Text Marketing: Build Your Mobile Marketing Database Now and Reap Rewards in the New Year

Text marketing is the gift you can give to your business that keeps on giving. With the holidays just around the corner, the retail and hospitality industries are preparing for the economic boost that accompanies the spirited season of giving. Even in these dismal economic times, experts are predicting a 3 percent increase in retail sales during November and December. While down from the 4.1 percent spike in 2010, the estimate is above the 2.6 percent average gain over the last ten years. We can make use of text messaging platforms more effectively. Moreover, restaurant hiring managers are also predicting more positive outcomes, predicting increases in fourth quarter sales over last year and the previous year. So why we are all looking forward to closing out the year with a flourish, what can we do now to capitalize on the increased consumption throughout the holiday season that can generate sustained gains in the new year? Text Marketing Is the Answer. Text marketing, also known as SMS marketing or text message marketing, is a targeted marketing tool, focusing on those consumers who express interest in your brand. Text marketing campaigns include conveying informational messages about products or services, as well as offering promotions on products or services in the form of mobile coupons distributed via a single-use coupon code by text, or a common coupon code published through Facebook, Twitter, and the like. When used correctly, text marketing can build brand awareness, influence consumer traffic, reward customer loyalty, and increase sales. Text marketing begins with building your mobile marketing database. Interested consumers must opt-in to the text marketing service from their mobile phone, texting a keyword to a short code or scanning a QR code with a mobile device equipped with a QR reader application to receive information and/or offers from a business via text. The telephone number from which the keyword is sent or the QR code is read is added to a mobile database, which is solely owned by the business running the marketing campaign. Once stored in the database, the business can communicate with the customer via text, sending additional promotions or messages, at any frequency the business desires. The customer has the ability to remove themselves from the mobile database at any time by opting-out of the service through a simple text. Mobile marketing databases cannot be bought or sold so you have to build your own database if you want to take advantage of the many benefits of text marketing. Through text marketing, business can promote themselves and their products, building brand awareness and putting themselves in top-of-mind status with consumers. Business can inform customers about new products and increase awareness of their community involvement initiatives. Mobile coupons featuring specific products at discounted rates can also help to increase product awareness and drive sales of that product. Promotions valid for a certain time of day or day of week can influence when consumers buy products. Discounts or rewards based on buying, subscription, and redemption patterns can be a way to say thanks to loyal customers and keep them coming back. Businesses can also engage consumers in dialogue through text marketing, soliciting feedback from customers about product preferences and customer experiences, providing a level of consumer engagement through marketing previously unavailable. Ring in the new year with text marketing at work in your business and set yourself apart from the competition. Unlike the daily deal scenario, a text marketing solution empowers the business, eliminating the need for third party marketing affiliates. The consumer has the benefit of having information and promotional offers they want at their fingertips, and the business has the ability to communicate with their customers when they want and with the message they want.