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Archive for June, 2009
Txtlocal Witness Growth in Short Codes by Small Business
www.txtlocal.co.uk has witnessed a huge growth in the number of small businesses adopting an SMS short code into their marketing strategy.
Short Codes are 5 digit numbers which are often associated with Television and Radio broadcasters running text to win competitions and voting initiatives aimed at viewers and listeners. However, Txtlocal has discovered that it isn’t just the big brand names using the tactic. A massive number of small to medium sized businesses are integrating short codes into their marketing material along with standard telephone, email and web addresses. The advantage of the short code is that it provides a quick and easy call to action for customers to respond to whilst on the move. No pen or paper required, just a quick and easy text from a mobile.
Another reason for the rapid growth in short code usage by general business is due to marketers following the latest trends and tactics adopted by the big brand names. With outlets such as Subway and McDonalds using short codes it’s only natural for smaller fast food outlets to follow suit.
Txtlocal MD Darren Daws says “Small businesses are following the lead of the big brand campaigns and adopting their own strategy. The major advantage of mobile is that it’s affordable. Businesses don’t need a huge budget to run a successful campaign.”
Daws, also suggests that short codes help build hot databases of leads that are likely to get a good response. “People have voluntarily opt-ed in to receive texts from a company, therefore they are clearly interested in the products and services on offer, these people are the equivalent of hot leads.”
Crayford Dog track in Kent use short codes for competitions and customer service purposes. Patrons can text DOGS to 60777 to opt-in for details of special offers and promotions that the track may be offering. The race track then reply with regular promotional texts designed to entice customers through the doors. The Track also uses the keyword CRAYFORD to 60777 as a mechanism for customers to text if they wish to receive a customer service call back.
Diana Illingworth, Marketing Manager of the Crayford track is pleased with the response from the text campaigns “Most of our campaigns achieve a good response and we will certainly continue to use mobile marketing in the future.”
A Midland Subway franchise use the keyword SUBWAY to short code 60777 to build a database of contact numbers to receive regular meal deal promotions and the response has been very positive, with many people opting in to take advantage of the promotional texts. Franchisee, Andrew Paterson claims that in the early days of starting the text campaign lots of people text in to receive the special text alerts. Paterson claims the response to the text campaigns is very high with an average 24% response rate, from customers visiting the the franchise after a text campaign, which in terms of ROI is exceptional.
Political parties and local councils are also steadily integrating text into their communication strategy. This is particularly noticeable after the 2008 American election of Barack Obama where mobile marketing was used with huge success. Mobile marketing using short codes helped raise massive campaign funds, whilst also building highly qualified databases of key supporters. This tactic is likely to gather greater momentum leading up to the next UK general election.
A Short Code can be set up quickly and easily within 24 hours, no technical input is required just details of a chosen keyword. All inbound responses are sent directly to a nominated email address and stored in a dedicated database for easy downloading and further contact.
Using SMS to Save Money
At a time when organisations and enterprises are being more cautious with their budgets to ensure that they don’t fall foul of the economic slump, you would assume that the uptake of SMS text messaging would be diminishing.
However, this clearly isn’t the case as demand for SMS seems to be more popular than ever. In fact it’s more likely to be used by businesses to help cut costs and save money. Enterprises of all shapes and sizes across all sectors are beginning to realise the potential and benefits that SMS can bring to their businesses as efficient, targeted and relatively low cost form of communication.
Sectors including many financial, retail, telecoms, construction, media, education and security sectors are realising the value of sms, particularly in terms of the cost savings that text can provide.
The number of small businesses that phone Txtlocal stating that they would like to start using SMS to help cut costs such as phone bills or postage is growing everyday. For example, a garage may need to inform customers that their car is ready for pick up after it’s MOT and rather than a busy receptionist making a phone call, text is proving the preferred choice.
Other examples include a call centre which may need to contact customers with updates on the status of an insurance claim or application. Text provides a quicker and easier way to relay information.
IT departments are integrating text into their operations to alert programmers of network problems or downtime. Notifying IT staff at the time of the problem helps fix the problem sooner ensuring less disruption and money lost from operations.
Dentists and hair and beauty salons are prime examples of businesses that have problems with “no shows” and for the more efficient businesses within this sector, text is proving a vital tool. There is no sense in phoning customers to remind them of their appointment when a simple group text can reach the entire day’s appointments in a couple of minutes. A 1 hour job by a busy receptionist is radically reduced to 2 minutes! Plus there is much less likelihood of missed appointments, which in itself reduces lost revenue as more people turn up for their appointments. Nick Hayward of Beautology is delighted with text for reminder purposes “Sending a text is so much more convenient than making a phone call, as it can reach anyone, anywhere. It’s also much cheaper & quicker than making a phone call!”
Phone calls are time consuming and expensive and emails don’t have the immediate impact of text in reaching an audience. Time can often mean money and email just doesn’t have the instant impact of SMS.
As awareness of business SMS grows, more and more organisations will start to integrate text into their general communication operations and at Txtlocal we believe it will save them money in the process.
Glenfiddich use Text to Target Younger Audience
Glennfiddich Single Malt Whisky is aiming to attract younger drinkers and one of the methods they will adopt to achieve this goal includes SMS communications.
A report published in Marketing Week states that the drinks company have updated their website to place greater emphasis on interacting with younger audiences who are described as “smart, modern and experienced” 30 somethings!
A comprehensive CRM programme will be included within the website which will help improve relationship marketing and increase customer loyalty. SMS marketing will be used as the main communication tool to reach the younger audience.
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Manchester Theatres Tip Text as Top Marketing Tool
Three top Manchester Theatres are using the Txtlocal SMS text service to target patrons with show news and special offers in a bid to increase ticket sales.
The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester has been using SMS since 2006 to target students and has had huge success using the service to reach this notoriously difficult to reach sector.
Vicky Bloor of the Theatres marketing team said “SMS is the best way to target a student audience….Typically around 8% of recipients will make a box office booking after receiving a promotional text.”
The Lowry Theatre, in Salford recently started using text to promote details of their latest offers and promotions to patrons.
Robert Martin, Tourism & E-marketing manager at the venue said he’s delighted with the response to their text campaigns stating “We will continue to use SMS marketing to reach our target audience.”
The Palace Theatre, Manchester also use text to interact with Theatre goers with “text to win” competitions aimed at generating inbound text responses. A spokesperson for the Theatre said that this campaign worked well in engaging and catching the eye of patrons, whilst also helping to build a database of contact numbers.
www.txtlocal.co.uk MD Darren Daws adds “It’s great to be working with these Theatres and we’re delighted that they’re having such a good response from their campaigns. SMS marketing is particularly useful for targeting students and young people and at just a few pence a text a huge budget isn’t required.”
The Lowry Theatre Gets a Great Response from Text
The Lowry Theatre www.thelowry.com are using www.txtlocal.co.uk to send details of their latest special offers and promotions to customers. Over 720 patrons opted-in to receive the special offer text alerts during the first month alone. This figure is expected to steadily increase as awareness of the alert service grows.
With a busy schedule of shows and events aimed at all age and customer groups, the Lowry have a tough job making it a sell out every week. However, the new sms text service is proving useful in generating excellent responses at the box office, with the first campaign achieving a 13% response rate with 61 tickets being sold.
Robert Martin, The Tourism and E-marketing Manager of The Lowry is delighted with the new sms service stating “The first show was a family show and we got an excellent response…we will continue to use SMS for a range of special offers.”
Txtlocal work with dozens of Theatres, delivering sms messages aimed at increasing box office bookings.