also be handled through text messages. Start with a similar type of text message. Then, include a link to the full registration page to those who text YES or MAYBE to you. If online registration is not an option, then you can have your event organizers contact the members who have shown interest in the event to handle their full registration in the appropriate manner.

Event Reminders  

Promoting your event is not just about getting the word out or making it easy to register; it is just as important to ensure that your members actually attend. Group texting provides a great way to remind your members about the event. People read text messages, typically opening them within a few minutes. Therefore, it is the perfect way to feel confident that people have seen the message and will remember to attend your event. Simply send out an event reminder about 24 hours in advance to increase your attendance.

Receive Feedback 

Once your event is over, your work has not finished. You want to continually learn and grow, and as such, you want to receive feedback from your organization's members about past events. An easy way to do this is to simply send out a text message after an event asking for people's opinions. It can start with a simple poll where people respond with a keyword based on a scale of their satisfaction of the event. Start it off with gratitude for the attendance. For example: 

  • "Thank you for attending our event. Text back GREAT, GOOD, OK or BAD to tell us about your experience." 

Then, you will have a general idea of whether the event was a success or not. Those who text a response can get a follow-up text with a link to a longer survey so that you have the opportunity to learn more. 

At every step of the way, group texting provides a way to promote your event and encourage people to attend. Whether you host events that are months in the making or last-minute informal meetings, you can utilize texting to get the word out and increase your event attendance.

Contact us to learn more about how to implement a texting program for your community organization.

 

 

Expert Interview Series: Chip Bell of chipbell.com on Customer-Centric SMS Marketing

Chip R. Bell is a renowned keynote speaker, consultant and author of several national best-selling books.  His newest book is the best-selling Kaleidoscope:  Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles released in early 2017. You can follow his work at www.chipbell.com

First off, can you introduce yourself a bit, and tell us about how you got started in marketing? What drew you to the industry, initially?

I am Chip Bell and I work with organizations all over the world helping them craft go-to-market strategies that focus on innovative service.  My work is about creating value-unique customer experiences, not just value-added ones.  It includes helping leaders build sustainable cultures that support long-term customer advocacy.  

What drew me to the industry was the words of Peter Drucker:  “The purpose of an organization is to create and retain a customer.”  I believed that with my passion for the customer, the world of customer experience was a realm in which I could make a difference in the health of an enterprise, the well-being of their employees, and the value to their customers.

How long have you been involved with marketing? How much has changed, in that time? What's stayed the same? 

I started my company in 1980 and much has changed.  Obviously, social media has altered how companies influence customers and vice versa.  The customers’ definition of value has shifted from a preeminent focus on product/outcome and price to a focus on the experience.  What has remained the same is the customer’s desire for fair dealings, transparency, integrity and quality from all the enterprises with which they interact.

Your services are often described as 'customer-centric'. Can you give an example or two of what 'customer-centric marketing' looks like, and why it matters? 

It matters because customers embrace and advocate organizations with a clear and present focus on the primary source of their revenue—the customer.  It matters because customer-centric organizations attract the best talent who in turn attract the best customers.  Customer-centric means putting the voice (needs, expectations, hopes and aspirations) of the customer in the middle of all decisions that ultimately impact customers.   When eBay wanted to create a new mobile app, they turned to the voice of the customer to assist.  When the R&D unit at Medtronic is stumped on the development of a new medical device, they bring in prior customers to talk about their experiences with other devices.  

Sometimes, there's kind of a heavy or pessimistic tone regarding digital marketing, in the wake of the dotcom gold rush, with cynical companies and marketers trying to grab as much cash as possible - even without having anything of value to contribute. Digital marketing also offers more opportunities for customer-centric marketing than any other time in history. What is your feeling, regarding the possibilities of online marketing, in its many manifestations?  

Gold rush reactions to every new trend always create hucksters looking for a quick buck to cash in on the hysteria. Failures create lessons learned, however, leading to more realistic opportunities and more mature responses.  The possibilities of online marketing are at an exciting time with its intersection with new technologies that give customers more control and companies a new medium for enriched connections.  The advent of bots and virtual reality design can make marketing a portal that connects the offerings of an enterprise with the right customer with the right need at the right time.

According to a statistic published by HubSpot in 2016, only 17% of marketers feel that outbound marketing provides the best leads for sales. Why is that number so low? What are some of the issues with outbound marketing, in 2017?

Too many outbound marketers are using antiquated messaging with limited customer intelligence yielding a spam-like experience for prospects.  For marketing to be effective it must have influence—it must sing a song the prospect enjoys hearing.  But more than that it must fit the prospect’s zone of interest.  For example, telling me about a new car just three months after I purchased one is likely to be of little interest.  My auto dealer knows I am not interested in a new car until my current one gets close to 100K miles.  Sending me an outbound marketing piece too early not only lacks influence, it wastes my time and energy.  Also, sending me a new truck marketing piece when I am only interested in an SUV tells me the dealership cares only about making a sale, not serving my unique needs.

There's been a lot of criticism regarding social media marketing, as well, these last few years, following a couple of years where it was trending as the next big thing. What is your take on social media marketing? How much time, energy, or resources should a marketing team be spending on their social media promotion?  

The customer pays a lot of attention to social media, especially from those closest to them. They trust word of mouth (actually, word of mouse) information from family and friends far more than the word of the marketer.  The advantage of social media is its speed and reach.  Armed with smart tools, social media marketing can be very effective if it is highly targeted and emotionally compelling.  When I complain about ads I see on TV my wife reminds me the ad is not intended for me.  Social media marketing is the same.  Again, we must marry deep customer intelligence with social media marketing.

Mobile marketing is obviously not going anywhere, as smartphones are here to stay. What are a few reasons why marketers should integrate SMS marketing into their marketing strategies, if they haven't already? 

If you are not including mobile marketing in your outreach, you are way behind the times.  Adults spend an average of three hours a day on the mobile device.  And, their mobile device goes with them everywhere.  Having a way to reach customers on-the-go is crucial to influencing buying behavior when customers are in a buying mood.

One of the reasons SMS marketing is so effective is that customers must opt-in to receive SMS promotions. Can you share any thoughts or tips on how to get customers to sign up to receive SMS marketing messages? Also, what are some of the benefits of the fact that customers voluntarily sign up to receive promotions?  

We are a country founded on the virtue of freedom.  Forcing a message on a customer sets you up to not only be ignored, but to be loathed.  The word “spam” comes for a cheap meat people were forced to eat during the depression because they could not afford anything else.  It is sometimes called “fake meat.”  Opt-in can be another path to personalization—meaning, I don’t mind junk mail if it is about products in which I have an interest.  If customers are willing to opt-in, they are telegraphing an interest and a willingness to be influenced.

Likewise, what are a few ways that marketers might use SMS marketing to keep customers loyal, once they've already signed up?  

Always give them an easy way to opt out.  Seek their feedback often. Get them involved in a way that is engaging—like a contest, a puzzle, etc.  Make them feel like insiders (much like a fan club).  Provide them values others might not be able to access.  Grow your customer insight base from the behavior of those that opted-in.

Finally, can you share a few thoughts on how best to optimize marketing messages to fit into such a small space? And also, what are a few useful times of day to send SMS marketing, and why is that important? 

Space is not so small if it is “3D” or pops elsewhere or turns into something gloriously delightful and unexpected.  Think about SMS marketing messaging like a virtual Jack-in-the-box, not like a column in a newspaper!

Want to learn more about how SMS marketing can earn your customer's loyalty? Try ClubTexting for free today! 

 

 

The Importance of Respect When Organizing Community Events via Group Texting

Group texting provides a great way to communicate with your community group members and organize your events and meetings. Although you might have a personal connection with many of the members of your group, you do not want to communicate with them via text message in the same way you would with a close friend or family member. Instead, it is best to develop a few best practices to ensure that you do not end up alienating members.

One of the most important best practices is respect. By putting respect at the forefront of your texting campaigns, you will find that your members will be more willing to remain part of your texting group -- and your organization or club. To do this, develop guidelines for your group texting program and make sure that everyone who handles your outgoing texts follows them. 

The Importance of Permission 

You must have permission to text the members of your group texting program. Getting their permission is not only is a sign of respect, but it is also the law. Texting is an intimate communication channel that most people still reserve for communication from friends, family members, and a select group of organizations and/or businesses. Acknowledge the sanctity of the medium and only text your community members after receiving their express consent. 

The easiest way to do this is to have all members text a keyword to your short code or long code to join your texting program. This way, you let them make the first move, and you are confident that you have their permission. As an added precaution, also include a confirmation action, such as an auto-response to a text to confirm their opt-in. 

