Guess what?
As business people we need to recognize the tremendous opportunity we are presented with. Text messaging gives us an opportunity to reach our prospective customers with messages at the exact moment they are looking to buy. The following are five steps you can use to effectively market your business with the use of text messaging. For the purpose of this article I’ll use a restaurant as an example.
Step one – Create a diner’s club
Humans are born with a need to belong. The most successful companies focus on this need and fill it. That’s why there are loyalty programs, frequent flyer programs, buying clubs and an association for any possible niche in the world. The bottom line is that people are natural joiners, so give them a way to join and become affiliated with your business.
Step two – Create an offer
Just because you started a diner’s club doesn't mean that everyone will simply join. Keep in mind that along with emerging technology comes more information than anyone can possibly consume. This is making your customers think a bit longer about what they sign up for and if there isn’t something valuable for them, they simply won’t join. Make sure that you specify exactly what they will get. Will they get a “buy one, get one” offer, or a free dessert upon joining? Will they also get a free dinner on their birthday, and a dinner for two on their anniversary? Will they get diner’s club members ONLY special discounts throughout the month?
The "what" isn’t as important as the value. Your objective is to motivate them to send a text message to your special number which will automatically enroll them in your cell phone mailing list, so make sure the offer is something you feel has great enough value that you would sign up for it yourself.
Step three – Advertise your club
Once you’ve created your club - and created an irresistible offer - it’s time to let your customers know about it. Whether you create table tents, send a mailing to your “snail mail” list, send out an email blast or have a contest among your waitstaff rewarding the person who gains the most new members for the month. Just make sure you have a solid advertising plan to get the word out.
Step four – Send updates, not SPAM
It’s time to send out your updates. Don’t ruin all the hard work you’ve done by spamming your list. The updates you send out should have valuable offers that are irresistible to your members.
The best way to utilize this list is to send out offers on slower days of the week. If you happen to live in a climate that has very snowy days, send out an offer where your club members receive a free dinner if they come in that evening. People don’t normally eat alone. They’ll probably bring someone with them and maybe their entire family.
Step five – Engage your members
As your membership base grows it will be important to engage your members with contests and sending out other useful or entertaining information. Maybe it’s a joke of the week, a quote of the month or an occasional link to a funny article you’ve read. It doesn’t really matter what it is as long as it engages and entertains your members. They’ll appreciate it if they receive information from you that isn’t only asking them to spend money.
The more technology advances, the more opportunities we’ll have to engage our customers everywhere! It’s important as business owners and marketers to stay on top of technology and take advantage of these incredible opportunities.
It doesn’t matter what type of business you have. Use your imagination and come up with ways to market your business with text messaging. Just be creative and you will put yourself and your company in a position to win.
