{"id":446,"date":"2012-12-18T16:45:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T16:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2012-12-18T16:45:17","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T16:45:17","slug":"reach-out-and-sms-someone-to-boost-your-small-business-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/reach-out-and-sms-someone-to-boost-your-small-business-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Reach out and SMS someone to boost your small business marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to marketing your small business, you have a significant opportunity to reach customers with relevant information or a promotion with SMS. For starters, everyone has gone mobile<\/a>. There are 6 billion mobile subscribers<\/a>, which equates to 87 percent of the world\u2019s population. Of these, MBA online<\/a> points out that there are 4.2 billion texters.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, text message open rates are 97 percent<\/a> compared to 20 percent <\/a>for marketing emails. Not only are text messages popular, they also are cost effective since they don\u2019t require programming; and they are platform independent.<\/p>\n

\"Colorful<\/a><\/b>The right and wrong way to market with SMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rule number one of SMS marketing is to only text to people who opt-in to receive your message and make it easy for people to opt out. \u00a0Even among those who want to hear from you via SMS, avoid the hard sell. As convenient as SMS marketing may be, sending texts each day to customers only will sabotage your efforts. Recipients will ignore the message or opt-out of your list.<\/p>\n

Also make sure to use a name to associate your company that is easily identifiable since not all SMS systems display the mobile owner\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Other tips to for effective SMS marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep the message simple: You have a limited number of characters in your message \u2013 160 to be exact. Don\u2019t confuse your customers by trying to convey more than one point. Focus on one message per SMS and make it compelling.<\/p>\n

Use action words and short sentences: A verb at the beginning of your message makes the copy lively and inspires action. Use words like: buy, save or spend. Also keep your sentences short so your readers can quickly grasp your message and respond. Don\u2019t lose your readers with highly descriptive copy.<\/p>\n

Link to your site: Use your space to direct customers back to a landing site that offers more information about your promotion or to content on your website. You also want to direct customers to your social media pages.<\/p>\n

Integrate with other marketing campaigns: Promote your SMS service on your social media sites and prominently on your website to alert visitors to sign up.<\/p>\n

Be mindful of when you text: Avoid sending messages late at night out of consideration to your customers. Mid to late afternoon is considered the most effective time to send SMS when folks are wrapping up their work for the day. And if your customers are in different time zones, be extra careful about your timing.<\/p>\n

Before you send out your message, send it to your mobile phone first to make sure how it comes across on the small screen. If you don\u2019t like what you see, revise and retest until you are satisfied.<\/p>\n

Hope u gt gud rslts frm yr SMS mrktN!<\/p>\n

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When it comes to marketing your small business, you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[443,862,863],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}