Limit the Number of Texts

When people sign up to receive texts from your organization, it does not give you carte blanche to text them all day and all night. Part of respecting your group texting program subscribers is that you do not send them a hundred texts a month. The ideal number of messages depends on your group and the focus of the texts. Typically, organizations tend to stick to two to four per month, but you may need to communicate more often than that. 

So, how do you know how many texts you should send? This is where getting input from your group comes into play. It is beneficial to bring up your texting program during a meeting and learn more about how often group members would like to communicate with you. You might find that group members are open to receiving daily texts. Alternatively, your group might decide that just one text per month is sufficient. 

Send at a Reasonable Time

Text messaging remains a disruptive medium. This is because most people are still alerted when they receive a text. When they hear the alert, they typically will stop what they are doing and look at the text. Therefore, you want to be sure to send your texts at a reasonable time. For most groups, this means avoid texting in the middle of the night. You also might want to avoid texting during rush hour, meal times, and during the morning commute. 

That being said, if you have a major announcement about your group or there is an emergency action, then you might get away with a text slightly outside of the normal parameters. Just be sure that you remain respectful of people's time, even in serious situations.

Be Clear About the Program 

Letting your group members know what to expect from your texting program is also a sign of respect. When you first develop your program, you can get input from your members and establish guidelines according to their feedback. Over time, you might have new members join the group and your texting program. These new members need to be aware of the necessary information, including the frequency of text messages and the types of texts you plan to send. 

If you make any changes to your program, inform everyone of the changes with some lead time before you implement them. This gives them time to unsubscribe if they do not agree with the changes.

Develop Worthwhile Texts 

The final component of respect in a group texting program is that you send texts that are of value and worthwhile to your group members. What your group finds valuable depends on the focus of your organization. For example, some groups might send out event reminders while others might send out action alerts. The content itself is unique to your organization, so what is a valuable disruption will also be unique to your group. 

Follow these best practices to ensure you are as respectful as possible to your group texting subscribers. 

Ready to get your group organized and active through text messaging? Then try ClubTexting for free and see how it assists you to achieve your goals.

 

 

The Essential Guide for Using Group Texting to Organize Community Events

People are more engaged in local and national government than ever. Grassroots organizations from all parts of the political spectrum are popping up around the country looking to help change the world in a variety of different ways.

One of the biggest obstacles these groups face is finding an easy way to organize and communicate with members and interested parties. Group texting provides a way to get members organized, informed, talking and working together to be more successful in their efforts, whether their aim is to support a local candidate or get legislation passed or not passed.

Why Choose SMS?

Why should you consider using SMS over other forms of communication such as social media or email? There are a few key reasons: 

  • It's fast 
  • It's inclusive
  • It has a high open rate
     

Not everyone in your community group will want to connect on social media to stay informed. However, almost everyone has an SMS-enabled phone, making it possible to receive messages about events, rallies, meetings and more. Texting is something that reaches across income level and educational level divides. Plus, you also can cross generational gaps, since it is not just millennials and gen Z'ers adept with texting; older smartphone users text almost as much as their younger counterparts. This inclusivity makes it much easier to communicate with all members of your community. 

Additionally, text messages have a high open rate, and they are typically opened within just a few minutes. You do not have to compete with the many things crowding social media newsfeeds and email inboxes. This means that even when things change at the last minute, you are able to communicate with your members. If a key piece of legislation is passed, then you can rally your members to act right away. If your meeting changes locations or times, then you also have a chance to let everyone know. 

Group texting is a simple communications solution for community organizations, whether grassroots or nationwide groups. However, there are some key considerations to make, and some best practices to follow so that your members remain not just informed but happy:

  1. Get permission: Make sure you only text members who opt-in to the service
  2. Be respectful: Limit the number of texts and send at appropriate times
  3. Segment your list: Organize your list based on interests
  4. Share quality content: Send relevant content of value that resonates with your members
     

Get permission

The most important aspect of any successful group texting campaign is that you have permission to text your recipients. This should be written permission of which you retain records. There are a few different ways to get this permission: 

  • Include it as part of the sign in sheet
  • Add it to online forms for contact information 
  • Opt-in keywords
  • Confirmation text

The easiest way to get permission from your potential group members is to have them opt-in with a keyword. Most likely, you are familiar with this, as it is the way that most SMS marketing programs get people to sign up. On your informational materials, including your brochures, flyers, social media sites and websites, simply provide information about your group texting program, including your keyword and short code. This might look like: 

Sign up to receive updates on [issue/group name] by texting [keyword] to [shortcode]. 

In addition to asking for opt-ins this way, also include it as a communication option when people sign up either in person or online to become a member of your organization. Some people might choose to just receive texts from you, or they might choose to receive them in addition to email and/or social media updates. 

Once your members have signed up, either through a form or a text, send a confirmation text. This text should include a link to your terms and conditions, as well as an action such as:

Text YES to confirm, NO to opt out, or HELP for more information.

This serves as an added assurance that everyone on your list wants to receive your texts. Furthermore, you also will have a record that you have permission for your program. It is important to also include ways for your subscribers to easily opt out or get help on future text messages so that if people change their mind, they know how to stop receiving messages.

Be respectful

It's also important to be respectful to your members of your group texting program. This might seem obvious, since you are closely working together to advance your cause. However, there is more to being respectful than just the words you send, although those are important. So, be sure to do the following: 

  • Limit your number of texts
  • Text during appropriate hours
  • Remain relevant to the group's mission
  • Avoid potentially abusive or hurtful comments or content 
  • Set parameters and follow them 

Establish guidelines to ensure that everyone who texts within your organization will remain respectful. Guidelines also give your members an idea of what to expect if they choose to subscribe. You might determine these guidelines on your own, or you might come up with them at a group meeting, depending on the size and structure of your group. Regardless, respect should always be at the forefront of your program. 

Although there are plenty of reasons to text out to your community about actions or events, you do want to limit the number of messages and text during appropriate hours. The number of texts that becomes troublesome depends on your own organization and the members' preferences. To determine the right number, ask your members and look at your opt-out rate. If you notice a lot of members unsubscribing, then you might be sending too many messages. 

Additionally, remain relevant to the mission of your group. There might be many things that you hope to accomplish, but that does not mean that you should be sending general texts to your group. Limit your texts to the latest news, events, updates and other information that they need to know. Even in emergencies, avoid texting at inappropriate hours, such as during the night when people are sleeping.  

Create groups

Depending on the size of your community organization, you might have several sub-groups. Perhaps some people are more interested in helping with different aspects of your movement than others. For example, some people might wish to have a leadership role, and others wish to simply show up when you tell them to do so. Therefore, you want to segment your subscriber list into groups. Organizing your list based on people's preferences ensures that they only receive messages relevant to them. 

So, how do you know what group to put people into? There are a few different ways you can gain this insight: 

  • Run a survey 
  • Ask them at sign up 
  • Check their participation history 

With this information, you will know which section to organize a person. Some of your more active members might belong to several of your text groups. This is fine, but just be sure that you do not end up sending duplicate texts. This could cause your opt-out rate to spike.

The more specific you make your lists, the more relevant the content. This keeps people signed up to your group texting program, and it helps you to ensure that your calls for action are hitting those most likely to help out. 

The right content

Another essential component of a successful group texting program is that it distributes relevant content of value to the recipient. It might be tempting to use your texting program as a way to send many different informative items to your members, but you want to limit it to the most important messages. Instead, share additional information on your social media pages or through your email newsletter. To maintain your group texting program's impact, you need to limit what you send. Ideally, send out the following messages: 

  • Reminders 
  • Event invites 
  • Donation requests
  • Important updates or information
     

Any funny memes or relevant newspaper articles should be saved for other forms of communication -- unless it is something you feel that everyone really needs to see. If you do want to ensure that your members who might not follow you through email or social media see certain content, consider creating a web page that aggregates important information for a particular week. Then, send out one text per week with a link to this page so that members can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed by several messages.

Remember, a strong group texting program follows certain guidelines. People expect every text you send to be directly related to an action they plan to take or valuable information they must see. If they are looking for everyday social interaction with your group, they will probably head to social media for that. 

There are five main categories of messages that typically are appropriate for a group text message: 

  • Inform members
  • Organize volunteers and subgroups
  • Promote events
  • Get donations
  • Emergency alerts 

Your group might choose other content to include on top of this, and as long as your members are happy with what you send out, then you have remained relevant and of value to them. Plus, you can use texting as a two-way communication forum through which members can contact you to ask questions or alert you to the latest news. 

Whether you are trying to get a candidate elected or legislation approved, for either local or national government, it is important to get citizens united and involved. Communication and organization play key roles in being able to do so, and group texting provides one way to mobilize your group. It works well on its own, and it complements your social media and email communication channels as well. 

