In last Friday’s post we had a quick look at Pew Internet’s new report on cell phone use among US adults.

One particularly interesting revelation in the report is that around 65% of adults have their phones beside them while they sleep. This has big implications if you’re a business or organisation involved in permission-based texting of your customers or members: if you send them an SMS in the middle of the night, it will probably be the very first message they read when they wake up in the morning.

Let’s consider some of the potential benefits of early-bird texting:

1. You can tie in with products or services (yours or your competitors’) that were featured on TV the previous evening.

2. Your message will reach your recipients at a relatively quiet time of day – their defences will be down and they are likely to give you a little more “eyeball time” than if they were having to snatch a quick glance at your message in the middle of a busy day.

3. Most of your recipients will be at home. So, for example, if you want them to go online and do something they will be near their personal computers – and may have a little time over breakfast to check out the link or offer you are promoting.

Of course, the results you get are going to depend on your product, goal and customer and/or membership base. The Pew statistics are broken down by age, ethnicity, education, income and location (urban vs. rural). Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger phone users are more likely to sleep with their devices next to them than older users, though the practice doesn’t drop off as sharply with age as you might think. 90%+ of people in their late teens and twenties sleep with their phones; the figure for 30-49 year olds is 70%+, for 50-64 year olds 50%+ and is still a healthy 34%+ for individuals aged 65 or over.

The stats are pretty much flat across educational levels (67%, 63%, 66% and 67% respectively among individuals with less than a high school education, a high school diploma, a college degree and a postgraduate or professional degree), but there is quite a high variation among ethnic groups. You are more likely to sleep with your phone next to you if you are a non-hispanic black (78%) or an English-speaking hispanic (75%) than if you are non-hispanic white (62%+).

If you’re interested in SMS marketing, it’s well worth having a look at the full report to see how it fits your target demographic. Bear in mind that the survey is of US adults only. However, as I said in the last post, since mobile/SMS take-up has historically been slightly slower in the US than in other developed countries, these statistics could cautiously be read as a conservative estimate of habits among European/East Asian users.

Looking for an SMS marketing or bulk texting solution? With TextMagic you can send text messages from your PC or Mac, via email, our Messenger application or our comprehensive API. And all you have to pay is a low fee for each text you send. Check out our SMS marketing services today!

Pew Internet yesterday published a report into SMS usage by adults in the US. Over the next few posts we’re going to be digging into the stats to see what they mean for businesses that use text messaging to communicate with their customers.

It’s worth bearing in mind that this is useful information even if you’re not based in the States. Historically, SMS take-up in the US has been behind take-up in Europe, thought the the gap has closed in recent years. As such, you can probably treat some of these US stats as conservative approximations to equivalents for adults in Europe and (maybe) East Asia.

Let’s take a look at some headline information from the report:

During May 2010, 72% of American adults sent at least one text message, up from 65% in September 2009. That’s growth in usage of nearly 11% in a just nine months. That stat alone suggests we’re on a sharp climb towards almost total saturation of SMS usage in key adult markets.

Adults who use SMS send and receive a median of 10 texts a day. This is still a fifth of the median figure for teens in the 12-17 range, but it represents a huge increase – and a huge opportunity for businesses – compared to the situation just a couple of years ago.

90% of American adults with children living at home have a cellphone, compared with 78% of those who either don’t have kids or whose kids have moved out.

65% sleep with their phones next to them – so a text message sent during the night is among the very first things they see in the morning.

57% claim they have received messages they would define as “spam” – a reminder of the importance of using SMS marketing with permission-based lists of subscribers.

Like I said, we’ll be looking in more detail at some implications of the report over the next few days. In the meantime, you can download the full report as a PDF document from Pew’s website.

Are you in one of the many businesses which supplies the educational or children’s market? If so, the back to school period can be a critical time for you, for parents are making the most of the last couple of weeks of the school holidays to purchase new shoes, stationery, clothes, sports kits and many other items which are required to kit out their children for a new school term.

