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On Friday I received the following SMS message from Crunch Fitness Gym in Clonsilla, Dublin that I used to be a member of. It said "ST PATRICKS SPECIAL. Rejoin Crunch fitness before 7pm Mon 19th and receive a free Nike Rockstar course and no membership joining fee. Ltd spaces avail. 01 8025906" I was impressed with this use of SMS marketing to try and entice me back to their gym, it was a good example of using direct response SMS marketing by an Irish business. It works on the theory that selling to existing or past customers is much more cost effective than it is to sell to new ones. This is due to the fact that you have a track record with them already and they know what you can do for them. SMS message marketing is also much more cost effective than traditional direct mail at a cost of only 5 cent per message as opposed to 80 cent to put together and post a mailer. The response rate of SMS marketing in Ireland versus traditional media is also impressive. It is not uncommon for response rates to get as high as 40%. It is much harder to ignore a mobile phone beeping in your pocket than it is say a direct mailing piece sitting on your doorstep. This SMS message was also good as it made some attempt to give a reason for the promotion. People like to know the reason why you are making them an offer and a St Patrick’s day offer is as good as any. Another plus point of this message is the use of a free offer and waiving of the joining fee; this helps to strengthen the offer and makes it easier for people to try out the service. An even better approach might have been "no joining fee and first month free - try us out a no cost" Incorporating a deadline into the SMS marketing message is also another good idea. By giving a deadline of when the offer closes prospects know that they need to act fast. It gives a powerful call to action. So having seen this example of SMS marketing by a business in Ireland hopefully it will give you ideas of how you could incorporate text message marketing into your businesses marketing plan. In addition to using it to reactivate old clients it can also be used in lead generation. For example with your existing advertisements you could add instructions for those interested to send a text message with their email address to a particular number. This type of process could be automated very easily and the brochure could then be delivered by email. SMS marketing is particularly suited to time sensitive offers such as notifying customers at a bar that they are running a comedy night or having a special happy hour. Some businesses use it to try and sell excess capacity at the last minute, for example a hairdresser that has some unfilled appointments on a particular day could text all their regular clients offering 20% off a colour and cut for all appointments booked for that evening.
Article Source: Free Articles - http://www.articlesworldonline.com
Author: Matt Eve is a writer and owner of a specialist marketing company in Ireland.Read more articles at his irish marketing blog Click here to get your own unique version of this article.
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