Ready to step up your organization's communication abilities? Then try ClubTexting for free and get started today.

 

Finding the Right Audience for Your Club's Text Marketing Program

Personalized, targeted messages take a decent -- or lackluster -- campaign and turn it into a powerful one. Before integrating this into your text marketing program for a more successful effort, you first need to know who your nightclub's audiences actually are. 

Build a stronger campaign by knowing your customers better.

Depending on your club, you might attract a similar demographic of people every night, or you might find that certain events or evenings draw in different crowds. Some clubs might also do a good job of having a diverse clientele every evening of the week. No matter into which category your club falls, it is important to understand your audience or audiences. The best way to do this? Build a marketing persona. 

What are Marketing Personas? 

You might have heard about marketing personas before. They have become one of the best ways of determining the target audience for marketing campaigns across all channels. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, marketing personas are basically representatives of your ideal audience. They have similar demographics, behavior patterns, psychographics and other characteristics of your typical or ideal customer. Then, you use these for creating content that speaks to your customers. 

Typically, marketing personas are built using a variety of data integrated together, including: 

  • Buying patterns 
  • Data and analytics 
  • Customer surveys
  • Market research
  • Competition research

So, once you have a persona built, how exactly does that help your club's text marketing program? And, how do you know which personas to utilize for your texting campaigns? 

Once you have an idea of the customer and their likes, dislikes and behavior patterns, then you will have a firmer understanding of which customers will choose to engage with your club via text marketing. Then, you have a better idea of the type of content that is tailored to their preferences, thereby increasing the success of your program.

What Is Your Campaign's Objective?

Start by getting your team to determine the purpose behind your texting campaign.

When developing marketing information based on a marketing persona, it is important to also recognize what solutions or value your company's products or services solve. As a club, you offer your customers entertainment and a place to socialize. Your texting campaign has the potential to offer a wide variety of solutions or services within this, including: 

  • Coupons 
  • Deals
  • Exclusive access
  • Presale tickets
  • VIP seating

 

When you determine who your target audience is, consider for what purpose they have decided to sign up for your texts. Is it because they want to engage with your club, or are they looking to save money or gain special access? Your answer to this question informs what type of content to send.

Which Data Is Most Important?

It is important to consider what data to use when determining the audience for your texting campaigns. Depending on your company and its records, you might have a wealth of information -- or you might have very little. Places to find the data include: 

  • Social media followers
  • Website analytics
  • Email newsletter data
  • Online forms
  • Loyalty club membership

You might choose to go right to the source with customer surveys, and as mentioned, you might also use market research or look at your competition for additional data. So, once you have all the data, which information is the most important in creating your target audience for your texting program?

Ultimately, that depends on the objective of your marketing strategy and program. However, you want to start by looking at any data that provides more information to you about your general customers than simply their age or that they visited your clubs. Information about their likes, dislikes, interactions with your clubs and other facts helps you to build a better idea about those who patron your club. 

From this, you can determine which audience will more likely sign up to your text marketing program, helping you to further narrow down which persona or personas to target.

Should You Segment Your Subscribers?

When writing personalized or targeted messages, it is essential that you create content that speaks to the person, even if that content is only 160 characters, as is the case with text marketing. Once you have reviewed your marketing personas, you might notice that you have several different typical customers. When this is the case, then it is beneficial to segment your audience. 

For example, perhaps you have one persona who represents customers in their 20s that enjoy house music, visit on Thursdays, and tend to buy alcohol rather than food. With this information, you will want to focus your content and provide deals, information, and access for events that take place on Thursdays and feature house music. Offers involving free drinks will have a greater impact than offers on free food. 

Then, say you have a person representing people in their 50s who come out for 80s band cover night. They typically visit on Wednesdays and like to eat as well. The best offers to send them would be for free food on nights with the 80s cover bands. 

How do you do this? Segment your list, assigning each person for whom you have sufficient data into a group based on their behavior patterns, preferences and psychographics. Then, you have the potential to get even more targeted in your message approaches, increasing the success of your overall campaign. 

Of course, when you do this, it is essential that you pay attention to whether or not someone makes more than one list. If this is the case, you will need to monitor your campaigns so that a person does not get the same message multiple times -- or that they end up overwhelmed by messages. Additionally, it is important to continue to have a more general message that you send to those for whom you have minimal data. 

How to Put It All Together

So, how do you put all of this information together to find the right audience for your club's text marketing program? Simply put, you spend time researching your current and prospective club visitors, including their demographics, psychographics, behavior patterns and more. Then, build marketing personas. From there, determine which ones will be more likely to interact with you via text. Then, develop texting campaigns that target those particular marketing personas. Segment your list based on any data you have to receive the targeted messages. 

With a bit of work, you will know your texting campaign's audiences. From there, you will have the information necessary to create personalized messages that take your texting campaigns to the next level. 

Ready to start creating personalized campaigns? Get started and try ClubTexting for free.

 

 

The Case for SMS Marketing Campaigns

Although it might seem as though SMS marketing is a relatively new marketing channel, it has actually existed since the early 2000s. From its onset, many have seen the potential of the medium, yet just as many remain wary of it.

In the past few decades, a lot has changed in marketing, including the changing emphasis on mobile marketing. What was once used by a few brave leaders is now becoming commonplace. However, there remains some who are still unsure whether it is something worth adopting or simply a passing fad. Some myths remain so entrenched that it is difficult to know the reality surrounding this highly-effective medium. By reviewing a few of these misconceptions, you will discover why so many have adopted it.

A Short History Lesson

Back in the early 2000s, Adage wrote an article about the promise of using SMS for marketing purposes. During this time period, texting was just starting to become widely popular, especially in Asian and European markets. Between 2001 and 2002, there was a surge of over 150 billion more texts sent per year, and in 2003, the first few commercial SMS services started to emerge.

The promise of this new marketing channel was obvious. It was seen as a way to be personal and directly communicate with individuals. Some major brands, including Nike and Coke, became early adopters. However, this marketing forum also saw a huge obstacle due to many carriers, and users, viewing it as spam or a passing fad. It ultimately took a back seat to some of the other marketing channels, such as email and social media.

Many of the benefits -- and concerns -- surrounding text message marketing still stand 15 years after the publication of this article. Despite the Adage writer seeing the benefits of this medium so many years ago, companies still hesitate to adopt it today. If this is you, there is no reason to continue to wait to see whether or not people will adopt SMS marketing. It is a highly relevant marketing channel with many people wanting to communicate with businesses through it. Not convinced? The following should help.

 

Percent of messages that are spam1 percent
Conversion rate 32 percent
Open rate98 percent
Time to readUnder three minutes
Consumers who wish to communicate via text with businesses70 percent
Number of consumers who wish to have SMS customer support52 percent
Engagement rate8x that of email

Myth 1: People Interact with Companies on Computers

With the growing importance of the internet, it is essential to have a web presence, including email and websites. In today's market, taking this presence into the mobile space is becoming more important than ever. More people interact with businesses or go online on their mobile devices than a computer, with mobile internet usage making up 70 percent of usage. The numbers are set to only increase, with the number of people preferring to access the internet via a mobile device rather than a computer expected to jump by 28 percent. This makes mobile marketing a priority for businesses, especially since people are looking for a mobile-first solution to their shopping needs.

Another reason SMS marketing has such power: people carry their phones with them everywhere. A significant portion of people who own a cell phone never have it out of reach, and they will check it multiple times per day. When they receive a text message, they open it within just a few minutes. Because more and more people also shop on their phones, they can easily take action on a text coupon by clicking to link and complete a sale.

Myth 2: Customers Do Not Want to Receive Texts from Businesses

A very prominent myth about SMS marketing that still reigns supreme is that customers do not wish to have businesses contact them via texting. However, that is not the case. Around 75 percent of consumers want businesses to communicate with them via text rather than targeted internet ads. In addition to receiving messages from the business, many consumers wish to interact with businesses via text, especially for customer service.

There are many benefits to choosing to interact with consumers via texting. For one, it builds a more intimate relationship with consumers. You are texting with them in the same channel that they typically reserve just for their family and friends. Additionally, spam takes up just 1 percent of messages, so consumers will view each individual message as important.

Additionally, texting is a permission-based medium, which means that you are only communicating with those who wish to hear from your business. This makes the message have that much greater of an impact. When you market to people who already have a positive experience with your company, then they are more likely to take the intended action. This leads to SMS marketing having some of the highest numbers for conversion rates and engagement rate.

Texting has a strong engagement with customers, which helps you to build your business. Many people now shop based on their experiences and engagement with a company, rather than based on price and other factors. By using texting to engage with customers, you will be able to retain them and increase your number of loyal customers.

