SMS Mobile Marketing: Car Dealership

Brief case study regarding a car dealership that used an innovate SMS Mobile Marketing approach to attract business.

The car dealership sends reminders that cars are due a NCT (National Car Test) along with a quoted price for NCT pre-check. Thus, there are a few elements to highlight:

1. Reminder service: useful SMS reminder that a NCT is due.
2. Call-to-action: avail of an offer, whose price is advertised in the SMS content.
3. Automated: demonstrates the functionality of sending SMS from pre-existing software such as CRM based systems.

 

SMS Shared Shortcodes Explained

Overview

Instead of using the traditional long code number, meaning the standard mobile number (here in Ireland that would be 3538********), businesses tend to prefer using Shortcodes within their marketing campaigns; these are only 5 digits long and can be more catchy for their customers to remember. However, a dedicated Shortcode can be expensive for a single business to maintain, that is where Shared Shortcodes can be used.

Shared Shortcode

A Shared Shortcode is a designated keyword assigned to a business over a 5 digit number, such as 50015, which can be used by businesses to attract new customers. Thus, multiple businesses can share the same 5 digit number but the SMS contains unique keywords (which would be advertised within the marketing campaign) that identify messages for that particular business. Customers include this keyword (might be name of the business or product or name of campaign) when texting to the 5 digit number.

Shared Shortcode Cost Options

There are various types of Shared Short Codes. For example, Go2mobile offers  2 Shared Shortcode options.

1. Business Pays for SMS: A free text number where the customer sends a designated keyword to a 5 digit number. The cost of the text from the customer is borne by your business.
2. Your customer Pays for SMS: A standard rate number where the customer sends a designated keyword to a 5 digit number. Standard text message rates apply to your customer.

Shared Shortcode Examples

This blog post briefly mentions one use of Shared Shortcodes, but there are many others. Some examples include:

• Advertising your product or service to enable your customers request further information by sending a SMS.
• Building a mobile opt-in database of consumers.
• Promoting your brand.
• Providing a Service/Oncall Contact Alert System.
• Allowing customers to log Support Queries
• Allowing potential customers to log Sales Requests
• Using Shared Shortcodes for a Comments System, meaning for logging Feedback and Comments.

Some Brief Uses of SMS within areas such as Education

There are many avenues in which text messaging can be used to benefit non-consumer related areas that are not business orientated, such as education, societies, associations, sports clubs etc.

With education we have found that the majority of SMS is used to create an ongoing dialogue with parents in an inexpensive manner. Education facilities use SMS for such tasks as:

1. Informing parents after roll-call attendance if their child is absent from school, requesting confirmation
2. Informing parents of half-days, school closings, parent-teacher meeting schedules
3. Broadcasting exam schedule reminders to parents, as well as report sending alerts

With associations, societies and sports clubs, they all tend to use SMS to encourage participation and to keep the information flow open, such as:

1. For societies/associations in particular: informing of meetings, reminders, cancellations, group organization for events etc.
2. For sports clubs, reminders for training, training cancellations, transport updates, news of game results

The two main broadcasting methods these different sectors use is either by sending SMS from their email account or by using a web based group messaging facility. Some, who have SMS within their CRM system, choose to send SMS in a different way which depends on how their software handles transferring information, for example it may be via a web call command etc.

Creating a SMS Opt-In Contact List

The one question that is asked repeatedly from businesses who wish to send SMS but are understandably uncertain of the proper and legal way to go about it is how to build a contact list.

You cannot broadcast messages to mobile numbers that are randomly gathered, for example from customer lists, old databases, numbers recorded in spreadsheets etc. The customers have to expressly request to be included in the list, hence the word ‘opt-in’. So how do you do this?

The first avenue is advertising with an incentive. You need to be able to offer an incentive to the prospective customers for them to actively want to sign up; some of these incentives could be:

• Receive discount offers that are not available to standard customers
• Be invited to special promotions or exclusive events
• Receive sale offers one day before sales actually begin
• Receive sms-coupon to receive free product; such as free scone with purchased coffee by presenting the message at the cashier counter

The second avenue is running instore promotions. This is where people actually fill out a form within your business, stating that they wish to receive SMS alerts when entering for a prize draw (for example); this could be anything from a hamper to a voucher (for instance).

The third avenue is gathering contacts via online sales; on the purchasing web form itself, have an option where people can actively tick a box to be included in future SMS broadcasts.

To  spread the word and run an effective gathering campaign, advertising and promotions can be done through traditional means such as application forms, flyers, newspapers, leaflets but increasingly it has extended into social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Another platform is your own website ( a sign-up location section) or indeed advertising on websites of your target demographic.

