Reaching Customers on Their Phones

Let's face it, most of your customers will never leave their house without their smartphone.  When my kids hear me tell stories of running out of gas at 2am and having to walk two miles to find an open gas station, they say "Why didn't you just call someone?"  They have no concept of what it was like to NOT have cellphones.  

Well, most of your customers now live their lives as if there was never a day that they didn't have their phone.  They trust their phones to not only make phone calls or to send text messages to keep in touch with people, they trust their phones to help them find whatever they are looking for.  This gives you two great opportunities:

Inbound Marketing

1.  As long as your website is mobile friendly, you can use your customers dedication to their phones to your advantage.  This past year I did some work for a company that specializes in poison ivy removal.  When I began working with them, their website was NOT mobile friendly.  You simply could not read their site, (which was designed for a desktop computer) on a 4 inch phone screen.  We changed that immediately.  We also added a "click-to-call" feature to the website.  The number of phone calls coming in from people requesting quotes almost doubled from the previous year.  Why?  Because we thought about our customers and made our system work for them.  Think about it, you're out in your backyard, you see something that you think is poison ivy, you grab your phone and search poison ivy, looking for images.  You see pictures of poison ivy and realize that, yes what you have in your yard is poison ivy.  Now, the next search is "How do I get rid of poison ivy".  The company website comes up and you see they offer free estimates, you either fill out the form or click "call now" and set up an appointment.  Either way, the customer is satisfied that the problem is being dealt with and can move on in their day.  The consumer is grateful that their problem is solved.  From the company's perspective, that customer is not calling around, they found what they need, they called you, all you need to do is follow through and close the sale.  

Outbound Marketing

2.  What about current customers?  How can you use technology to increase sales to your current customers?  We recommend Text Message Marketing or as it is also called SMS (Short Message Service) Marketing.  SMS allows you to send out bulk text messages to customers who have signed up to get these special, exclusive offers from you.  Allow me to explain some SMS best practices:

One of the best uses of SMS that I know about came from Macy's in New York City a few years back. They started a special "members-only" SMS club.  Every weekday at 10:30 AM they would text out a special discount offer that was only valid from 11am - 2pm for that day to thousands of people who lived and worked near Macy's.  Because that offer was only valid for three hours, it became priority for people who wanted to participate.  They began looking forward to what offer they were going to get and, for many of them, instead of eating lunch, they would run to Macy's from work.  

Amazon does something similar with their "Lightning Deals" everyday.  

I know the most common objections that I hear are "I'm NOT Macy's" or "I hate text messages" but keep in mind, you don't have to bed Macy's.  Suppose you own a small deli or restaurant and you simply tell your customers when they come in that if they'd like to save 10% today simply sign up for your text marketing plan. (See sidebar).  Many will sign up.  Now you're building your list.  The offers that you make are up to you and based on the needs of your business and the preferences of your customers.  You might simply use it on slow days.  Suppose you have a rainy cold Monday and you notice that you've had less customers than on a normal day. Seems like no one is out.  Well, (still using the restaurant example), if you want to boost your dinner sales, simply send a text out around 3pm that states your offer, maybe "Buy one dinner get second at 1/2 price today 4-8pm only."  Only the people who sign up for your offers get this deal, so you're not losing money on those that would come in anyway, but the guy who was planning to just go home afterwork decides to eat out with a friend instead.  

This works for virtually any type of retail business.  A grocery store can offer specials on specific days of the week or times of the day.  A clothing store can offer special discounts to "favorite" customers on specific items. Maybe you make the offer on Summer items as Fall approaches, or maybe you give special notice to your best customers that new items are in and they can save and see them before anyone else. Either way, you're boosting sales and rewarding their loyalty.  


The only downside to these services is cost.  Most SMS companies want to charge you a high set-up fee and then a per-text fee.  The "per-text" fee is deceiving because when someone signs up they text in, then receive a confirmation which they have to respond to, then they respond then they receive one more response so you have at least 4 texts just to sign up.  That can put kill your budget before you even get to send one offer.  

We recommend Dealz4.org because they offer unlimited texts and a flat fee service.  Right now, they are offering our customers a three month free trial period with no obligation, no set-up fee.  100% free to you for three months. If you use it and decide to keep it the service is only $397 per year.  If you'd like to take advantage of this offer simply use the form on the right and in the "Question" box tell us that you want SMS and the name of your business. We'll set it up for you and get you your username and password.  (You can also go directly to Dealz4.org but the service costs over $900 per year if you sign up directly.)  

(Train your staff to help them sign up and you can immediately begin signing up hundreds of customers.  Remember, they are opting in. They WANT to receive your offers.  They are ASKING you to market to them. As a business owner, isn't that what you want?)  *