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WHY SMS MARKETING MAKES SENSE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES...

By Daisy Mae

Ask any small business owner how much the business has in the budget for marketing and you will probably find that this is one thing that has been completely underestimated and in amy cases has already been overspent. But there is a way around this problem as you discover that some forms of marketing can be much cheaper than you think.

 SMS stands for Small Message System. SMS marketing enables businesses to get a simple and short message across to customers at an extremely cost effective rate. It may be used to advise customers of a weekly special deal. While email marketing hits the inbox and stays there as an unread and mostly unwanted communication, SMS messages have a much higher success rate for being opened and most are opened within an hour of being sent. One of the advantages of using this new media is that people take their phones with them everywhere they go. So if you want to let your customers know about an offer that is extremely limited and the first 50 customers to respond will get the offer price, then SMS is a great way to do this.

Getting customers to sign up to a regular SMS service is a very good idea and you can advertise on your website and on your marketing literature to tell your customers exactly how to sign up. They also need to have the option of stopping your messages at any point so using a specialist provider to help you set up your system would be a good idea.

Another alternative system would be to sign up with an SMS marketing company that covers your geographic area. If you are a restaurant and want your special offer for the day to get out to the people in the area, then these companies can get that message out there in real time.

There are also coupon companies that advertise on line and customers can download coupons for them selves. Businesses can alert their customer base to this facility by SMS message and they will be able to repeat of replace the offers knowing that their customers will bookmark and scan the latest deals, regularly making the most of the offers available.

With the ability to opt out at any time, the customer can gain the benefit of being the first to know about the special deals on offer and will also have the option of being able to immediately respond. By sending these short SMS messages in a method that is becoming more familiar with people of all ages, customer loyalty can be gained and repeat business can be won at a fraction of the cost of alternative marketing methods.