Myth 3: Only Young People Text

Millennials and Gen Z'ers are famous for their love of texting and mobile devices. This makes SMS marketing an ideal channel for marketing to younger consumers. In fact, 60 percent of Millennials prefer two-way texting, and more than 83 percent open their texts within 90 seconds. However, this is generally an underused medium, as only 60 percent of Millennials receive five or less marketing messages from businesses, and a full 20 percent do not receive any.

However, Millennials and Gen Z'ers are not the only ones who text, and thereby not the only ones who can benefit from this marketing tools. Baby Boomers and older also text in high numbers. Out of smartphone owners:

  • 100 percent of 18-29 year olds text
  • 98 percent of those aged 30-49 text
  • 92 percent of those over the age of 50 tex

. As you can see, implementing a text program will not eliminate your ability to target older demographics.

Myth 4: Other Marketing Channels Are Better

Many companies simply focus on other marketing channels, feeling that adding SMS marketing does not make sense. They feel that digital marketing, SEO, blogging, social media, and traditional advertisements go a lot further than texting. However, time and time again, SMS marketing has shown it reigns supreme:

These are just a few of the key statistics showing the power that texting has over other marketing channels. Additionally, more than two-thirds of subscribers to mobile marketing have made a purchase due to a relevant message.

SMS marketing is a cost-effective marketing solution that packs a punch. That does not mean it should be your only marketing channel. It works best as an integrated part of a comprehensive marketing campaign that utilizes multi-channels, including:

  • Social media
  • Websites
  • SEO
  • Content marketing
  • Radio and TV ads
  • Print ads
  • In-store promotions
  • Email newsletters

Every marketing channel has its strengths and weaknesses. However, you would be remiss to reject SMS marketing just because you feel that some of the other marketing channels are better.

Myth 5: It's a Passing Fad

Texting has not yet reached its peak as a marketing channel. It is expected to continue to grow and become an even more vital component of marketing. In the coming years, more automation and chat bots with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence will emerge and integrate with SMS marketing and messaging chat apps. The marketing channel is expected to continue to grow, with no end in sight. Therefore, there is no reason to simply not adopt it, thinking that it is simply a trend that will quickly go away.

Now is the perfect time to add texting to your marketing strategy if you have been hesitant. It is continually increasing in its efficacy, and customers are primed to opt-in. Despite its many advantages, few businesses have adopted it, meaning that customers are not overcome by messages. This helps you to cut through the mess and compete, even with the larger corporations that might have more money for marketing and advertising.

SMS marketing has been around for 15 years, and it will be around for decades to come. Rather than believing the myths that continue to circulate around the medium, take advantage of the lucrative benefits of the medium and add it to your marketing campaign today. Get started by trying ClubTexting for free.

 

 

How to Know Your Target Audience for Your Texting Campaign

For a dynamite SMS marketing campaign, it is essential to create something that is specific, targeted and personalized. Overly generic messages do not have the same impact as messages that resonate with the recipient. If you really want to see your conversion numbers soar, then it is important to create a message that means something to the customer <>. To do this, you first need to determine who the audience is. Whether you have one or several target audiences, a similar process provides invaluable information about your subscribers.

For many marketers, it is beneficial to create a persona that represents their ideal target audience. This persona has the basic habits, behavior patterns, personality, characteristics, demographics and other features of the ideal customer. It is typically based on a conglomeration of actual customers. To create this persona, there is certain information you need to know. Even if you do not actually create a symbolic customer, the same information informs your marketing efforts.

Research

The first place to begin discovering your target audience is through research. First and foremost, you will conduct market research. If you do not have the resources to perform your own market research, it is possible to purchase data from market research firms and larger businesses.

Additionally, take the time to review the information you have about your own customers. This should include data across all the channels with which you interact with customers, including:

  • Shopping metrics
  • Buying habits
  • Demographics
  • Website visitors
  • Social media followers
  • Email newsletter followers
  • SMS marketing subscribers
  • Members

Each of these areas has the potential to provide you with invaluable information about your own customers. From this data, you have the foundation on which to choose your few key personas to create. Once you have this, you can continue to imbue them with some of the information that you see continually appear when you look through your data.

You might start by looking at key pieces of data and their relationship to other data. For example, you can start with females between 20 and 35. Then, you can see what information you have for that demographic to then add in other characteristics and buying habits. The market research you conduct or purchase will further add certain elements to the personas.

It is important to remember that the target audience for one marketing channel might be different than that of the other. Therefore, your texting campaign might require some additional research to what you already have. However, you also might find that you have the same personas on several channels because customers within that demographic and behavior pattern interact with you across multiple channels.

Conduct Surveys

Although research is a key place to determine your target audience, it is also important to actually talk with your customers. The way to do this is to ask them to conduct surveys. Then, you have the chance to learn additional information about certain groups of customers and what they expect from your company and SMS marketing program.

You might find that certain customers are not as open to texts as others, which means that you would be wasting some of your resources in trying to get them to sign up. Instead, you can focus on the groups that are most open to texting, making it easier to receive all the lucrative benefits of the medium. Direct communication provides invaluable insight into not only who your target audience is, but also what they want from you.

Look to the Competition

Another place to glean information on your potential target audience for your texting campaign is to look to see who your competition is targeting. This information can be used in two ways. For one, you might decide to target the same audience as your competition, or you might choose to focus on another area that might be left alone by the competition. You can fulfill a gap in the market, something that many smaller companies do in order to compete with larger firms.

No matter how you use the data you receive, looking at who your competition targets with their texting campaigns will help you narrow down your own target audience. Of course, it is possible that your major competition is not using SMS marketing, but you can still find some helpful information. You see what audiences they target with their other marketing efforts, and this provides insight into what demographics they see as the main pool of customers.

Understand the Value of Your Goods and Services to Your Customers

The final key piece for understanding your target audience is to look at the value of your goods and services to customers, or your unique sales proposition. See not only who buys your products, but also how they buy and why. What need do your goods and services fulfill for customers? This gives you a richer idea of how to market to your target audience because you know how to best speak to them and reach them in this place of need.

You might find that different audiences see different value in your goods or services. If this is the case, then it is important to alter your marketing message to these different audiences. Even a short-form content like SMS marketing needs to create messages that resonate with the audience and how they interact with your company <>.

By taking the time to fully understand your target audience, you will be able to create a stronger texting campaign that helps you reach your goals. It is also easier to create content that converts and provides you with the impressive rates for which texting is famous.

Contact us to learn more about discovering your target audience.

 

Tips For Developing Group Texting Content that Converts

When you develop your group texting program, it is important to know the objective of each and every message you send out. For many, this goal is to convert subscribers into customers <>. To reach this goal, it is important to create content that establishes an opportunity for conversion. There are some key elements you need to have in your message to increase your conversion rate and ensure that customers know what you want them to do, and increase the chance they actually will do so.

Strong Call to Action

The foundation of your group texting message is the call to action. Even though you might only have 160 words with which to work in this short-form content, it still needs a strong call to action. Examples of calls to action include:

  • Buy now
  • Click here
  • Redeem in store
  • Text to win
  • Respond with a keyword
  • Share with a friend

There are many other calls to action you might decide to use when you develop dynamite content for your SMS marketing program. The important part is that you use a CTA that drives action from your customers. If your goal is to increase conversions, then you need to determine in what way you want that to be.

When speaking about marketing analytics, the conversion rate might mean different things, depending on your business and your goals. In simplest terms, it is the percentage of your subscribers or customers who take the action desired on the message. This might be buying something, but it could also be joining a newsletter, redeeming a coupon, sharing the text or any of the other actions already mentioned. Your call to action should match what type of action, or conversion, you want from your customers.

Motivating Language

The language you choose for your content plays a significant role in its efficacy <>. There are some key factors involved in the type of language you choose for your call to action and text as a whole:

  • Succinct
  • Strong
  • No helping verbs
  • Active not passive voice
  • Motivating language
  • Urgency
  • Emotion

Together, these elements create a strong message that incentivizes your subscribers to take action. Because you are working with just 160 characters, you want to be as concise as possible.

Avoid using helping verbs and focus on active rather than passive voice. The words you choose should be strong and motivating. Add in a sense of urgency for a greater impact. Touch on their emotion as well, especially a fear of missing out or peer pressure. Some examples of strong texts that include motivating language and a solid CTA follow:

Act now to get your free gift with qualifying purchase. Bring this coupon to the store before [date].

Don't miss out on the opportunity to save 30 percent today. Click here to redeem this coupon online or bring it to the store. Expires [date].

