Mobile Marketing Bristol

Using SMS messages can be fast and quick and can boost your business in less than the time it takes to make a phone call.

Using Mobile Phones to Market Your Business

Small business owners can use the short messaging service (SMS) on their mobile phones to effectively advertise their business.

The popularity of mobile phones has spread through all walks of life where over 45 million text messages are sent in the UK every day. A majority of these text messages will be personal, however, businesses – particularly small businesses – can use SMS to their advantage.

Using SMS to Advertise

If you have a new product, service, offer, announcement, etc, you can effectively target your customers by sending them a SMS.

Most of the latest mobile phones allow you to send a single text message to multiple recipients. The only set-back is that many of these phones have a maximum recipient number of around 10 (at the very most). However, older mobile phones meant that you would have to write the message, send it to customer 1, write the message again, send it to customer 2, write the message again...

If your mailing list is large, software is available to use on your PC that sends out text messages just like a mobile phone to a large number of recipients. The software will act similar to an email account allowing recipients to reply to you (delivered in the style of an email) if required.

You can download free software to send SMS from your PC at the link below:

www.24x.com/n-textmessaging.asp

Example Messages

Be as informative as you like. However do not forget that text messages usually have a limit of 160 characters.

“10% off all orders over £100 this weekend only”

“We are now stocking the latest mobile phones at prices ranging from £34.99. Call in today and let us find a mobile phone for you”

“We are having a presentation on the 13th of January to demonstrate our latest products. The event is held at the Community Hall at 7pm. Entry is free in addition to free refreshments”

“Enter our free prize draw for your chance to win £100. Entry forms available in shop”

“Our records show that your car is ready for a service on 31st October. Please contact us so that we can book you in at a time that is convenient for you”

Building & Managing Your Mailing Lists

Advertise your SMS marketing service to all those that may be interested: posters displayed clearly around the premises will be a good start. Allow customers to leave their mobile phone numbers on individual cards. You should always allow customers to ‘opt-in’ for the service and never freely add numbers to your mailing list by copying from, say, customer order forms, etc.

Keep your mailing list clean and always give customers the option to ‘opt-out’.

Rules & Regulations

There are rules and regulations that apply to SMS marketing campaigns, so be aware!

Visit www.dma.org.uk (The Direct Marketing Association)