Bulk SMS: The Business Quick-Start Guide

Retail

Bulk SMS for retail is an intimate channel of communication that businesses can use to increase promotional reach, create greater brand awareness, develop customer loyalty, and achieve phenomenal response rates. Companies have used mass text messaging to boost retail ROI in several ways:

• Entice customers to return to the store with exclusive mobile coupons. Example: "Show this text to the cashier for 15% off your next purchase. Applies to new & used items. Exp 6/30."
• Notify customers about new products and services with text alerts. Example: "Food Lover’s Alert! Our Famous Pumpkin Pie now available. During the month of October only!"
• Let customers know when their product is available with custom text notifications. Example: "Mr. Smith: Your order has arrived and is ready for pickup between 9AM-5PM. Thx for choosing Joe’s!"
• Announce sales events with SMS Blasts. Example: "Wild Winter Sale! This week only, all snowboards and boots are 20% off!"
• Cross-Channel SMS Marketing for Retail. Example: "Thanks for shopping in our store! Scan the bar code on your dress now to see which in-stock belts and bags go with your purchase! Plus see other coupons available in-store today only."

If you want to dig a little deeper on mobile coupons, get instant access to our free eBook 4 Types of Mobile Coupons to Use in Your SMS Marketing Campaigns. Inside you'll learn how to use free gifts to attract attention, offer the right discount percentage, and make the most of BOGO promotions.

Restaurants

Text message marketing for restaurants, cafes, and food service is perhaps the most effective strategy for engaging customers and boosting sales. Texting enables you to connect with customers about new dishes and restaurant news, leverage keywords to expand your contacts, and even confirm reservation times.

Here are a few real-life examples of how smart marketers are successfully using bulk SMS to ramp up restaurant sales.

Brian's Place created a VIP program for his best customers. Through trial and error, Brian found a mix of messages that help him with a variety of objectives in the restaurant. Brian uses coupons and special offers to drive foot traffic on light days of the week or the slow season. For example, he’ll offer a $5 off coupon for guests that come in midweek, which is when it is typically slower. Brian’s Place serves a special fish catch of the week occasionally. When this happens, he takes advantage of EZ Texting’s MMS messaging to send an image of the special fish catch of the week out to his customers. Brian’s restaurant will have regular special events, and he uses the text program to get the word out to his customers. He will send out a message the week of the event, “Come out to Brian’s Place this Saturday from 6pm to 9pm for live music!” Read the full case study.

A Domino's Pizza franchisee in Charlotte, NC used a cross-promotion between text messaging and Facebook to grow his following. Franchise owner Ryan Swanson promoted a free offer at sporting events to get a large number of subscriptions. Once the contact subscribed, they received this message: "To get FREE pizza, join our facebook group at UNCCDominos.com. Once you join post a message (I GOT A TEXT) & you will get FREE pizza code. Reply STOP 49ER 2 Optout." Swanson got a very high opt-in rate on the initial offer and regularly sees coupon redemption rates of 20-25% on subsequent specials. Read the full case study.

The Couch Tomato Cafe collected over 5,000 mobile phone numbers in a year by using simple paper forms for people to signup, as well as verbal signups at the point-of-sale. After sending a couple of texts with marginal success, the owner sent the following text and got an impressive result. "*Special Offer* til March 31st; mention text - FREE QUESADILLAS with purchase of any Pizza AND Salad!!" The text brought in about 70 extra orders over their average Friday volume. With an average order value of $15, this single text generated over $1,000. Read the full case study.

Real Estate

Real estate agents are using text marketing in some very creative ways.

To give potential home buyers sneak peeks into the homes they’re interested in purchasing, realtors can put a “text HOUSE16 to 99453 for more information” tag on their printed signs. When prospective buyers text, they receive MMS messages with interior images of the house and websites containing more info about the listings, all without having to type in long URL addresses or navigate entire websites.

Real estate agents can then market to contacts in a number of ways including sending a text when a new property comes on the market or when a property they have expressed an interest in drops in price.

