Text Messaging: It Worked for the Obama Campaign; Make It Work for Your Gift Basket Business
Don’t miss the article in The Gourmet Retailer Magazine entitled “10 Best Customer Service Ideas”. Some of the ideas that are presented can be implemented easily; others require some more time and planning. But all are sure-fired ways to ensure that you and your staff will give your customers the best service possible (which will keep them coming back!).
One item in this article that astounded me is that “text messaging on mobile phones is becoming the preferred method for mobile marketing”. Now, I just learned how to send and receive text messages, so this suggestion seems a bit odd to me. But “more texts are sent per day than pieces of mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service”. So, why not give it a try?
The author of this article suggests: “To prepare for this technological ad campaign, offer customers a percentage off or gift in exchange for their e-mail address. This is the start of building your e-mailing list.” Once your list is built (and you’ve learned how to text message!), you’re ready to go.
Here’s some success stories: “A national ice cream store recently sent text messages to its customers with a coupon good for one free cone but only on the day of the text message. To receive the free cone, they had to show the text on their cell phone. The response was overwhelming. A pizza parlor in Utah sent a text offering a chance to win a pizza party. Over 1,000 people responded. That is almost unheard of with any other promotional advertising.” And at the Democratic National Convention, delegates were asked to send text messages to encourage voter registration! The Obama campaign used text messaging to announce the vice-presidential candidate and continues to use text messaging to get information to supporters.
I find this to be a fascinating concept and will think about ways to implement text messaging in my business. Please send your comments and ideas about this unconventional, inexpensive, but apparently effective method for marketing.
1 comment August 30th, 2008
