Tag: customer service text messaging examples

Mobile Marketing

Mobile #101 – Essential Guide to Using Mobile Marketing (Series Post)

(Post 10 of 12)

Will my business benefit from a complementary mobile channel?

Mobile Marketing will help you to drive footfall, it will offer customer interaction, it will certainly offer voucher redemption opportunities which in turn can increase brand loyalty and significantly improve your consumer marketing and acquisition metrics.

However, although mobile channels provide the vehicle to reach consumers, your marketing content is king. Remember your reasons for investing – grow sales, reduce churn, increase spend, reduce costs. It’s not just about the technology, it’s how effectively you can interact with your audience. The best solutions are invariably represented by multi – channel solutions.

For example, I recently managed a content – driven campaign that was delivered by email due to the amount of copy required in the message. When supported by text message at a later point in the day to drive virtual footfall back to the email, the response rate doubled and our client enjoyed a 52% response to the campaign.

What is my mobile marketing plan?

So you understand your business strategy, objectives, challenges and goals and perhaps even how mobile marketing can help you deliver these today. But what about tomorrow, next year and in three years?

Mobile Marketing is consumer driven, with its endless and relentless appetite for content relevant to the individual at a time to suit, the challenge is to adapt and develop with your customers demands.

An effective mobile marketing supplier will be able to offer you a mobile journey that initially accommodates your immediate requirements. They will provide guidance around client engagement, regulatory compliance, database creation and development, then have the product suite to take you through a development journey, in-line with your customers expectations – incorporating content management, voucher redemption and virtual loyalty programmes.

What kind of success can i expect?

Mobile Marketing lends itself well to a B2C environment given consumers demand and reward. Customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and cross sell are leading anchor propositions. It is easy to see how retail has a great deal to gain from a succesful mobile marketing strategy.

In order to understand the art of the possible, you really should engage a partner with a strong consultative model and a robust and proven technical product portfolio representing presence and communication solutions. If customer acquisition is a business objective then a partner with opt in database capabilities is a significant advantage.

If this series has captured your attention or sparked your interest in mobile marketing, then working with a trusted mobile partner should be your next step.

 

Talk to me today and let me see if I can help you achieve more from your mobile strategy.

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Marketing

Mobile #101 – Essential Guide to Mobile Marketing (Series post)

Post 1 of a series of 12 – Introduction to Mobile Marketing

This blog and everything I talk about here should provide company owners and senior managers with simple steps that they can take before investing in a mobile channel strategy, either independent or as part of a multi channel plan.

Consumers are now truly mobile in their browsing and shopping habits. They increasingly expect companies and brands to deliver mobile – enabled services that meet their needs regardless of what device they are connecting on.

All customer focused businesses need to be aware of the many challenges that come with the development of mobile strategies. These can include mixed and confusing messages, claims of astonishing achievements, a lack of technological understanding and the added complication of where to turn for expert guidance.

The starting point for all businesses is to understand that the rush to engage with consumers using mobile technology involves more than the development of an App or loyalty program. As I will explain throughout this post series, its important to develop a fully considered mobile strategy before starting any technical development and companies that take a considered long term approach tend to out perform in the increasingly important mobile space.

Mobile is ubiquitous, it has taken less than 20 years to revolutionise the way we communicate with each other. It offers instant gratification, constant contact and an immediate payment system.

However utilising its fantastic power to gain brand loyalty from your new and old customers alike is a tricky business. Get it wrong and you will struggle to ever get it right again. Get it right and you will grow revenues, gain brand loyalty and acquire new customers.

Over this series you will learn the types of questions to ask prospective mobile partners, questions a senior manager should ask their sales and marketing or commercial teams and questions that senior management should ask before adopting a new mobile channel strategy.

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I hope you enjoy and learn from this series

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Marketing

On-line Retailers use SMS to counter Abandoned Baskets….

An estimated £4 trillion worth of on-line shopping transactions were abandoned in 2014 by UK consumers according to Business Insider. One in four of these abandoned transactions were not taken elsewhere as individuals cancelled their shopping attempt altogether, resulting in £283m worth of net lost revenue for UK retailers.

Another study found that 68% of UK shoppers abandoned at least one on-line shopping transaction last year due to complexity or time taken at the point of sign up on a website.

Whilst Abandoned Baskets may always be a problem for any number of reasons, the trick is to engage these “nearly” customers as soon as possible after they leave you. Often people haven’t got time right there and then to finish the purchase process and save things for later, and then later never comes!

As a retailer you need to know as soon as I close my browser window and react to this by engaging with me immediately.

The problem with all this of course is that traditionally retailers have used email as their chosen method of contact, this often results in me receiving an email sent upwards of three hours after a consumer abandons a cart (so not real time) which sits in my already over crowded inbox and may not get looked at for a period of time again. This ultimately may mean that I never come back to finish that particular purchase.

To begin recapturing this revenue opportunity you should be using an SMS solution which takes simple logic to detect when a basket is abandoned and via a simple API call triggers an SMS responder message to the customers phone to ask them to complete the transaction.

