With ever increasing awareness of the environment and pressures upon businesses to demonstrate their ‘green credentials’, we take a look at the environmental benefits of using bulk SMS text messaging as a business communication and marketing tool.

The commercial benefits of utilising SMS marketing to deliver targeted and relevant messages to both customer base and prospects are well documented. It costs far less than print advertising and, according to the Mobile Marketing Association, delivers 5 times the response rate of direct mail.

What’s more, the use of text messages as reminders has been proven to increase customer retention – ‘Your MOT is due on…’ – whilst businesses and service providers from hairdressers to dentists have seen improved attendance rates for appointments as a result of using such reminders.

So, with all these benefits, text messaging and bulk SMS are good for your business. Better still, they are also good for the environment.

How environmentally friendly is SMS marketing?

The obvious answer is that SMS marketing saves on paper and saving paper saves trees. Did you know that to produce 10,000 sheets of standard A4 paper takes 2.5 mature trees? But that’s not the half of it.
Even if the trees are from sustainable sources, the chain of events from felling those trees to a letter or nice glossy leaflet landing on a customer’s doormat leaves a huge carbon footprint. There are chemicals used in paper manufacture and contained in the inks or toners utilised for printing, plus there’s the discharge or wastage associated with these processes. And if the customer simply throws away the communication unread, rather than recycle it, it is most likely destined for landfill.

It is difficult to exactly quantify the benefits, but SMS marketing has the lowest carbon footprint of all types of mass advertising, and, anecdotal evidence suggests it is 50 times more environmentally friendly than printed methods.

Could SMS marketing replace print for all communications?

It is unlikely that all businesses would ever reach a point where they would not use traditional print advertising and communication in some form. But SMS marketing and the use of text messages as reminders reduces the reliance upon such methods and in this ever-more digitally focused world, can’t be beaten for targeting and speed of communication.

Moreover, if someone responds to a mobile marketing message and requests further information, any printed material you send out as a result of this request is a better use of resource, as it’s in direct response to a request and hence will most likely be retained and acted upon.

How can I start using SMS marketing to make my business communication greener?

A Google search for ‘SMS Marketing’ reveals a multitude of products and services available on numerous platforms and at a wide range of costs. It can all be a bit confusing.

TextMagic makes it simple. We have a number of tools that can be implemented quickly and easily, with highly competitive prices that make your marketing budget go further. Examples are Email to SMS, which provides the ease of combining your SMS marketing with your existing email client and TextMagic Online, which provides the simplicity of a highly functional, easy to use web-based texting software product, meaning you can implement your marketing communications from any computer – not just in the office.

TextMagic’s software solutions are designed to be intuitive to use and efficient to conduct your business communications from – meaning that your TextMagic SMS marketing not only gives you a greater opportunity of engaging with your customers, but frees up more time to spend managing the other areas of your business. Why not try it out today? All businesses can benefit from a free trial – so you can experience the power of SMS marketing without spending a penny.

As the new UK coalition government begins to form its policies, we take a look at what’s in store for the SME

In the last couple of weeks, it’s been difficult to foresee how the change of power in British politics would shape the economy as far as small business is concerned. Liberal and Conservative pre-election policies have often looked as if never the twain shall meet. However, news released  by the UK media, including on the BBC website and Telegraph Online seems to mark that the political wrangling to reach agreements on policy seems to have drawn – temporarily – to a close.

It’s been a tough time over the last few years for small businesses, and likewise marketers, in the UK –so what has the new Government got in store to help get Britain back on its feet?

UK Government Sets Out Plans to Reduce Small Business Regulations

Great news for small business – there are plans afoot to reduce regulation and red tape, which means those in business with limited resources can get on with what they do best – selling their services and products into the economy.

Taxation is always a sour note with any small business, in particular the time and effort it takes to produce accounts. The new government has committed to carrying out a review of all small business taxation, including automatic small business rate relief, a reduction in corporate tax and increasing the current threshold of employers’ National Insurance contributions.

The Government is also looking into how to make it easier for people to set up in business, promote small businesses within public sector procurement and help improve the competitiveness of the UK tourism industry. It’s all good news for the thousands of SMEs out there who have ridden out the rough times of recent years.

Marketing Initiatives for Small Business in the UK

So what does it mean in terms of being able to market your business in the new economic climate? We’re hoping that the new streamlined rules for small businesses will mean that entrepreneurs and business owners will have more time to dedicate to building their businesses – as well as a little more in the bank to support marketing initiatives and keep on communicating with their customer base. With mobile and SMS marketing increasingly on the rise and the numbers of smartphones on the streets of countries around the globe rising by the day, this year is definitely the time to engage a new style of marketing and take advantage of the fresh political and economic climate.