Bulk SMS can also be a great way for apartment communities to communicate. Organizers are using text messaging to notify residents of weather emergencies, power outages, upcoming construction, special events, and deadlines for HOA dues.

Schools

Bulk messaging SMS for schools takes advantage of a popular channel of communication in order to quickly convey important messages to student groups, parents, faculty, and employees.

Schools use text to advertise the dates of future parent/teacher meetings, ensure that permission slips are received, request donations, and inform parents of absenteeism or outstanding fees. Teachers and school administrators can be given notice of future staff meetings, while individual teachers can use the bulk text messaging service to conduct remote Q&A sessions with their students prior to examinations.

Viking Cooking School uses bulk SMS to communicate with its students, instructors, and staff. Every week, the school takes a look at their class schedule and decides which classes need to be filled. They then send out messages to promote classes with low enrollment. "Girls Night Out in Vegas! Cook shrimp to perfection, make melt in your mouth biscuits and grilling meat to perfection Sun 4/18 5PM-8PM call 898-8345" One recent text filled eight class spots, valued at $79 each. A single text message that cost less than $15 to send resulted in an additional $632 in revenue. Read the full case study.

Nonprofits

Non-Profits are also using text messaging to increase awareness and engagement on important issues. These organizations send texts to promote events, keep contacts up-to-date on news, and conduct fundraising.

David Valk, of Students For The National Equality March, used EZ Texting’s group text messaging service to collect phone numbers of students who would be converging on Washington, D.C. for the National Equality March. These students would then be alerted on the day of the “flash protest” of the time and location. In total, 827 participants opted-in to receive a text message indicating a time and location to meet. The text message was sent just after 1PM: “ATTN!! FLASH PROTESTS IN DC!! MEET @ WASHINGTON MONUMENT … 3PM. END DONT ASK DONT TELL!” On-duty police officers estimated a total of 1,200 people participated in the student-led flash protest. Read the full case study.

Water Is Basic uses bulk texting to update their donors and supporters each time they drill a new well in Sudan. The current rate is about one well per week, with an eventual goal of one per day. Not only do the messages convey information about their cause, but the campaign keeps contacts in the loop, encouraging them to donate more frequently and to pass the word onto their friends and family members. Read the full case study.

Sports & Fitness

Fitness gyms have done particularly well with text message marketing. These gyms often see a boost in customer engagement, improvements in retention rates, and growth in the member base. They use to send notifications about:

• Personalized workout plans
• Diet plans
• Alerts
• Class schedules
• Motivational messages
• Promotions and cross marketing

Sports teams use text message marketing to grow their fan base in a number of ways, such as updating the latest schedules, scores, team information, player stats, ticket promotions, contests, and giveaways.

Churches

Churches use bulk SMS over other communications channels partly because their members are devoted and want to hear from them in a personal way. Text alerts have a broad range of applications useful for church groups:

• Spiritual encouragement
• Aphorisms
• Pertinent scripture verses
• Request to invite a friend to a service
• Weather-related cancellations
• Guest speaker notifications

Saddleback Church, one of the largest congregations in the US, used text messaging to replace their cumbersome and expensive pager system to alert parents when they needed to be reached about their child during services. They were also able to increase the interactivity of their services and send daily bible verses to the congregation. Saddleback recently ran a trivia contest before their Easter services. Those in the attendance were encouraged to text in codes corresponding to various answers (SB1, SB2, etc.). When they texted in their answer to the various questions, they were encouraged to sign up for subscription alerts by a return text message. Read the full case study.

Third Reform Church has found text messaging to be particularly useful for their youth group with about 80% opting to receive texts. Student Ministry Leader Craig Zuithoff sends reminders of upcoming events and meetings about two times per week. He also hosts a Monday night meeting with a small group of students that changes locations almost weekly. In order to spread the word about their next meeting place, he simply sends a text a few hours beforehand. Read the full case study.