Text-message marketing is key to growing businesses

Question: What’s the best way to grow your business?

Answer: I learned from a business coach years ago that there really are only three main ways to grow your business. You can get more customers, get those customers to spend more or get those customers to buy more often. Today the best new strategy to get your customers to buy from you again and again is to send your marketing messages to the one device that everyone always has with them: their phone.

Q: I already use the Internet to reach customers, why do I need to reach them on their mobile phones?

A: In the old days the most important thing to get was your customer’s email address. With this email you could stay connected with your customers.

According to a recent Simmons National consumer study, when you send out an email, around 10 percent to 30 percent of people actually will open the email you sent to them. Even fewer people will read that email, and even fewer will take action by clicking links or visiting your store. Yet, when you send out a text message, 94 percent of the time it gets opened and read within four minutes of you sending it out.

The survey also found that 94 percent of seniors (70 or older) are texting on a weekly basis. Imagine this: You send out 100 emails and your message is seen only 10 times. You send out 100 text messages and it gets read 94 times.

Q: How do I get people’s mobile numbers to send them messages?

A: You can’t just send messages to people’s phones. To get cellphone numbers, you have to implement what our marketing firm calls permission-based marketing. People have to give you permission to send offers to them on their phone.

The best way to get permission from mobile users is by using a service that allows for short codes. If you have ever been to a Redbox and seen something like "text the word DEALS to 727272," you have seen a short code in action. When someone sends a text with the word DEALS to that number, they have given permission to Redbox to send them deals throughout the year.

Q: What are some practical ways that you can use text messages to grow your business?

A: There are many ways a company could use text messaging to keep their customers coming back. Send out coupons, offer free appetizers and remind them so they don’t miss their appointment.

If you are a restaurant, have a short code advertisement at every table. Offer a free appetizer the next time they come in if they text your short code or something similar.

You can also use something like this if you are a doctor. On average, according to the Medical Group Management Association, patients have a 5.5 percent no-show rate. If a doctor sees an average of 2 patients every 15 minutes, that’s 20,000 patients a year. But if you do the absentee math, that’s 1,000 patients who aren’t showing up for their appointments. Numerous studies, including a study by TimeNDo, have shown that text reminders can reduce no shows by up to 80 percent.

Q: What are some examples of how real businesses have benefited by using text-message marketing?

A: According to Text Marketer, a Papa John’s franchise wanted to promote their new pizza offer and after considering other forms of marketing decided to test a text messaging strategy. They sent this message: "Any Pizza, any size, including our massive 16-inch $10 pickup or $14 delivery." This message was sent to 8,100 people, and 318 people took them up on their deal.

On average customers spent $20.65 each. For every $1.50 the franchise spent, they made $8.10 — which is a pretty good return on investment. At the same time, the pizza company saw a 33 percent increase in their overall sales during this campaign.

This strategy even works for tanning salons. A 35-location tanning salon called Seattle Sun Tan located on the West Coast used mobile marketing to send text offers and discounts to their customers. In the first 30 days, they had 4,750 customers give them permission to send them offers. That generated $196,000 in new sales from customers redeeming the initial offer that they opted to receive. What’s even crazier is that customers that redeemed that initial offer spent 500 percent more than regular customers.