So when it comes to making the most of this busy sales period, time is of the essence – as is making a bigger impression than the competition. That’s where using SMS business marketing can be your best ally, for with a well-timed and well placed marketing message, direct to your customers’ mobile phones, you can reach them wherever they are – and bring your business to the forefront of their mind as they embark upon shopping trips.

One of the most vital – and powerful – elements of SMS marketing is the fact that you can precisely time the moment your audiences receives, and reads, your messages. If you take time to understand your audience’s shopping habits and make the most of the most influential time to reach them, your marketing activities will have all the more impact.

Keep it simple – one offer on SMS at a time
The secret to good SMS marketing is, simply, keep it simple. With such a short message to play with, your offer or information has to be clean, precise and to the point – so trying to work in more than one product or offer will reduce the power of your message.

Increase footfall with SMS vouchers
As we’re all aware, we’re all rarely parted from our mobile phones – particularly so when we’re out and about. So use your SMS marketing message to incentivise your audience to use your services by offering a money off voucher via text message. Sounds complicated? It’s more simple than you might think – ‘save 10% on all childrens shoes at Blakes of London by showing this message at the checkout on 28.8.10 only’, for example.

Timing is everything
As we mentioned above, time your SMS marketing messages right and you’ll reap the rewards. But what’s a good time to engage your customers via text message? Busy parents with home, work and children to juggle may not recall your message if sent too far ahead – so try early Friday evening for Saturday shopping, for example. Your customers’ mobile phones are very private and personal possessions, so ensure you don’t send through messages at times which may be inconvenient, such as very late at night.

Remember that Back to School comes but once a year – so get your marketing ramped up now to take advantage of this busy retailing time. Worried that you might have missed a trick? Don’t stress – for it’s quick and easy to set up your SMS marketing via TextMagic – you can be up and running in minutes, thanks to the Pay As You Go format and simple, easy to use software, which can be connected to your email, used direct from the web or via free downloadable software – whichever works best for you.

Is your business suffering at the moment due to staff shortages caused by the holiday season? Of course, everyone wants to take advantage of the good weather to take their breaks – and there’s also the impact of school holidays to consider.

Business SMS isn’t just about reaching out to your customers – it helps your internal communications as well. It’s time to take note of these invaluable tips, helping you use business SMS and bulk SMS services to make the most of your streamlined ‘holiday period’ workforce whilst keeping those sales ticking over!

1. SMS – a great reminder service for staff as well as customers

If you employ shiftworkers, it’s good practice to remind your staff when they’re scheduled for a different shift to their normal pattern due to holiday cover. SMS is the ideal way to reach your staff on a time-sensitive basis without intruding into their leisure time.

2. Use SMS to get staff cover, quickly

Staff not turned up, or rang in sick? Business SMS can be used as an effective and speedy way to contact everyone on your staff to find out if they can cover the shift. By using a bulk SMS system such as TextMagic, you can send the same message to any number of staff with just a few clicks of a mouse – from any internet connected PC or Mac. It’s also a fair way to send a message to everyone at the same time – meaning that there aren’t any favouritism issues when it comes to who gets extra shifts.

3. Keep field staff up to date with SMS – and it’s quick and easy to do

If you have staff out in the field, it’s even more difficult to keep them abreast of what’s going on in the office or of last-minute changes to appointments when your core staff are down to skeleton numbers. That’s where business SMS comes into its own – by offering a highly time-sensitive communication channel which takes much less time to effect than continually trying to get hold of people on the phone. Your office staff will work smarter and quicker – and your field staff will be bang up to date.

4. Back up vital email communication with SMS

If you have staff away, it’s likely that their emails are being forwarded to other members of staff to deal with and re-circulate. That means that everyone’s email boxes get overloaded, and it’s often the case that important communications get overlooked. Why not use business SMS to alert a member of staff of an important email communication which needs urgent attention, so that it doesn’t get swallowed by the inbox?

