Using SMS text in your marketing mix

SMS is not just for promotion. Have you fully considered the possibilities of text marketing to grow your business?

What is the Marketing Mix?

For those unfamiliar with the 7Ps of the marketing mix, imagine your business represented in the form of a cake – yummy. All businesses will have different ingredients that make up their cake

Some cakes (businesses) will be different sizes. The marketing mix studies 7 ingredients to your business: product, price, promotion, place, process, people and physical evidence, assessing how each of them perform.

Despite primarily being a communications tool, SMS can add value in all areas of the marketing mix. This post illustrates how SMS can be used to make your cake taste better and make customers want more of it!

7 ingredients for SMS

1. Product/Service

SMS is a great way of adding a personal touch to your product or service; especially post purchase. Have a think of some of the problems your customers encounter after they purchase from you. Can you add value by helping them? For example, a travel agent could add a link to a text message post-booking to instantly solve a customer problem and drive traffic to their website:

‘You’re almost set to go on your holiday! Here is our pre-flight shopping list to make sure you’ve got everything you need: www.holidays.co.uk/checklist. Enjoy your trip!’

Is there any support or additional content you can send your customers post purchase?

2. Price

Use a simple text message to reward loyal customers. Send discount promo codes to those customers who will really appreciate it and develop advocacy with a simple text.

A restaurant could send:
“Hi Simon, we have a new menu for summer. Come and try the new dishes this June. Show this promo code 80931 at the bar for 20% off.”

Do you reward your loyal customers enough?

3. Promotion

The possibilities for promotion with text marketing are endless; some of the other illustrations in this post could arguably be seen as promotional activities. For the purposes of this article, we will consider push communication to be classed as promotion.

An event company could send:
'Tickets are now available to attend our event on the 20th June. Click to find out more and book your place www.event.co.uk'.

4. Place

Got a 9-5 business on the high street? Don’t close communication when you shut at 5pm. Use a keyword on our 82228 shortcode to generate leads and business outside of hours.

For example, a carpet retailer could display the following message in their shop window.
'Need to get a free measure and estimate? Text MEASURE to 82228 and we’ll contact you when we’re next open to book a suitable time.'

Are you open for business 24/7?

5. Process

Use text messaging to make processes work better. Send gentle reminders to customers – whilst also reducing costs such as missed appointments.

'Hi Dan, this is a reminder that you have an appointment tomorrow at 9am. If you can no longer attend then reply CANCEL or call us on 01326 620 000.'

This feature is particularly powerful when integrated with CRM software.

6. People

Use URL functionality to monitor how your staff represent your brand and much more.
'We hope you enjoyed your stay. How did we do? Please leave us a review. www.website.co.uk/review'

With high open rates, SMS is highly effective at driving response rates for reviews on websites like Tripadvisor.

7. Physical Evidence

Use an auto reply feature to give your customers some extra reassurance. The auto-reply function allows you to confirm orders and let customers know you’ve received their text.

Going back to the earlier example of the carpet retailer, the auto-reply could be:
'Thank you for your request for a free measure and estimate. We will be in contact shortly.'

Personality

At FireText we believe in an extra ‘P’ – Personality. Text marketing is a very personal way of engaging with customers, so make sure you use this to your full potential by demonstrating your brands personality in all your SMS communications.

'Hey dude… just wanted to make sure you were completely stoked with your new skateboard. You can reply to this text. Alex.'

Your Marketing Mix

Are there any elements of your marketing mix that could be improved with SMS marketing? With 98% open rates and over 9 in 10 messages opened within 5 minutes, SMS could be your best marketing decision this year.

Thanks to Ben Trebilcock for sharing his thoughts and opinions in this blog post. Ben Trebilcock helps businesses use SMS marketing to reach and engage with customers at FireText. You can connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+.