One of the criticisms levelled at bulk SMS as a communication channel is that you are restricted to a rather mean 160 characters. This level was set rather arbitrarily when SMS was invented back in the early 90s. It’s basically a short sentence.
So while your bulk SMS message has an over 98% chance of being read, it’s going to be short on content.
E-mail by contrast has no such restrictions but as we all know, has a miserable delivery and read rate. Perhaps there might be some way of combining the power and impact of SMS with the detail and superior functionality of e-mail.
We recently ran a detailed survey that asked over 1300 people what they thought about receiving bulk SMS communications from companies that they deal with. One of the questions was specifically related to this issue.
“Would you like to receive texts from companies alerting you to offers that they have sent you by e-mail?”
We found that 67% of people said ‘yes’. This surprisingly high positive response hints at people’s frustrations that e-mails that they would like to see are being lost in the deluge that we all receive every day. So it seems a text can acts as a kind of highlighter pen or filter for our marketing e-mails, pinpointing offers that would otherwise be missed.
Using bulk SMS as a way of highlighting e-mail offers would on the face of it seem to be a fairly obvious plan. From over 10,000 Text Marketer customers, only two or three using this technique, so there’s a huge opportunity for companies to generate more response from their direct marketing activities.
Implementing this idea will take you just a few moments. Step one is to set up a free bulk SMS account. This will take you a couple of minutes and you will receive some free text credits for testing. Then it’s simply a case of uploading your customer mobile numbers and sending your SMS alert shortly after your next e-mail offer lands.
If you would like ideas on how else bulk SMS could be used, take a look at our message depot which might give you inspiration. If you’d like to discuss any element of your mobile marketing activities, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, you’ll find our details on the contacts page.