Once you have your opt-in list created, you must always be aware that anybody should be easily able to opt-out, or leave, the list at any time in as simple a process as possible. Whether they reply “Stop” to your message, email you, ring your employees, fill out a form on your website. It must be a fluid and intuitive process; “STOP” mobile sender reply is usually the easiest and most standard method but you would need to discuss this with your gateway provider.

Creating SMS Opt-In List

Some notes on sending SMS (such as group messaging) via a Web Portal

1. Never copy and paste your message directly to the web browser from a source such as a document, email, webpage etc. as it can contain invalid characters (which you cannot see) but may cause issues with sending or worse (such as mistranslated symbols on a handset). The best thing to do when creating a SMS, is to either type your message directly into the web form, or copy the message into Notepad and then copy and paste it from there to the web page. Always send a test message to your phone before sending.
2. If the web interface/screen freezes, it is generally a web browser issue. From experience, Chrome, and its ilk, can be judged to be less prone to this. Simply restart your browser if it happens, or use an alternative browser.
3. Always include an opt-out within the message you are sending to ensure people can stop receiving them. This complies with legislation.
4. If using a gateway provider, contact them about changing your Sender ID (sender of the message displayed on the mobile handset) so it is more tailored to your brand. This identifier can be up to 11 characters long.
5. Always remember that the length of your message is critical to your costs.  Exceeding a certain number of characters can result in more cost per message. This can exponentially increase your expenditure if sending a group message.  As a general guide:

• Up to 160 character length = 1 SMS
• Up to 290 character length = 2 SMS
• Up to 435 character length = 3 SMS
• Up to 580 character length = 4 SMS
• Up to 725 character length = 5 SMS

Using SMS within the recruitment sector

SMS is an efficient tool for instant notification of job vacancies. To understand if this may apply to your business, have a look at the follow queries:

• Do you operate a recruitment agency?
• Do you coordinate locum positions?
• Would you like to send out job alerts?
• Would you like to send out interview alerts/reminders?
• Would you like to receive feedback or call-back requests from job applicants?
• Would you like candidates to be able to send images of themselves or their certificates to you for their Resume?
• Would you like your recruitment agency brand name to be the sender identifier of the messages?

Job creation and locum position alerts are essential roles within recruitment agencies. SMS allows these processes to be streamlined inexpensively. Of course, there are many paper or email based ways to facilitate recruitment role fulfillment but SMS allows real-time dynamic interactivity (and facilitates data analysis). Using mobile technology allows job candidates to relate instantly with you.
SMS is an inexpensive communications tool for both announcing vacancies as well as accepting real-time comments/call-back requests from job applicants. For example, with regards to broadcasting Locum, Temp and Job Positions:

1. Send out Job/Locum Alerts via your email client and receive replies from the candidates.
2. Send out personalized scheduled group messages to your candidate listings, by inserting for example the job applicant’s firstname in the message automatically.
3. Send out scheduled interview reminders to job applicants.

As well as sending, you can use SMS to receive enquiries, callback requests and to build candidate lists by advertising a mobile number for job applicants to SMS into. These messages can then be viewed within your own email account or within a feature rich online environment. As well as this, your CRM system can be updated with these messages. On receipt of these messages you can reply automatically, for example, to acknowledge receipt of message delivery.

What are SMSCoupons?

SMSCoupons consist of e-ticket/m-ticket, e-token, e-voucher/m-voucher and e-coupon solutions. These provide your business with a direct, traceable and inexpensive marketing interaction with your customer.

Thus, SMSCoupons can be used to send out tickets, daily deals and discount coupons immediately and inexpensively via SMS. This creates an opportunity for optimum brand recognition by also allowing your business name, your product or your brand as the sender identifier of the outgoing SMS.

Some of the services SMSCoupons can be used for include:

• e-tickets/m-tickets- broadcast e-tickets to events, concerts and seminars. The SMS is shown at the entrance to gain access. It is a quick, reliable and inexpensive way of issuing tickets. No printing or traditional distribution costs.
• e-tokens/e-coupons/m-vouchers- broadcast discount offers via SMS. For example, encourage people into your retail by offering a discount off certain items or your café by offering 10% off next coffee. Customers show the SMS message at the cashier to avail of the offer (with the message being deleted by your staff at that point of processing).

 

Receiving customer feedback/reviews via SMS

SMS is an inexpensive interactive marketing tool for instant feedback/comments. Receiving feedback via SMS is a real-time efficient way to interact with your customers. To understand if this may apply to your business, have a look at the follow queries:

• Do you operate a restaurant?
• Run a retail store?
• Do you provide accommodation?
• Are you running/organizing events?
• Do you want to see how customers rate your business?
• Do you want to know how your staff relate to customers?
• Do you want an edge over your competitors?
• Would you like to build a valuable marketing database of loyal customers that you can send offers to?