We’ll be watching with interest how UK Government policy unfolds over the coming weeks and months, as will, no doubt, every business in the country. Could the next twelve months really spell the end of economic gloom and doom? We certainly hope so.

Is your business in need of a little marketing savvy in order to shape up for the summer season, bulk SMS marketing strategies can give you just the push you need. It’s a whole new way to communicate with your customers, achieving unparalleled response over any other marketing media and creating that ‘personal touch’ which customers love – bringing them back to your door again and again. Take a few tips from the bulk SMS messaging experts, TextMagic, and you’ll be on the first step to making your sales figures really shine!

1. Planning a sale but not sure how to get the message out? Why not create a real PR story and send a bulk SMS message to your customer base letting them know that there’s an extra 10% off on the first morning of the sale? Encourage them to pass on the message to anyone who could benefit from the extra savings – and you’ll have a crowd at your shop front when you open for business. It’ll make the local newspapers and get your business some great free publicity – and who can say no to that?

2. Coupons are a great way to make customers sit up and take notice – and to get those slow-moving stock lines out of the door. Don’t waste time printing and distributing your coupons in the local paper or door to door – it’s costly and also unkind to the planet’s resources. Go green and get results by sending bulk SMS messages to your customer base containing a ‘text coupon’, which they can show at the till to get claim that money off.

3. Remember that the best bulk SMS marketing campaigns are two-way rather than one-way. Any campaign that encourages customers to interact with your brand or company brings the customer closer to you, both operationally and emotionally. BBC Radio 1, for example, use text messaging to great effect by encouraging their listeners to text in with ideas, thoughts and feedback – which is vital for any business to learn to understand their customers and perform better. Think about whether you could use interactive bulk SMS marketing to gain valuable feedback about your business performance and help you do things better. Don’t forget – it’s good business practice to include an incentive, such as a discount. If a customer puts them self out for you, make sure you return that favour.

4. Everyone loves competitions! Help your customers feel that they’re gaining extra value from your business by regularly contacting them via bulk SMS with promotions and competitions. Use SMS short codes (five figure SMS text numbers) to help hone the entry process and make entering those competitions easy and fun for everyone.  SMS short codes give your company real identity and are far more memorable for the consumer, meaning you’ll get much better uptake on your promotions.  Before you know it, you’ll have a flurry of customers texting ‘WIN’ – or any chosen word – and as a consequence creating high profile awareness for your product or brand.

5. Keep your customers happy by only texting them with relevant offers. You’ll get a much better response to your bulk SMS marketing campaigns if you spend a little time analysing your database for gender, age and buying habits – so that you’re not texting 16 year old girls with your latest offer on gentleman’s hiking boots.  SMS marketing campaigns are effective because they’ve not been infected with the spam issues which make the public so reluctant to open marketing emails these days – so think clever, target your communications well and your customers will love you for it. Even better, your sales will increase as a result.

Don’t forget that the real beauty of SMS marketing is that because people generally open texts as soon as they receive them, you can choose when your marketing campaigns are read. Think clever and you’ll make your sales soar. Not only can you seasonalise your SMS marketing messages – Easter, Christmas and Halloween for example – but you can pick the right time of day when customers will be most receptive to a particular product.  Send out a bulk SMS marketing message about your new lunchtime menu at 11.00am on a Saturday and bring hungry shoppers direct to your door!

If you’re in the property rental and management business, keeping in touch with – and on track of – your tenants can be one of the most challenging parts of the job. So when Oak Estates of Sheffield discovered the TextMagic suite of business SMS services, it dramatically changed the way the business operates for the better.

‘I wouldn’t know what to do without TextMagic’, said Diana Maratty of Oak Estates. ‘The text messaging service has brought amazing changes to the way we work. I estimate that TextMagic directly saves our business at least 15 man hours per week, so it saves us the cost of employing a part-time member of staff.’

So how exactly has the TextMagic business SMS service become such an integral part of how this successful Sheffield-based letting and property management agency operates  – and how can this huge increase in efficiency be replicated in other property management businesses?

Text Messaging Increases Response to Late Payment Requests

Diana Maratty explains, ‘We started using TextMagic SMS services in conjunction with our Total Letting Solutions software about eighteen months ago. At first, we used the service to chase up late rental payments from our tenants. As we manage over 250 different properties, chasing overdue rent was taking a lot of our staffing resource – and it’s vital to our business and to the owners of the properties we manage that rents are collected on time. Changing rental reminders from postal letter or emails to text messaging immediately decreased the amount of outstanding debt owing to us.’