5. It’s a timesaver – SMS for customer follow-ups

When it comes to customer care, the personal touch is something all good businesses strive to achieve. However, think laterally – for that ‘personal touch’ doesn’t necessarily mean using the phone. Sales follow-ups via business SMS are much more personal than email – due to the relationship people have with their mobile phones – and not as intrusive as phone calls. Finally, it’s a great time saver for your office staff when workloads are high – so your customers get the service they expect, whilst your staff get their well deserved time off!

SMS marketing is highly cost-effective, has an unparalleled open rate – and it works. If you’re not using a business SMS service such as TextMagic as a way to communicate with your clients, why not? Chances are that if you’re not, it’s because you haven’t yet established a database of your customers’ mobile numbers.

Every company with a focus on customer care as well as cost-effective marketing strategies should be collating detailed contact information on their customers – and then using it responsibly to ensure that customers feel valued, not harrassed.

1. Service Industries – take advantage of your head start

Service industries often have the benefit of building more personal relationships with their customers, particularly when this is conducted on a face-to-face basis. As you’re already building a trusted connection with your clients, asking for their mobile phone number to add to your customer records is a natural step. Be clear to outline the benefits for the client as well as being transparent about how you’re going to use the information – for instance, ‘I’d like to use your mobile number to send appointment reminders, as well as occasional special offers and business information.’

2. Give SMS Recipients extra benefits

If you want to build your SMS customer database fast, then give people a reason to sign up for your marketing campaigns. Some of the big telecoms companies have done this to huge success – think of the ‘Orange Wednesdays’ for example, where users can text ‘FILM’ every week to receive exclusive 2 for 1 film tickets. It’s not just the big guys who can take advantage of incentives such as these – it applies equally well for smaller firms and even one man bands.

Make SMS the primary route for customers to receive linkthroughs to sale items before anyone else, receive exclusive discounts or even to obtain a ‘first look’ at company and product news – and you’ll create a communication channel that your customers will be queueing up to use.

3. Make it easy for customers to sign up

If you want customers –and also potential customers – to sign up to your SMS marketing campaigns, then make sure they know all about it. Many an initiative has failed purely because the company hasn’t communicated the availability and benefits properly to its customer base. So, ensure your website prominently advertises the SMS signup benefits and procedure; train your staff to upsell the benefits to customers; and if you have physical premises or marketing literature, use every touching point with your customers to let them know how to sign up. At every stage, remember point 2 above – give extra benefits – and you’ll make much better headway.

4. Never miss an opportunity to get potential customers onto your database 

Individuals and businesses which you don’t have an existing trading relationship with can be the hardest to collate information on. Mobile numbers aren’t available to purchase as business data and you’re bound by regulations which dictate that prospects cannot be contacted for marketing purposes by SMS unless they’ve specifically agreed to receive these.

Therefore, whenever a potential customer contacts your firm – whether by email, via the website, by telephone or in person – devise data collection procedures as part of your communication structure which captures mobile telephone numbers amongst other key information. Remember, you must state that this number may be used for marketing purposes and you must make the provision of mobile numbers optional. Once more, if you tie the signup into benefits, you’ll have a much better collection rate.

5. Move beyond your existing reach with SMS referrals

There’s nothing like word of mouth to spread the word about your business – it’s the best type of marketing that you can achieve. Not only that – people love to share information about offers and benefits with their friends and family. So why not combine the two and generate an SMS referral scheme? By creating a special offer such as a specific discount code and encouraging your database to text message this onto their own contacts, you can spread the net further – and create new customers at the same time. Even better, by lead qualification processes when new customers use the discount code, you can identify where the lead came from and build in a loyalty’ thankyou’ for the referrer – incentivising them to keep on referring!

With easy to use, online SMS marketing services such as TextMagic, a whole new world of customer engagement has opened up to businesses of any size or location. With a little savvy and by making small changes in the way you collate customer information, you can soon have an extensive SMS marketing database to work with – and by engaging these customers responsibly, your targeted database will only continue to grow.

However you use your SMS service to engage with your customers, all businesses need to consider how SMS usage fits into the overall customer communication strategy. What’s that, you say? You don’t have a customer communication strategy? Then read on and find out if you’re making any elementary mistakes and missing valuable business opportunities.