Engagement

Another element of developing content that converts is engagement. More and more customers are choosing which company to patron based on their experiences. Therefore, you want to create messages that engage with customers. The language you choose plays a role in this as well. Engaging content also increases the chance that customers will share the text with friends and/or tell their social and professional networks to sign up as well.

One way to create engaging content is to make it a two-way content. This might be a challenge or competition, which connects with people's competitive spirit. Another way to engage with customers is to allow them to contact you with questions and other customer service issues through text. Ultimately, sending positive messages that convey a sense of value to the customer will increase the level of engagement. This, in turn, improves the number of customers who take action, thereby increasing your conversion rate.

Relevancy

The final element of creating group texting convert that converts is to ensure that it is relevant. Ultimately, you must have an SMS marketing campaign that provides value to your customers. To do this, the content must be relevant to the users. For example, you cannot expect single males under the age of 25 to be excited about a coupon for baby clothing. This type of coupon needs to be sent to the right demographic, such as someone who is married and has a child.

To create relevant content, it is important to know who your target audience actually is. Most likely, you will have several target audiences and run several campaigns, each of which targets one of these groups. This helps you to create more personal content, which in turn is more relevant.

Ultimately, if your content is not relevant to your subscribers, then they will opt out in droves. They also will not redeem the coupons or otherwise take the action you want them to take. This hurts your conversion rates, and you do not benefit from all the advantages of the medium.

By paying attention to your language and call to action, you can more easily create content that engages with customers, remains relevant and motivates them to act in the way that you want. With these four elements working together as the foundation of your program, you will develop a strong campaign with high conversion numbers.

Contact us to learn more about how to develop great content.

 

SMART Goals and Text Message Marketing: How They Go Hand in Hand

Before you start your text message marketing campaigns, it is essential to have a goal in mind toward which to build your strategy and determine where it fits into your overall marketing efforts. Although you might have a general objective or goal for your texting program at large, each new campaign needs to have its own goals. For example, as discussed previously <>, when you develop a holiday campaign for your club, it is important to start with a specific goal in mind.

Using the SMART goal philosophy helps you to create stronger, more effective goals that also complement your overall marketing strategy and your business goals at large.

Specific

It is tempting to just say you want to increase sales or add new customers when setting a goal. However, this is a vague statement. You could technically increase sales by $1 and reach your goal, or you could double your sales and have reached the same goal. Instead, develop a very specific goal. It should be clearly defined and easy to understand by everyone connected to the project. This makes it easier to create a plan to reach the goal, as well as measure whether or not you were successful in your endeavor.

An example of a specific goal is to use in your text message marketing program is to increase profits by 10 percent in the next quarter.

Measurable

In order to determine whether you are on target to reach your goal, you need to be able to measure your progress. This might be through analytics, accounting or other measures. You should be able to monitor the program and compare it to your goal at any point to see whether you are on target or need to make changes to get where you want to go.

For your text message marketing program, you will use data from your analytics, such as open rate, conversion rate, and opt-in rate to measure your success. To make your goal measurable, include numbers that reflect these measurements. This might be to add 100 new users in the next month. You can measure that by reviewing your opt-in rate.

Actionable

The A in SMART goals stands for actionable. This means that you are positioned to take actions to fulfill the goals. To go from a vague goal to one that is actionable, focus on something concrete. Add milestones that help you take action to attain the goal.

For example, rather than saying you want to drive more business, define it in such a way that you can take action with your text message marketing program. The goal stated above, adding 100 subscribers, is also attainable and actionable. There are tasks you can do to achieve it.

Realistic

Many of the components of SMART goals bleed into one another. For example, in order for a goal to be actionable or attainable, it also needs to be realistic. You cannot reasonably go from 0 subscribers to 10,000 overnight. However, it is realistic to aim to gain 100 in a month. Perhaps you might also be able to add a few thousand over the first few months. Although you might get to hundreds of thousands of subscribers, it takes some time to build to that point. That is where creating smaller goals and milestones will help you to follow through and meet your goals.

Timely

The last key component of this type of goal is timely, or you might also define it as tangible or trackable. This means that there is a reasonable period of time in which you will be able to achieve the goal. It also provides you with a deadline to keep you and your team motivated. You might have other, long-term goals that will take years to meet. However, you will have smaller SMART goals that will help you to achieve them.

When creating your text message marketing goals, whether for a specific campaign such as a holiday marketing strategy <> or your objective for adding the program to your marketing efforts, it is important to rely on SMART goals. This will help you to develop a better plan so that you will ultimately reach, and might even surpass, your goals.

Contact us to learn more about how to incorporate your SMART goals with your texting program.

 

 

 

Leveraging Your SMS Marketing to Draw Crowds to Your President's Day Party

Although President's Day is not at the top of the list for holidays in which to celebrate with a party, any holiday has the potential to turn into an event to draw crowds into your club. Most places will go big with a Valentine's Day party around the same time. By choosing President's Day, you will stand out and attract those who do not like to celebrate Valentine's Day but still want to party!

As discussed in a previous post <>, holiday marketing provides you with an opportunity to utilize some creative marketing endeavors to stand out from your competition. SMS marketing is a channel that helps you to advertise and promote your event so that your party will become the place to be on the President's Day weekend or any other holiday you wish to celebrate throughout the year. A few special types of messages will help you to promote the event and attract new and existing clients to your party so that you reach your attendance goals.

Offers and Deals

One of the best ways to attract new people to your club to get your event going is to send out exclusive offers and deals. There are several types of deals that work well for a nightclub. It is typical for nightclubs to price their alcoholic drinks with the idea that a significant portion of their profits comes from alcoholic drinks. That is why offers and deals that get people into the club work really well. You have people in the club, and then they will buy alcohol, helping your bottom line. This includes:

    • Free Entry (could be before a certain time or all night)

 

    • Percent off admission

 

  • Money off admission

You can also choose to provide deals on food and drinks, such as buy one get one free or a percentage off of the bill. A BOGO works well, especially if you do not give the free beverage until later. This will keep the beverage fresher so that it tastes better when the person drinks it, increasing the chance they will decide to order another one.

Contests

It is easy to run a text-to-win contest using your SMS marketing program. As an added bonus, you may increase the number of subscribers to whom you can promote future events at your club. Promote the contest on your typical marketing channels, including social media, billboards, flyers, posters around the club and anywhere else. Tell people to text in a keyword to a phone number to enter. For your President's Day party, run a contest that is presidential-themed.

Enhance your reach by making everyone a winner by providing a small prize, such as free admission or a free drink, to everyone who enters. This serves to not only increase excitement about the contest, but it also brings people into your club even if they do not win the grand prize. Just make sure that all prizes are exciting enough to entice people to take action.

VIP Access

Your SMS marketing campaign also works well as a loyalty or VIP club. It is possible to group your list based on how often they attend your club, or everyone on the list can be a VIP. You can use this by sending out a message targeting your VIPs that offers them exclusive access during the party. This might be an early entry, ability to bypass the line or a special seating area. People who might have been on the fence about your party will be more likely to come if they feel special by being part of the VIP guests at your party. For an added impact, personalize the message by including the person's name.

There are many ways to use SMS marketing to complement your President's Day weekend party and draw a larger crowd. Just be sure to create a smart plan that helps you to get the most out of the channel <> so that it helps you to have an amazing event.

Ready to increase the attendance at your party? Try ClubTexting for free.

Tips for a Seamless Integration of Your Texting Campaign

Text message marketing complements any type of marketing and promotion you already do. There are many areas with which texting works to build a stronger marketing campaign. Effectively integrating your marketing efforts helps increase your success for all campaigns, especially holiday campaigns <>. Although it is easy to incorporate your texting campaign with any of your marketing efforts, it really complements email, social media, blogging and print ads.

Email marketing

When you integrate SMS marketing with other channels, it goes both ways. For example, it is possible to use your email marketing campaigns to increase your subscribers for your texting campaign and vice versa. Send a text out to your subscribers and ask them to send a text with their email to join your newsletter. This has the potential to bring in more people to your newsletter, and you might also be able to sign them up to your text marketing program as well.

Conversely, ask anyone who signs up for your email newsletter to also sign up for your texting campaign. By capturing all the information at once, it is more likely people will do so. Additionally, you can also include promotion about your SMS marketing program in your email newsletters so that interested clients will sign up at a later date. Make it easy for them to do so; otherwise, you will end up losing them.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing provides a way to utilize people's personal networks to build your brand. You also have the ability to connect directly with your followers, creating a more intimate relationship with your clients and customers. A texting campaign helps to build that personal relationship even more. Most people do not view texts as marketing, since it is not as saturated with ads and spam as other forms.

