Essential SMS Marketing Strategies

Charleville Chamber of Commerce

SMS Marketing makes for a great a way to connect directly with your customers for a host of reasons. Firstly, it allows you to instantaneously connect with your customers (existing or potential ones) through a device that they carry around with them all the time. Secondly, unlike email, text messages are almost always accessed and read by the recipient and you don’t have to deal with barriers like junk folders and spam filters. Thirdly, the limited character length of an SMS will force you to keep your message concise, eliminating irrelevancy and superfluous information while placing a much greater emphasis on well constructed communication. Fourthly, there are over 5 billion mobile phones being actively used worldwide, giving you a reach that surpasses every other marketing medium.               Oh and did I mention… It costs next to nothing!

If you’re going to incorporate SMS marketing into your campaign strategies, here are a few tips to keep you well ahead of the competition.

v  Structuring Your Content: There are several tips to keep in mind when designing SMS content. The most important thing to remember is that you have severely limited space, so get straight to the point. Here are a few important things to remember while constructing an SMS marketing message.

• Since you don’t have a lot of space to fit in an engaging lead, everything important, i.e., the crux of your message must be placed at the beginning of the text.

• Abbreviations are a great device that allow you to fit a long message into a short space, but using too many can make your message look pushy and hard to read. Use abbreviations that are easily recognized and then, only where absolutely necessary.

• Remember not to be informal. Despite SMS being a relatively casual medium of communication, you need to remember that you’re marketing to huge demographic, so keep your messages as professional as possible. That includes a zero-tolerance approach to grammatical and typographical errors.

• Unlike many other marketing channels, SMS doesn’t allow you the luxury of images or any visual cues beyond plain text. This means your communications have to be painstakingly obvious and any attempt at innuendo or tonal variation could be misread or badly received.

• Clearly mention your company’s name and contact details and make sure you have a professional air. You don’t want to be mistaken for spam and promptly deleted.

Short Codes – It’s highly recommended that you avail of an exclusive short code and at least two keywords so that you can segment your marketing. If you intend to embark on a highly segmented campaign, get one key word for each segment. However exclusive codes can be expensive and take time to set up. If you have an urgent marketing need or a limited budget, you can use shared short codes instead.

Invest In Mailing Lists Mailing lists are a great way to capitalize on SMS marketing. Find a data partner who can help you follow a policy of targeted marketing by offering you segmented lists. A good mailing list company will not only be able to give you scores of customer contact details but will also allow you to tailor your messages toward specific demographics. This can massively increase the effectiveness of your campaign and is likely to generate a lot more business.

Offer Exclusivity – Ask customers to subscribe to your ‘VIP Offer Club’ and send them weekly offers via SMS. People like to be part of something exclusive that actually has an effect on their lives, so make sure your offers are attractive enough to make in impact. An ‘exclusive’ 5% discount doesn’t really do much.

Timing Matters – Send out offers just before the weekend and come Saturday, you’ll find customers rushing to your store. On the other hand, you also could send out time-sensitive deals in the middle of the week to maximize profits on an otherwise slow business day.

You can also send out appointment reminders to business associates and anyone else you work with. Reminders can save you a great deal of angst and boost productivity by ensuring a more punctual schedule for everyone involved.

Let them opt-out – Make sure that you offer an easy way to opt-out of receiving any further SMS communications. At the end of the day, mobiles are highly personal devices and any attempt to force your marketing material on to an unwilling recipient is going to accomplish more harm than good.

Add That Personal Touch Apart from disseminating information or offers you can use SMS marketing as a tool to cultivate customer relationships. Messaging your long-standing clients on special occasions is a great way to build trust and brand awareness. Everyone appreciates a personalized greeting. Birthdays, anniversaries and events that have personal significance are particularly effective in this respect.

In conclusion, keep your messages short, your offers attractive and your timing exquisite and you should have absolutely no problem building up a successful SMS marketing campaign. Happy texting!

Chamber of Commerce, Charleville.

How to make money from affiliate marketing

Learning affiliate marketing – affiliate programs explained. Affiliate programs are very popular on the internet. If you do not have your own product to sell and you want to have a shot at earning some money on the internet, then affiliate marketing is the way to go.

More people are discovering the power of affiliate marketing to supplement or even replace their existing income. But there are even more people who would like to have a slice of this exciting world but are unsure exactly what an affiliate program is or what it consists of.

When discussing an affiliate program, it helps to compare it to a traditional networking company where a network of salespeople and distributors are recruited to sell their products to all corners of the globe.

As an example, instead of a company selling directly to their customers it sells products through a series of distributors and salespeople. In turn, the members of this distribution and sales network enjoy a very good living by promoting the products made by others.