Creating a great relationship between your business, brand and customers all points back to one core objective – which is to create a desire for what you provide via listening to your customers needs and delivering on these within a profitable framework. In terms of communication strategy, a business which puts its customers first will always rise to the top. In essence, it’s really as simple as that – but businesses, time and again, continually fail to deliver what their customers need due to a lack of understanding of basic principles. Make sure you don’t fall foul of some of the basic guidelines of customer communications by checking out our top tips below:

1. Make your customers feel wanted

As a company which already uses business SMS services such as TextMagic, you’ll already be aware of the power of communication and how this can benefit your business. But – make sure that this communication isn’t one sided. The golden rule is that business communications aren’t just about telling your customers how great you are – far more importantly, it’s about giving your customers a chance to tell you what they want and what they think about you.  You’ll learn much more about your business by listening to your customers than by any other method.

So how do you make sure your business communications aren’t one-sided? For starters, ensure your staff are trained in customer care, that they ask and listen, that they understand each individual customer’s need – even if they’ve just popped in to buy a pencil. Treat customers as individuals and genuinely care about their requirements – and particularly if they have a complaint or issue – and that’s the cornerstone in any good customer communication strategy.

2. Give your business a communications health check

How many times have you heard complaints about companies such as ‘I was on hold for hours’ or ‘I got passed from person to person’ – or even ‘I couldn’t find the right telephone number for the customer care section’?  Customers get frustrated when companies aren’t proficient at handling incoming queries, particularly when it’s regarding cancellation of a service or a product or service complaint. Make sure you don’t fall foul of this by making sure each element of your business has a dedicated phone number and email address – and more importantly, is answered promptly during business hours by the right member of staff. Don’t forget that communication channels can only be effective if people can find them – so ensure all these numbers and email addresses are clearly promoted via your website and on your advertising and promo literature.

3. Use social media to up your communications game

If you haven’t considered Facebook and Twitter as business communication channels, you’re missing out. Not only are these – and other – social networks adept at increasing footfall to your website and increasing awareness of your brand and product, they’re also invaluable for analysing what’s being said about your business and – most importantly – should be used as a customer care channel to speak directly to your customers who are talking about issues they’re having with your business. Most importantly – if you’re using social media, make sure you broadcast this via your website and advertising – and use it regularly. A poorly managed social media channel which leaves customers expecting replies which never come is a timebomb waiting to explode inside your business.

4. Give customers a reason to help your business

Business and product surveys land in our inboxes every day – and whilst they’re useful for identifying customer opinion and requirements, they can be time consuming to complete. That’s why you should always give something back to customers who take the time to help you – it’s just good manners and you’ll receive a much higher response rate. So, whether it’s a money off voucher for their next purchase with you, an entry into a prize draw, or even a free gift, make sure your customers feel valued.

5. If you’re using SMS as a one-way channel, you’re missing out on 50% of its effectiveness

There are times when a ‘one way SMS’ approach seems to be the only way to use this hugely powerful communication tool, such as appointment reminders. But, don’t forget that text messaging was developed not as a one-way broadcast system, but as a way for people to communicate effectively and concisely with each other – and this is also true of business SMS and marketing SMS use. If you haven’t done so before, you should look at unlocking the power of two way SMS usage, such as via TextMagic’s SMS Reply Service.

Two Way SMS helps build even stronger relationships with your customers, as by giving them an easy way to engage with you and your company, they feel closer to your business and also experience a sense of personal involvement and ‘ownership’ which just isn’t available via one-way SMS messages. So, for instance, if you’re sending appointment reminders, why not use the SMS Reply Service to ask for a confirmation of attendance – ‘reply with YES’ if you are able to keep your appointment’? The benefits for your business are clear to see – and you can receive replies to your mobile phone, to your email address or via the web, so you can perpetuate and expand that relationship wherever you are.

If you’re serious about customer relationships and even more serious about doing great business, you’ll put great customer communication at the core of everything you do. Maximise the potential of the incredibly powerful tool which is business SMS – and you’ll be keeping your customers happy as well as making a sound business decision.