To help drive your visitors to complete the checkout process you also have the option of offering purchase incentives that are easily configured to increase over time within your recovery SMS campaigns. Integrate SMS into your website and engage with both existing and new customers in real time as they visit your site.

Expand the customers shopping experience beyond the 9 – 5, beyond the confines of a PC or Laptop, to include the one thing they have with them all the time – their mobile phone.

Do You Know?

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You can use our Application Programming Interface (API) to create a call from the website back-end whenever a CTA is performed and generate an instant SMS message response for your customer.

Imagine a consumer sitting on the train and trying to buy something from your ecommerce site.

Next thing this consumer knows, it is time to get off and so the item that was about to be purchased is abandoned in the basket.

However, you have an SMS API on your website linked to Abandoned Baskets which sends a call to SMS the consumer in realtime that reminds him that this item is still in the basket. “Click on this link to complete the order” or even “come back and finish your order for £3 off p&p”

Using SMS as a real time engagement and two-way communications tool to strengthen relationships to your user base helps create better and more targeted info to a user and helps conversion.

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Marketing

5 REASONS TO USE SMS THIS FESTIVE SEASON

1. Its immediate!!

97.5% of SMS messages are read within 5 seconds of being received. SMS has an open rate of 97%;compared to email at 5%.

With SMS to Email auto responders increasing EMAIL opens when an SMS reminder is sent by over 47%

2. It’s a growing channel – (people get it and they love to interact)

42% receive a positive response from a growing captive audience, as more and more people access communications via their mobile.

SMS increases purchasing in retail, that’s a fact. Of the 29% of people who respond to SMS 49% go on to make a purchase.

3. It’s great for acquiring new customers

SMS is an ideal way to improve permissions-based outbound communication with customers.

4. It’s extremely effective

SMS over performs against other channels as a standalone marketing tool, or as part of a multi-channel strategy.

5. It’s a cross channel enabler

SMS can increase the success of other channels when implemented together. Follow up SMS to email campaigns can increase call to action within an email by up to 20%.

SME Guides to Mobile Marketing

SMS Marketing for Estate Agents

In real estate and property management, a very important aim is to offer effective communications with your potential buyers, sellers, renters and tenants without being intrusive. In this fast paced industry, it is essential to communicate as much information as possible about the properties you manage.

Mobile solutions help enhance your current marketing and communications strategies by making it possible to communicate directly to the mobile devices of those you need to reach;

  •          Create a simple campaign to communicate with property buyers,
  •          Sellers and Renters
  •          Real-time and cost efficient
  •          Provide a substantial reduction in cost as compared to traditional
  •          forms of communication – email, letters and certified mail.

SMS marketing can help you to:
For a few pence per message, texting is also by far the most affordable means of communicating with potential buyers, sellers and renters as well as current tenants, suppliers and maintenance employees. You may currently rely on email; unfortunately less than 10% of acquisition emails % are read, compared to 97% of text messages.

You can use the mobile solutions to improve communications of all kinds. Types of messages that should be sent:
Estate Agents can….

  • Instant contact with prospective buyers or renters about properties that may be of interest to them
  • Schedule, confirmation and reminders of property viewing
  • Current mortgage rate
  • Mortgage programs with bank partners
  • Refer a friend scheme

Property Management Consultants can ……..

  • Reach large numbers of tenants simultaneously
  • Allows targeted messaging to individuals as well
  • Schedule, confirmation, or reschedule property repair dates
  • Late rent reminders
  • Report emergency situations at the properties you manage
  • Refer a friend scheme
  • General property guidelines that are not being followed
  • Lease renewal reminders
  • Recycling Guideline

Is texting right for my business?
The simple answer is that mobile marketing can be beneficial to any business. The real advantage of SMS marketing is that it’s affordable and scalable; anyone can do it and to any number of contacts so it really doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, texting can benefit you.

How do I use mobile to interact with my tenants or buyers?

Interactive text messaging enables you to engage with an audience by encouraging them to text in a short-code to receive a variety of information. Imagine growing loyalty by asking customers to take part in valuable feedback on their recent home purchase or rental, or enhancing your current advertising by prompting prospective buyers and renters to text in a keyword for a free property estimate or a month’s free rent. These are just a few of the ways that businesses are taking advantage of the shift in consumer behavior regarding the use of mobile phones as a way of life. It’s also a great way to build your mobile database, and allows consumers to opt-in to your mobile marketing campaigns.
How much is too much?
People these days expect to receive information on their mobile devices, but they may not be so pleased to hear from you if your messages start to become too regular. We recommend contacting buyers and renters not more than once per month with information (unless there is an urgent matter that needs immediate attention). For the majority of property companies, one message per month is enough to keep tenants up to date with information. However, for property buyers, you may want to ask if they wish to receive alerts to homes that fit their requirements and budget.

Protecting your client data
The final thing to consider before you embark on an SMS campaign is: who should manage your mobile marketing? Who in your business should be given the responsibility of maintaining your client database and ensuring the right messages are sent to the right people? In truth, there is only really one answer to this question. Your client contact database, in particular the mobile numbers it contains should be highly protected. Only the company management and authorized personnel should be able to access this and they should have the final say on the content of messages and when and who will receive them.