In essence, the affiliate programs found on the internet are distribution and sales efforts taken to the online world. The affiliate web site takes the place of the distributor and sales network, and the individual is paid by the seller of the product when a sale is made. Of course there are affiliate programs where physical products have to be shipped but there are also many other affiliate programs where only software or informational products have to be downloaded.

It is easy to understand why this arrangement is so popular, from the point of view of both the merchant and the owner of the web site. The merchant benefits from increased sales and at the same time, does not have to pay for additional advertising and he can expand his network without the need for additional and sometimes expensive advertising. The affiliate on the other hand may not have a product of his own to make money from and selling someone else’s product for a share of the selling price gives him the opportunity to start his own business.

Of course, effort is required on the part of the affiliate to promote his website and the product he is trying to sell. There are many ways that an affiliate program can be promoted. An example would be if the affiliate already has a website and a link added directly to the merchant site. It costs nothing to set up and is very easy to do with a little cut and paste.

All good affiliate programs will have a back office with tools to use and it is always advisable to protect your affiliate links and therefore your commissions, by disguising your links so that they are not chopped off or used by anyone else. You can find a good program to use to prevent theft of your commission at http://www.1st-4-income.com/stopcommissiontheft.html.

Commissions paid by merchants vary. You can expect anything up to 70% or even more with some affiliate programs, but these will mainly be software downloads. If you go to Clickbank you will find thousands of such programs to promote. With these kinds of commissions, it is easy to see why the promotion of software type programs is such a great way to make money online. At the other end of the scale though some affiliate programs pay a pittance, as low as 1.5% in some cases and you will have to ask yourself if these will be worth the effort.

Affiliate programs are very popular on the internet. If you do not have your own product to sell and you want to have a shot at earning some money on the internet, then affiliate marketing is the way to go. Give a little time, effort and patience and you will be rewarded. So if you’re not already familiar with the concept of affiliate marketing, why not check it out?

Mid-Market Company Marketing Communications – Five Tips To Improve ROI

Charleville Chamber of Commerce

For the moment, the economy is chugging along, financial markets are recovering, summer holidays are about to start and, hopefully, your B2C, B2B or brand is growing. What could be better? Perhaps, your outlook for the future.

You’ve worked very hard to sustain your brand through the recent economic challenges, so perhaps now is the time to re-evaluate your situation, and focus on improving your marketing communications for the road ahead.

While competitors may be taking a breather, now may be the time for you to be aggressive and take a fresh look at your plans for the future, both short and long term. Here are five tips to keep in mind as you do so.

Knowledge Of Your Target Audience Trumps Opinion
Often, middle market brands believe they fully understand the wants and needs of their customers or constituents. However, consider employing market research to uncover their awareness of your brand, and how they really feel about you and your competition on various key attributes.

Doesn’t investing in research make sense before you spend your limited marketing communications budget? The good news is that research might confirm what you already know; the better news is that you might learn something new about how your audience really feels, and then be able to employ communications to correct what’s bothering them or highlight what’s important.

Understanding – rather than guessing – the wants and needs of your customers and prospects (as well as, perhaps, your own employees) can go a long way toward improving your marketing ROI.

Marketing Communications Audits Provide Real Value
If you haven’t recently (or ever) conducted a marketing communications audit, now is the ideal time to consider this tactic. Done properly, it will help you determine when, where and how to invest your time and money. At its core, you’ll be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your existing program as a whole, as well as how effective each tactic is in communicating your objectives.

The results of this type of audit will provide you with an actionable and coordinated road map of message delivery and spending allocation, across traditional and new media, events, content marketing, promotion and employee knowledge – and, like a financial audit, a tool for improving your profitability.

Promote Your Brand’s Anniversary
If your brand has an anniversary milestone coming up in the next two years, start planning for it now. It presents a unique opportunity to create a significant, fully integrated 12 to 18 month program, allowing you to focus on and energize your various constituents in a way that can’t be matched by your competitors. But recognize that, to be successful, you can’t just develop a new anniversary logo or throw a celebratory party. Like any other marketing tool, it must be grounded in meaningful and consistent messages.

Your corporate past is often the best criterion for your customers, prospects, employees and other audiences to judge your future performance. And, your 10th or 35th anniversary can be used to tell your story as effectively as a traditional 50th or 75th milestone.

Be Neutral When Evaluating Traditional And New Media
Don’t get caught up in all the excitement about the latest new media tactic you read about. New media does offer exciting potential and will continue to grow in importance. But don’t forget to consider traditional media. You might be surprised to know that, despite the advertising windfall generated by the Olympics and political advertising in 2012, total western world advertising increased by only 0.9 percent in 2013. And, according to Kantar Media:

• While network television and local newspapers decreased by only 3.4 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2013;
• Cable/satellite television increased by 7.3 percent; consumer magazines increased by 2.6 percent; outdoor increased by 4.4 percent; free standing inserts increased by 3.4 percent; and, Spanish television increased by 2.9 percent.

