Text Message Marketing Offers Affordable Advertising With Instant Response to Small Business

How does Text Marketing work and how can I use it to grow my business?

Text message marketing is relatively new in the USA but has been widely used in Europe and Asia over the last 5 or 6 years as a low cost advertising media with instant results. Our first exposure probably started with TV shows like American Idol allowing us to vote for our favorite singers of the week by texting a singer’s code to a short telephone number called a shortcode.

Today even small businesses are taking advantage of this system using a shared shortcode and web based systems to run their own advertising campaigns at a very affordable cost. The way it works is giving a call to action in all your marketing like your vehicles, business cards, real estate yard signs, restaurant table tents, etc. These messages prompt mobile phone users to send a text message to your shortcode number to receive something in return like a coupon or a free gift. Your text marketing system will auto-respond with a personalized response. You now have a new contact to send proactive outbound marketing messages.

There are two types of campaign options:

Inbound:

This campaign is initiated by a mobile phone user to instantly receive information about your products and services. This campaign also saves the persons mobile number in your contact list for future correspondence. With a shared shortcode this type of campaign is run using Keywords.

For example a restaurant might offer a free desert as a call to action so the keyword could be dessert. The user would text the word dessert to the shortcode like 12345.

Outbound:

You can send text marketing messages to a mobile phone user or list of users once they are opted-in to receive text marketing messages from you.

For example the restaurant above can now send out periodic text coupons to everyone that opted in to the dessert campaign.

Traditionally, many companies hold annual office parties around Christmas time. The problem with this is that December is a very busy month for most people. Between shopping, food preparation, and gift buying, there is little time to fit in all of the parties involved. Throw in an office party and it adds to this stressful season. Many people, who are already stretched for time, are reluctant to skip the office party for fear it might affect their superiors or co-workers opinions.

Why not throw a corporate party in the fall instead? People are not quite so busy and stressed as they are around the holiday season. There is likely to be a better turnout, people will be more relaxed, and it’s more likely to be remembered than just one in a string of many Christmas parties. A Halloween theme would be ideal for a fall office party.

The party’s theme can simply be “Halloween”, or you can make it a bit more specific. How about a horror movie theme? Everyone can dress as a character from his or her favorite horror flick. Decorate with movie posters from various horror films, and if it’s a small office party you could play trivia games revolving around these films. The winners could be presented with a gift basket, again designed around the party’s theme. Do an Internet search for various gift basket ideas.

Another novel idea is a Dead Rock Star theme. All in attendance should dress as their favorite – dead – rock star. The décor can again revolve around posters, this time of rock stars. But add that spooky twist by throwing in some more ghoulish décor. Perhaps some spiders crawling across Elvis’s face, or cobwebs wrapped around a life-size cutout of Jimmy Hendrix. And don’t forget tombstones!

The entertainment is obvious for this one: play the music of the rock-stars in attendance. You can have a karaoke or lip-syncing contest with each of the attendees performing as the star they came dressed as. Again, the best performers can be presented with gift baskets containing, among other things, cd’s featuring the music of your favorite dead rock stars.

Even just a basic Halloween theme is a great idea. The decorations are pretty much a no-brainer for this one: lots of cobwebs, spiders, skeletons and tombstones. Throw in some witches and vampires and you’re done. Food can be just about anything, but to keep it simple, consider finger foods. Numerous party games can be found in books at your public library, or through an Internet search. Costumes can be whatever the attendees desire; it’s always fun to see who shows up as what.

Remember, the holiday season is so busy for all, you included. If you want your office party to be remembered for years, consider mixing things up this year and holding a Halloween office party. Everyone at your company will appreciate the change of season, and will be much more relaxed at this time of year. They will remember this year’s office party for years to come.