Therefore, take advantage of the close relationship of both mediums to relate even further with your fans. Ask your social media followers to join your texting campaign and vice versa. Any time you run a campaign on one, cross promote on the other.

Blogging

Blogging helps you to continually bring in new clients to your website. This is because you can find ways to increase your organic traffic through optimizing it for SEO and providing information people want. Once people on your page, you have the ability to get them to sign up for ways to remain in contact with you, like your texting campaign. Similar to email marketing, have a way to capture information from them on your blog form, including their mobile number. Alternatively, have a call to action that includes a keyword and your number so they can easily opt in.

You can also promote your blog to your text messaging subscribers. Send out a brief description of the blog and a link. This will keep customers engaged with your brand, increasing the chance they will continue to choose you when it comes time to take advantage of your goods or services. Just be sure to remain within the 160 characters for the text message and make it easy for them to link to the blog.

Print ads

Text message marketing is the perfect complement to print ads. It is a strong call to action that helps improve the efficacy of your ads. Simply add a keyword and your number to all of your print ads to give an easy way for customers to take action upon seeing your ad. Add in an incentive, like an offer or a deal, for greater efficacy. You can also use print ads to promote your texting campaign and get more subscribers.

For integration to really work, it is necessary for you to create unique content of value that is exclusive to the medium. For example, the deals you offer through email might be different than those through text. This increases the chance that people will sign up to follow you across the board. With a seamless integration, you can run a holiday campaign <> or any other campaign that has a higher reach, because you will talk to the customer anywhere they are, whether email, blogs, social media, print media or texting.

Contact us to learn more about integrating your marketing campaigns.

Using SMS Marketing at Every Point in the Sales Funnel

You probably focus a lot on the sales funnel. You look to find ways to bring more people through it, as well as determine where there might be some hiccups. SMS marketing provides an opportunity to hit potential customers at every aspect of the funnel. It is highly adaptable, so it easily fits into any or all of the efforts you put into creating leads and converting them into customers down the line.

Bringing in Leads

SMS marketing might be a permission-based marketing tool, but that does not mean it cannot provide assistance at the top of the funnel. It is a highly versatile medium and one of its great potentials is as a powerful call to action. Including a keyword and number to text on existing marketing collateral increases the number of people who act on it. This can help you to reach more people as potential leads to start the journey into your sales funnel.

Nurturing Potential Customers

Once you have people in the funnel, it is time to start nurturing the leads into customers through building a relationship. Having people opt-in to your SMS marketing program provides a way to engage them and keep in touch with them. It is important that you do this wisely.

People are open to receiving texts from brands, but they still expect there to be value in the texts. Take the time to build content of value that speaks to your target audience. This might be in the form of reminders, information about your company, deals, and coupons or helpful information. Be careful not to oversaturate your leads with messages. The best frequency is typically between two and four texts per month, although you might find that your audience prefers more or less frequent texts.

Converting into Action

Once you have built a relationship with your potential customers, it is time to convert them into action. Text marketing programs provide several ways to do this. You can send out offers and deals that inspire customers to act. You can remind customers about exciting events, run contests to increase engagement, or provide other programs that get people interested in your goods or services. Take advantage of the immediacy of texts by sending out timely deals, especially those that quickly expire. This will motivate people to act.

Customer Retention

SMS marketing also helps you to retain customers. Not only do you have a way to remain engaged with customers that is more effective than email, since texting has eight times the engagement rate of email, but it also serves as a solid customer service tool. Customer service has become an increasingly important component of sales because people more and more use their emotions to determine where to shop rather than prices. Many customers prefer to deal with customer service issues through text. By offering this, you will create a positive relationship that will translate into customer retention and loyalty.

It is easy to fit SMS marketing into each component of the sales funnel. It provides a versatile and cost-effective way to draw in potential leads, engage with them, convert them, and retain them so that you increase the number of customers and grow your business.

Ready to add this to your sales funnel? Try ClubTexting for free.

The Ultimate Guide for Effective Texting Campaigns for Any Holiday

During the winter holiday season, many companies launch strong campaigns to take advantage of the large number of people searching for holiday gifts.

It is also customary to use the excitement about any holiday to advertise a sale or promote goods and services. Think about how Columbus Day has become less about celebrating the discovery of the Americas and more about mattress sales.

Running a texting campaign during this time provides a way to support your overall marketing efforts. The more than $650 billion spent during the winter holidays, including Christmas, makes it the perfect model on which to create holiday promotions throughout the year.

There are several steps to take to create a more effective text marketing campaign that works not just during the winter holiday season but for any of the holidays that take place year round.

What Are Your Goals?

Before you go too far down the rabbit hole of creating a dynamic text marketing campaign for the holidays, it is important to understand your goals. Ask yourself some questions:

    • Do you want to increase profits by a certain percentage or move inventory?

 

    • Is your promotion more about building brand awareness and increasing traffic, whether online or in person?

Having a strong idea of the objective of your efforts helps you to create a stronger plan that will actually meet those goals.

To do this, get your team together for a brainstorming meeting. Ask everyone what they believe the objective and goals of the program are. When going through the different potential goals, make sure to keep SMART in mind:

    • Specific

 

    • Measurable

 

    • Attainable

 

    • Realistic

 

    • Timely

A good example of a goal is to increase holiday sales by 10 percent.

Why Do You Bother With Holiday Marketing?

One place to start is to think about why holiday marketing is important in the first place. People are trained to know that certain holidays are synonymous with deals to buy gifts and personal items:

    • Black Friday

 

    • Cyber Monday

 

    • Labor Day

 

    • Columbus Day

Although this provides an opportunity to promote sales, it also means that you are competing with hundreds of stores in a wide variety of industries.

During the brainstorming session discussed above, ask your team why you are even bothering with holiday marketing. Are you doing it just because it is what is done, or do you have another reason?

Even if your sole reason behind it is because everyone else is doing it does not mean that you will have a lackluster marketing campaign. However, it does mean that you might just be going through the motions if you do not take a moment to focus on creating a dynamite campaign.

When Is the Best Time To Start?

It is not enough to promote your holiday marketing in December. Marketing surveys point out that in October, 26 percent of digital shoppers are already getting an early start on their winter holiday shopping. Almost half start in November. Some people start in September or even earlier!

If you start too late, then you miss out on all of those early shoppers. Therefore, consider running some deals throughout the fall. Or you might simply just start advertising your holiday sales weeks ahead of time so that people can plan accordingly.

Early planning is not just about letting your customers know about your sales; it is also ensuring that your company is ready, too. Inform your employees about the sale, making sure that they have all the information necessary to answer questions from customers.

Give yourself plenty of time for creating the marketing material for your promotions so that you can ensure it is perfect. However, finalize the promotion late enough that you can make any last-minute adjustments you need to based on any current events or feedback from customers so that you remain relevant.

For your texting campaign, this early preparation includes the following:
Develop a strong strategy.

    • Determine how often you plan to text customers.

 

    • Consider what types of offers you plan to send out.

 

    • Create a calendar so that the texting offers complement other deals without oversaturating.

 

    • Decide how you plan to promote your text marketing program to increase the number of subscribers.

 

    • You might choose to have a push for subscribers months prior to the big holiday event for greater impact once you launch your holiday texting campaign.

 

    • Choose who will be in charge of reviewing the content and handling any issues that arise.

How Do You Integrate?

Text marketing works a little differently. It is an immediate medium since most messages are opened within just a few minutes of receipt. This makes it a great medium for last-minute deals and reminders about sales. This complements your program, especially if you take the time to integrate your text marketing smartly.

During the initial planning stages for your holiday text marketing program, consider where it fits into the rest of your marketing efforts. A texting campaign complements other channels really well. You can ad it as a call to action on your

    • TV and radio spots,

 

    • print ads,

 

    • digital marketing properties,

 

    • social media accounts

 

    • and more.

This works two-fold: first, you increase the number of subscribers and second, you increase the engagement and success of your other marketing channels.

Taking the time to strategize how you will use your texting program prior to running any of your holiday offers or advertising campaigns helps you to integrate in the best way possible. You can determine where to place your texting campaign in the sales funnel and how to best use it to increase the efficacy of the rest of your marketing efforts, and vice versa.

For example, use texting as a call to action with your print ads that provide early promotion of your holiday deals. Then, text your subscribers reminders about the sales the day before to increase the number of people who participate.

How Do You Promote?

In order to get the most out of your texting campaign -- and your holiday sales -- you need to create increased awareness. To do this, it is necessary to promote your campaigns.

It is even more important that you let people know about your texting campaign early because it is a permission-based medium. This means that you have to have people sign up before you can send them messages.