Without question, digital media and content marketing increased dramatically during this time. However, you must remember that there are many options to consider. While efficiency is important, more important is maintaining your neutrality to understand and evaluate the relative effectiveness of each alternative in achieving your strategic goals.

Marketing Communications Consultants Add Value
Whether you’re a B2B, B2C or nonprofit marketer, your own resources are probably already stretched to the limit. Unfortunately, you may not be able to allocate the physical or intellectual capital to the short or long term tasks at hand.

So don’t go it alone. Consider partnering with established, senior level consultants to help you and your team develop, refine and implement your plans.

Look for consultants who aren’t selling one particular discipline or a boilerplate “one size fits all” solution. Importantly, any consultant you consider should have extensive experience across industries and brands, both large and small. And be sure they’re willing to “tell it like it is”, so you will flourish. Apolitical, fresh eyes can be an efficient use of your resources, and can provide objectivity to the decisions you need to make.

Improving marketing communications ROI is a constant challenge. It may seem like a daunting task but, as Mark Twain said, “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”

Chamber of Commerce, Charleville.

5 cheap and easy ways to improve your online marketing

Marketing strategies and channels are growing fast as our digital world evolves with each year. An entrepreneur on a limited budget should first identify the best possible method and tactic for marketing. What in essence will deliver the most bang for their buck. The following tactics are a great start for entrepreneurs wanting to create momentum for their brand.

Make Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) a Marketing Priority

A company website is one of the most important tools if not “The” most important tool for a business. It is often, where potential customers get their first impression of a brand. SEO campaigns help brands drastically improve their website when done right. When optimizing a website for SEO campaigns, almost all aspects of a website are improved. Therefore, the website increases in quality. These campaigns are created to have a brand’s website appear in the top search results of dominant Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing organically. This means, it is not shown in search through paid advertising, but in the organic search results. They are more trusted and yield a much greater click-through rate.

Google’s free AdWords tool helps entrepreneurs identify what keyword phrases yield the most traffic online. Those should be considered for optimization and SEO, but competitiveness should be kept in mind. At times, smaller niche markets are easier and faster to reach. AdWords will be able to provide all those details for entrepreneurs.

Use Google Analytics Constantly to Gain Valuable Insights

Too often entrepreneurs fly blindly. This means, they do not really know what is happening to their website and marketing efforts. Without factual data, a business is not be able to measure their efforts. With Google Analytics and other third party tools, entrepreneurs can get quickly reports, statistics, and measurements of their marketing efforts.

Entrepreneurs must embrace tools such as Google Analytics to successfully launch and manage marketing campaigns. Even though there are many other tools, Google’s Analytics and Webmaster Central are essential to online success and should be frequently utilized by website operators and entrepreneurs. Intelligence information is crucial to understanding once marketing efforts.

Content Marketing Campaigns Can Yield Great Results Online

Many entrepreneurs neglect the importance of content marketing efforts. Content marketing is one of the most beneficial marketing tactics, can be free or small investments, and the publishing and distribution is free as well on many websites. Entrepreneurs can create quality content, publish it, and distribute it with very small investments or free.

Content marketing is considered the creation of articles, blog articles, press releases, videos, and Images such as Infographics. Once created, they are uploaded, shared, and distributed across many channels such as Social Media.

It is a critical method of marketing, very results oriented, and also one of the least expansive techniques to market online.

Find Your Target Market Online and Join them

For a business or entrepreneur to have success through marketing, the target market should be identified, studied, and found online to join them. This means, a brand should become visible where the target market spends time at online. There are many third party tools that allow a brand to research articles, websites, news, and much more that is relevant to the brand. These are the places that the target market and potential customers are digitally speaking.

A business should become visible there as well, if it wants to have greater success rate with marketing efforts. There are third party tools that let a brand research based on keyword phrases, which websites are best. Such a tool that works great is called Link Prospector by Citation Labs.

Communicate with Your Key Customers

Once all the marketing and sales efforts have succeeded and a business has gotten customers, a brand must keep the customers (good) loyal. Not all customers are good customers, but the key customer relationships must be nurtured by a business.

Receiving valuable feedback, insights, and information from customers is invaluable to a brand’s marketing efforts. Key customers can generate referrals, be a reference, provide testimonials, and much more. Opening up communication with customers can benefit a business in many ways.

These are 5 methods and tactics that entrepreneurs and organizations can utilize for successful marketing. All of them are free or very inexpensive and companies should put them to use to succeed with marketing campaigns.

When companies are not sure, one tactic that is often used is the consulting services of an expert. Marketing consulting services can greatly enhance an organizations ability to make better decisions and avoid costly mistakes in marketing.

Article Source: Http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David D Green.

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