Reviews, comments, feedback are all essential and often neglected elements of a business. You cannot improve and maintain customers if you do not know how you are doing (or how they perceive you are doing). There are of course many paper based ways- which are often overlooked, lost, or illegible. It is hard to find patterns through data analysis, for example, with paper based systems. Using mobile technology allows your customers to relate instantly with you, at the very moment of their service.

There are minimal steps involved in setting up such a system. The first step required is to advertise a mobile number (or keyword) for your customers to SMS into. These replies can then be viewed within an interactive online environment or via your email account (with messages being forwarded from the service provider).  The messages can also be used to automatically update your CRM.

On receipt of these comments you can reply automatically thanking the sender for their feedback & request whether they would like further updates/offers from your business. Thus creating a valuable marketing resource.

 

SMS Traffic Volumes 2008-2013

The graph displayed in this blog, was generated from gathering the SMS volumes published by Comreg from their Quarterly Reviews spanning 2008 to 2013 which are sourced from their website.  While it shows a decline in the overall traffic volume between 2012 and 2013, the figures have to be understood in the context that they contain all SMS traffic, both consumer and corporate.

While consumer demand is inevitably declining within a certain age demographic (which was fueled by free SMS to SMS offers; for example ones offered by Meteor in the past) due to the introduction of new technologies such as iMessage and various messaging apps between smartphones, there remains a healthy demand for non-consumer messaging, as we can witness with the wide ranging use of SMS that simply cannot currently be replicated cost-effectively in areas such as:

1. Agriculture; Examples: For producers to contact farmers with milk quality analysis results, or AI companies alerting of new samples.
2. Media; Examples: For listeners to contribute to radio shows, or for radio stations to send out invitations to music/film events.
3. Transport and Logistics; Examples: Organizing delivery times, informing passengers of delayed ferries due to weather etc.
4. IT Server Monitoring; Examples: Sending out alerts for website or server issues to oncall personnel.
5. Services; Examples: The service industry can span from informing opt-in customer list of upcoming sales or sending out m-discount coupons.
6. Food and Beverage; Examples: Manufacturers  receiving order updates from mobile sales staff or sending out customer callbacks contact information to mobile staff members.
7. Corporate CRM and Email based systems also rely on SMS capabilities, to enable sending of messages to mobile handsets.

Thus there is a vibrant, expansive and on ongoing use of SMS within the corporate sector that remains consistent despite the introduction of more consumer tailored messaging technologies used over the smartphone medium.

Traffic Volumes 2008-2013 From Comreg.ie Quarterly Reviews

How SMS can be used in your Business

Text messaging (SMS) can be used in all manners of ways to assist your daily business activities. The technology has the added benefit of building-in cost efficiency to your overall communication requirements. Below are just a sample of ways that SMS can be seamlessly implemented into your regular communication processes, but it is by no means extensive. For more detailed analysis of specific services, we outline scenarios on our website how specific departments can beneficially avail of SMS.

Below are just some of the many uses of text messaging within a business context:

1. Send out Confirmation Receipts
2. Contact your staff rather than using costly phone calls
3. Keep customers informed of latest offers and upcoming sales
4. To confirm appointments instead of sending letters/postcards
5. Organise meetings
6. Receive customer queries instead of supporting costly multiple phone lines and call staff
7. Inform customers of delivery dates as opposed to calling
8. Receive information status updates from staff abroad or on the road
9. Receive order updates in real-time from sales representatives
10. Alert IT staff of server issues as opposed to maintaining costs of having staff onsite 24 hours
11. Update staff globally on new initiatives etc., without the expense of international calling
12. Increase your company’s green credentials by reducing paper waste (with added bonus of slashing paper usage costs)
13. Receive cancellations before deliveries (saves not calling to a locked empty location)
14. Market more effectively- SMS is a push based technology, so your message is displayed immediately to your customer
15. Increase your sales and brand awareness by allowing people to respond to your advertisements requesting further information
16. Inform internal staff immediately when online order payments pages fail (minimise downtime of a critical element)
17. Inform customers when work has been carried out
18. Allow staff to create micro-blogging on your website- creates a very cheap but effective form of customer interactivity
19. Ensure delivery of your message- unlike most mediums, you can view the real-time delivery status of a SMS message, so you can be assured that the message you sent has been delivered- reduces follow-up calls
20. Encourage sales staff to meet targets by sending them out real-time updates on performance
21. Allow customers to text in when orders are low, and that they need an order or call-out by a sales representative
22. Send out customers/ 3rd parties tickets (called e-tokens/e-tickets) to events- saving costs of printing tickets, for events
23. Sending out to your suppliers quality alerts on the products that they delivered
24. Sending out to your suppliers changes in pricing structure or other critical customer-supplier related information