Many of the traditional forums for promotion also work for your texting campaign:

    • Flyers

 

    • Print ads

 

    • In-store signs

 

    • Digital banners

 

    • Blogs

 

    • Email newsletter mentions

 

    • Social media posts

 

    • Radio and TV spots

Any way that you traditionally announce news to customers will also let them know about your new texting promotion.

However, do not just let them know and expect them to sign up. A common way to do this is exclusive offers and deals, including a special coupon just for signing up. Do this early enough to capitalize on the number of people who sign up when the holidays roll around.

Plus, strategically send messages throughout the year to keep people interested in staying on your list so that you only have to build on it each year, rather than having to rebuild it.

Who Is Your Audience?

An effective holiday text marketing campaign always keeps the audience in mind. This is because you want to strive to create content of value each time you send out a text message, especially during the holiday season when people are saturated with marketing messages. Therefore, spend some of your planning stage determining who your audience will be.

To do this, gather as much information as you have about your customers:

    • Shopping data

 

    • Demographics

 

    • Behavior patterns

 

    • Survey results

 

    • Market research

To find this information, it might be necessary to directly ask your subscribers to provide it. Because many people might opt into a text marketing campaign with a simple text, you might not have that much information about them. If that is the case, then you might want to create a persona of your ideal target audience.

You do not have to stick with just one target audience. It is easy to divide your subscribers into lists based on their personal data in order to send personalized, targeted messages. This also enhances the effectiveness of the campaign.

What Offers Should You Use?

Once you have completed the prep work, determining your goals, audience, calendar, integration and other components of the structure of your marketing strategy, you can start focusing on the fun part: the text message content and the offers themselves.

First, consider what type of offer you wish to send, whether a BOGO, a percentage of purchase, dollar amount a price, a free gift with purchase, free shipping or something else. It is most important that you choose something that is attractive while also not hurting your profit margin. For the best impact, create something unique and exclusive, as this further motivates the customer to take advantage of the deal.

The words you use also helps to create the best redemption rate. Choose active verbs and words that impart urgency. For example, Buy Now, Redeem Today, Limited Time Offer, and Click to Activate This Exclusive Deal all motivate customers to take the action you want them to do. Be sure to make it easy for customers to redeem them; otherwise, you will lose out on a lot of sales.

How Do You Stand Out?

Now for the fun part: making your content unique, attractive and fun so that you stand out from the competition. Do not be afraid to include some of the personality of your company in the messages.

One common way to do this is to add some humor into the messages. However, do not become too unprofessional when you do so. Puns and simple, unoffensive jokes are easy ways to get creative without worrying about losing customers.

An example of a Christmas offer with some humor is, "Don't be a Scrooge. Use this 20% off coupon to buy your loved ones gifts. Expires [date]."

One of the reasons to jump onto holidays in terms of marketing is that you can create themed messages. A simple template for dynamic holiday-themed messages that lead to a successful campaign is the following:

    • Character/holiday allusion

 

    • Offer/deal

 

    • Active language

 

    • Urgent/motivating language

 

    • Expiration date

 

    • Company Name

 

    • Stay within the 160 character limit

 

  • The right timing

Use your creativity to decide upon promotions, deals and content that sounds just like your company rather than the same old, boring offers that everyone sends out. This helps you to stand out from hundreds of promotions circulating during the holiday season.

What Is Success?

Before you start sending out your messages, consider how you will measure success. Most texting platforms have analytics that detail the open rate, bounce rate, conversion rate, click-through-rate and other metrics similar to other digital properties.

Look at your starting point and set a realistic finish point that means your program is successful. Reviewing your original goal will help you with this. For example, if you wish to increase profits, then you might focus on the number of conversions your text messages create.

Remember that a strong texting campaign takes some time to build. You might need to do some trial and error, which is why it is best to start your text marketing program long before the holiday season. This gives you time to work out the kinks so that you can take full advantage of the medium when it comes time to promote your sales.

Ready to get started on your holiday texting campaign? Try ClubTexting for free.

4 Tips for Creating the Best Objective for Your Texting Campaign

Although the word objective is a synonym for goal, it has its own nuances that make it unique. In business, objectives are more specific than goals and should be used to explain strategic or planning activities. They should be easily measurable and provide a reason for implementing a program like SMS marketing.

It is essential to have a strong, clear and defined objective for your texting campaign. Otherwise, it is difficult to assess whether or not you are succeeding. You might also end up with a lackluster program that does not provide the returns it could.

Unfortunately, many marketers simply launch an SMS marketing campaign with no real objective, or at the least a vague concept. Rather than falling in with the 57 percent of marketers who do this, take the time to create a strong, clearly defined objective for your texting campaign using one or more of the following tips.

Ask the Deep Questions

Developing an objective starts by asking questions. Begin with a simple why. There is probably some reason behind your decision to launch a texting campaign. Perhaps you have heard about other companies having a strong response or you simply are amazed by the 98 percent open rate. There is no wrong answer. In fact, it is fine to have multiple reasons.

In addition to the why behind your actions, consider how you see it helping your business and fitting with your overall marketing strategy. Although text message marketing works well as a stand-alone campaign, it only reaches its full potential when it is integrated into your overall strategic plan. It should complement key marketing channels, including email, print ads, and social media. Ask yourself and your team what you hope to achieve by running the texting campaign.

Look for Patterns

When you ask these questions, allow room for brainstorming and pursue different avenues of thought, following up questions with more questions. Document all the reasons you come up with. As you discuss these components, see if you notice any patterns emerging. Perhaps you and your team continue to talk about brand awareness or increasing sales. As you start to see the common grounds, make note of it. There might be more than one, so do not limit yourself at this stage.

Take Your Business Goals Into Account

As you are brainstorming the objective behind your texting campaign, take adequate time to think about your overall business goals. See where text messaging might fit to help you achieve those goals. Your objective will most likely relate to or complement those goals.

Think SMART Goals

During this process, keep in mind SMART goals. This is an acronym for

  • Specific,
  • Measurable,
  • Attainable,
  • Realistic
  • Timely

Your objective should have many of the same concepts in it. You want something specific for which you have the tools to measure that is also a realistic and attainable endeavor. Using the ideas you have brainstormed and the patterns you have discovered, create the main objective for your campaign. Verifying it is SMART.

Building an objective for your texting campaign has many parallels to creating your goals. However, you want to be more specific so that you and your team understand the point of running the campaign. This helps you to build a strong program that will achieve not just the objective but also your business goals. The clearer and more defined your objective, the stronger your program will be.

Got your objective ready to go? Start your campaign bytrying ClubTexting for free.

 

 

3 Tips for Using Group Texting for Your Dentist Office

As a dentist, you want to grow your practice. There are many different marketing opportunities at your disposal, which at times makes it difficult to determine which one to use. SMS marketing is a valuable addition to any strong marketing strategy. Group texting provides a great way to engage with current clients while also promoting your practice to others in your community. If you plan to implement it, the following tips will help you to start off strong.

Be Smart About Collecting Numbers

One of the things to always keep at the forefront of your program is that group texting for marketing is a permission-based medium. You might be able to send some texts, such as appointment reminders, without written permission. However, if you plan to send regular texts for any reason, it is best to get people to opt in before you start. Therefore, you need to have a strategy for collecting numbers for your texting list. Additionally, it is key to keep accurate records of all opt-ins, active subscribers, and opt-outs. Regularly checking your list for any errors will help you to retain a clean list.

To build your list, have patients sign up when they fill out their initial paperwork when they come into the office for a visit. Ask them to also provide preferences as to what type of messages they would like to receive. Alternatively, reach out to patients in your other channels, such as email and social media, and ask them to sign up for your new texting campaign. You can also add it on all of your marketing collateral, including print ads, TV spots, radio ads and any other promotional material you might have. Simply include a keyword and your shortcode or number and have people text to opt in.

Decide On Your Campaign Strategy

There are numerous ways to use group texting in your dentist office. You might wish to take advantage of high open rates to send appointment reminders and reduce the number of no-shows you experience. It also provides a way to send out thank you messages, dental hygiene tips, and general marketing texts. This might include offers and deals on your services, especially voluntary procedures such as teeth whitening. It is also beneficial to use it to reach out to clients who have not visited in a while.

Some practices might integrate all of these text types into a comprehensive texting campaign, while others might focus on just one. It is important to have an idea of what you wish to do and then create a detailed plan to accomplish it. This reduces the chance that you will end up not seeing the return you want due to an ineffective campaign that tries to do too much at once.

Organize Your Campaign

For the most effective campaign, it is essential that you put as much energy into building a strong foundation as you do in implementing the program. Start with detailing your campaign strategy, including determining the objective of your group texting efforts. You might wish to grow your practice, bring in more new clients or simply engage more with those you already have. This objective informs the rest of your campaign, as it will help you to create goals and analyze data to see whether or not you reach them.

