Is your Business a Sweet-Spot-Fit for Bulk SMS Marketing?

If you own or operate a small business where margins are tight and marketing budgets are even tighter you may be considering SMS marketing as the solution to your marketing needs. At Text Republic we would maintain that almost any business can benefit from marketing their business through SMS but there are certain types of businesses that are what we call a Sweet-Spot Fit. These are businesses whose characteristics mean they benefit from using SMS to a much greater degree that those that do not share those characteristics. We know all this by observing our current clients and if you think you may be a sweet-spot fit then we would encourage you to ask yourself the following five questions.

Do your customers have a reasonably regular purchase cycle?

If your customers consume your product or service on a regular basis then you are already half way to being a sweet-spot fit for bulk SMS marketing. Pizzerias, convenience stores, restaurants, pharmacies and butchers are all examples of this type of business with very regular purchase cycles. The reason for this is that products that are purchased with irregular frequency (e.g. furniture or car parts) are bought when absolutely needed and consumers tend to be far more picky about where they get them, what they pay and generally do much more research before making the transaction. For small value items the decision process is much less involved, convenience plays a huge part but above all being top of mind when the purchase decision is being made is the most vital element of all.

If for example your business is one of five lunch venues within 100 meters of a busy office block, all things being equal you can expect to get about 20% of that lunch time trade. If however you can manage to be top of mind at around 11am when those office workers are making their choice of lunch venue, you can expect to tilt the scales in your favour and win considerably more than 20% of that trade. When attempting to be top of mind at that critical time of purchase decision, there is nothing that can compare to a text message as it has no lead time to execution, the read rate is near 100% and the delivery is almost instantaneous.

Do you have some leeway to give up margin in favour of increasing the volume of your sales?

One of the absolute musts with SMS marketing is that you have to offer the customer some real tangible value. A marketing text message that tells your customers about your opening hours or how fabulous you think your products are will not impress the recipient and they will opt out in their droves. Offering value generally means a discount of some sort so having some wiggle room when it comes to price is a huge advantage. If you are happy to give up some margin (or bundle some products together for a combined price) to increase volume in the hope of ultimately increasing profit, then SMS marketing is very likely a perfect fit for your small business marketing needs.

Do you regularly have promotions, discounts and sales?

If your business regularly discounts certain products or runs monthly sales then you are naturally set up to offer value to your customer base, as stated in the last point this makes you an almost perfect fit for marketing your business by SMS. If you are ever promoting a sale in your business by SMS, we suggest you try one or two of the following techniques which will help you drive exceptional footfall –

• Mention 2 or 3 headline items with the greatest ‘wow appeal’ in the body of your marketing text message.
• Mention the limited quantity of certain items that are available in the sale to ensure customers act quickly for fear of losing out.
• Open your sale to your opted in database 3 days in advance of everyone else to promote a feeling of exclusivity and special treatment.
• Include a mobile coupon code that will offer the recipient even more value than a walk-in customer.

Are your customers looking for value and a bit of exclusive treatment?

Some consumers are more price sensitive than others and if your business has a majority of very price sensitive customers then SMS marketing is probably a very good fit for your marketing needs. There are a few reasons that this is the case –

• When advertising your mobile club it is far easier to get customers to opt-in when you promise them great value and money savings.
• Customers are more likely to stay opted-in for longer when they know it is saving them money.
• Very price sensitive customers tend to pass on news of great savings in great numbers to other very price sensitive customers – this will ultimately help you to continue to grow the numbers in your opted in database.

SMS is a great way to communicate money saving offers to customers and if your customers are very price conscience then you should be using it.

Do you sell perishable goods or have a regular need to make room for new stock?

Every business owner knows that it is better to sell a product at any fraction of the cost price than have it reach it’s sell-by-date and become unsellable. As there is virtually no lead time to executing on an SMS marketing campaign, you can almost instantly promote deep discounts on at-risk produce and greatly reduce losses on ‘gone off’ items. The very short lead time also lends itself to quickly moving old stock to make way for new stock. A great example of this is a hardware supplier customer of ours who has storage issues ahead of delivery of new stock. Again the very short lead time allows them to promote deep discounts on the old stock in advance of the arrival of the new stock and greatly reduce their storage capacity problems.

So – still wondering if you are a sweet spot prospect for using SMS to market your business? If you answered ‘Yes’ to even one of the above questions then we suggest you get cracking!

Conor McAleavey

Categorised in: SMS for Business Service