Organizing your campaign assists you in building this foundation. Start by segmenting your subscriber list into groups. This helps you to target messages to particular people. For example, send offers to clients who have not visited recently. It is also possible to group subscribers by their potential interests. You might have a group that is interested in teeth whitening and then periodically send them offers for the service. Subscribers can be members of several groups. Therefore, it is important to keep track so that you do not overwhelm particular clients who might be in several groups with texts, especially if they also receive emails from you and/or follow you on social media.

The more time you spend creating an organized plan and subscriber list that includes as many patients and possible patients as possible, the smoother your texting campaign will run. It might still take some time to really hit the marks you want to hit, but it will set you off on a strong path to get there.

Ready to start a strong texting campaign for your dental practice? Try ClubTexting for free.

 

 

Can Club Texting Help Bring People to Your Amusement Park?

As an amusement park owner, you work hard to build rides, games, shows and other entertainment that attract and thrill your customers. Despite your efforts, you will not see a rise in attendance if you do not find a way to get the word out to potential customers. It is likewise important to engage with visitors so that they want to come back again and again. Club texting provides a way to engage with current and future visitors to increase business at your park. There are several ways that it has the potential to help your visitor numbers grow.

Access More Customers

Running a texting campaign has the potential to help you reach a much wider net of people. Over 90 percent of Americans own an SMS-enabled cell phone. This is more than those who have email or regularly visit social media sites. Additionally, text messages on average have a whopping 99 percent open rate, compared to about 20 to 30 percent of emails.

Together, this means that you have the chance to reach a wider demographic of customers, including those without regular access to the internet. Plus, any messages you do send out will actually be read, making it a much more effective marketing forum.

Reach an Interested Audience

Club texting is a permission-based marketing forum, so you can only send your messages to those who have opted in to receive them. You might think this reduces the number of people affected by the message. However, it actually has a much larger impact. When you run ads that try to bring in a wide variety of numbers, such as a print ad, TV spot, radio ad, billboard or flyers, you have a very low number that respond. Many of the people that see these ads have no interest in your amusement park -- or any others -- so the impact of the ad is quite low.

Alternatively, when you send messages to those on your texting campaign subscriber list, you have a much bigger impact. These people have enough interest in your company to sign up to receive messages. This might be because they have already visited or because they wish to visit one day. You can capitalize on this interest and turn them into customers much easier, and for less money, then it would take to convert someone with little to no interest in your park.

Motivate People to Visit

It is not just about reaching people with your message; however; it is also about actually motivating them to take action. Texting remains a more intimate medium. Most people still mostly use it to communicate with their friends and family members. They reserve any marketing messages for companies from which they really wish to hear. This means that they actually read your message and pay attention to it and that it has the potential to motivate them to act. When you include a strong call to action, it increases the chance that someone will visit your amusement park even more.

Increase Repeat Visitors

To turn a customer from a one-time visitor into a repeat visitor, it is important to engage them. First, they need to have a good time while at your park and experience great customer service. Regularly engaging with them afterwards through club texting provides a way for them to continue to think about your park and wish to return. Customer engagement has become the key aspect in turning customers into loyal ones, and texting has a better engagement rate than email or social media. Increase this effect by regularly offering incentives for them to return to the park, such as discount entry fees or free gifts.

These are just a few of the lucrative benefits offered by club texting. Integrating it into your marketing strategy will help you take your amusement park to the next level and attract more people to your park.

Contact us to learn more about how to use texting to help your amusement park grow.

 

 

What Are the Most Important Rules to Follow in Your Texting Campaigns?

There are many different considerations you need to make to create the best foundation for your texting campaigns. In addition to basic etiquette, there are also certain guidelines and rules that you must follow. Although some of the guidelines might be seen more as best practices, there are also laws in place that if you break, you might set yourself up for a lawsuit or worse. Following are some of the most important rules to follow from the get-go when you launch your SMS marketing campaign.

Get Permission

SMS marketing is a permission-based medium. The FCC has determined that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act cover text messaging. This targets auto dialing for marketing purposes, so it does not necessarily apply to all text messages, such as appointment reminders, emergency alerts, and transactional messages.

This means that in order to send marketing messages to clients or customers, you must have their written permission. This includes an opt-in text message from the client, an online form submission, a written agreement or any other type of documented evidence that clearly demonstrates that the person has agreed to receive marketing messages from you. If you are simply sending appointment reminders or emergency alerts, it is always a good idea to get permission, but you must do so for marketing texting campaigns.

Make It Easy to Opt Out

Just as you have to get permission to text, you also have to make it easy for those who have changed their mind and decided to no longer receive texts from you to opt out. There must be a free, legitimate and easy way to do so. Typically, it is through the individual texting the word STOP as a reply to a text.

If you regularly text, it is not necessary to always include information about how to opt out, but it should be frequent enough that any follower will know how to do so. If you only occasionally send texts, then you will need to include the opt out message every time. You also have to take action if someone has requested to opt out through another method, such as during a phone, in person or email exchange with an employee.

Full Disclosure

It is also important that you are clear to your customers as to what they can expect from the program. This includes the frequency, description of the program and more. For example, in your promotional material about the program, include language that details it is a subscription. If there are any other aspects of the program, such as whether there are premium fees or other components, it must be clearly disclosed upfront. You should also declare that message and data rates may apply.

There should also be a terms and agreement document that is easy to access that states how often you plan to text, as well as the type of messages you plan to send. Along with your terms and conditions, it is also important to fully disclose the privacy policy so that customers know what you plan to do with their contact information if they sign up.

These rules are the most important to follow. They are also relatively easy to do so, and it also ensures that you offer the best customer service possible. It is also beneficial to always include a signature when you send the text so that clients or customers know it is from you, especially if you frequently change the number from which the texts are sent.

Contact us to learn more about the laws and guidelines governing SMS Marketing.

Most Common Reasons Businesses Still Hesitate to Use SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is a widely popular marketing channel that many companies have adopted to receive benefits such as higher conversion rates and better customer engagement. However, a significant number of businesses still hesitate to implement this channel. Much of this hesitation is based on myths and uncertainty rather than facts. The following are the most common reasons businesses baulk at adding SMS marketing to their campaigns--and the reasons they should not.

Too Expensive

Some companies are afraid to add texting to their marketing efforts because they simply feel it will not fit into their budget. Although money plays a significant role in decisions for businesses, especially those just starting or with little wiggle room in their budget, it should not be the reason to not add SMS marketing. This form of marketing is highly cost effective. Most platforms charge just pennies for the texts sent and received. It might also be possible to sign up for a monthly plan so you have a regular expense and need not worry about going over your budget. The low cost and high efficacy make it a highly cost-effective marketing tool.

Invasive and Annoying

Texting is a very intimate messaging system. It does not have the reputation of spam as email does, since only about one percent of texts sent worldwide considered spam. Plus, many people regularly use it for communicating with friends and family. It is also not as widely used as other marketing channels for businesses, despite more businesses signing up every year. Therefore, many companies hesitate to add it out of fear of intruding too much into their customers' lives.

However, the intimacy of the channel is one reason it is so highly effective. People who sign up want to receive messages from you, and many consumers wish to hear even more from their favorite brands through texting. About 75 percent prefer offers sent through texting than other avenues. You also cut through a lot of the clutter for a more direct message to a highly-engaged group of people, making for a more effective overall message.

Too Complicated

Another fear many marketers have regarding SMS marketing is that it is simply too complicated to add. However, that could not be further from the truth. Most mass text messaging platforms are user-friendly. Subscribers are added to the list automatically when they opt-in. It is also easy to upload a list of users who opted in from another source, such as your website or in-person sign ups. On the platform, you simply have to choose who receives the message, write out your message, and then send it right away or schedule it for a later time.

Only Millennials Use Texting

Companies that focus on older demographics, or wanting to be as inclusive as possible, often feel that SMS marketing is not worth using because it targets only Millennials. Millennials use texting and always have their cell phones with them, making them one of the best demographics to target with SMS. However, it is also highly effective for targeting other generations. About 92 percent of smartphone owners over the age of 50 use it to text. Many people in this generation will be just as eager to receive texts from you as their younger counterparts.

Every business has its own experience with SMS marketing, but the vast majority find it is highly effective and beneficial. It has a high engagement rate, high open rate, and is something customers want. There is no reason to hesitate due to myths and rumors that remain circulating. Instead, try it out for yourself to see if it something that you want to utilize for your business.

Contact us to learn more about why text message marketing can help your business.

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