So what’s the secret behind why TextMagic business SMS is so much more efficient at chasing late payments than email or letter? ‘Most of our tenants are young professionals or students and always have their phones at hand. Text messaging gets a far better response than other methods of communication. Immediately after sending a late payment text alert, tenants would be on the phone to sort out their outstanding rental payment. Not only has it improved our cashflow,  it’s significantly reduced the amount of time we have to spend chasing late payments.’

Property Maintenance Management is simplified via business SMS services

As soon as Oak Estates realised the value of TextMagic business SMS services in communicating with their tenants, they expanded its usage to include alerts for regular house inspections. ‘We’re legally bound to give tenants 24 hours’ notice before entering their properties to carry out maintenance or inspections. By using TextMagic text messaging to communicate with our tenants, we can not only gain access to the properties faster to carry out general maintenance and checks, but also respond quickly to urgent issues.’

The letting agency now uses TextMagic business SMS to keep in contact with key contacts in every part of their business – including maintenance contractors and landlords. ‘By text messaging job alerts, we can get contractors to our properties to carry out maintenances and repairs much more quickly – and that’s appreciated by our tenants and our landlords. We also keep our landlords up to date with essential information about their property via TextMagic, making communication much quicker and more streamlined.’

Business SMS saves letting agencies time, effort and money

Diana Marratty is adamant that the TextMagic business SMS system has revolutionised the way Oak Estates operates as a business. ‘Every letting agency, property management business and landlord needs TextMagic. It’s entirely changed the way we operate for the better – and knowing how TextMagic text messaging has improved our business efficiency, we could never go back.’

For more information on Oak Estates and its range of properties available in the Sheffield area for professional and student lets, visit www.oakestates.net or call 0114 258 5981.

Tiny mobile phone screens and keypads have historically been a barrier to many. Now, technology for the blind and visually impaired by UK company TextMagic opens up the world of text messaging to all

Text messaging has become a key part of most people’s lives in the UK over the past ten years. It’s estimated that 85% of the British population own a mobile phone, with a staggering 11 million text messages sent every hour*. It’s great news for helping the average person keep in touch with their friends and family – but less so for the more than two million blind and visually impaired people in the UK**, for whom text messaging on a mobile phone can be difficult or impossible.

Technology for the blind and visually impaired to help their daily lives

Whilst many other developments have been made in society in terms of technology for the blind and visually impaired population to help them go about their daily lives with ease, text messaging hasn’t been one of these. In contrast, as more and more people take to communicating by text rather than by phone calls, it can lead to the visually impaired becoming alienated from their text-messaging social circle.

However, good news is at hand – text messaging is no longer restricted to small and fiddly mobile phone keypads and screens. Technology for the blind by companies such as TextMagic means that communicating by text message has been made simple and easy to perform on a PC, MAC  or laptop – which opens up the world of text messaging to those new areas of society.

Online SMS technology helps the blind use text messaging services

The services offered by TextMagic, which includes a simple to use web-based application called TextMagic Online and Email to SMS software which assist users to easily send and receive online text messages from their email account, mean that this technology for the blind and visually impaired helps them to easily send and receive text messages to mobile phones anywhere in the world, in any of eleven different languages.

Visually impaired users currently using the TextMagic online text messaging service have heaped praise upon the applications and how they have helped them to communicate with family and friends. C. Landsdown, a TextMagic customer, required assistive technology for the blind and had always found it difficult to use mobile phones. In his experience, companies and manufacturers often make phones suitable for the deaf but not for the blind or dexterously impaired. He currently uses TextMagic’s PC and web-based programmes, using his magnification software to send and receive messages with ease.

It’s not just the blind and visually impaired population who struggle with text messaging on a mobile phone – there are many others who suffer with impairments or paralysation who have found more accessible software such as TextMagic a huge boon to their daily lives. Many people who have suffered strokes or other paralysis are unable to use mobile phones, but with small modifications can use computer keyboards – meaning that using the TextMagic technology for the blind, keeping in touch by text messaging is now within their reach.

TextMagic SMS technology is accessible to the disabled

TextMagic firmly believes that their software has an important place in making popular technology accessible to the wider population, particularly those who via illness or disability find mobile phones difficult to use. Their services are reliable and affordable and have the benefit of not being reliant on mobile phone signals – meaning that TextMagic is invaluable for sending urgent or critical messages, which can be a lifeline for those who are reliant upon others for assisting with their daily needs.

For more information about the simple to use TextMagic online text messaging applications and how this technology for the blind and visually impaired can help change lives, visit www.textmagic.com. Visitors to the website can sample how easy it is to use by sending a test message before signing up. There’s no contract commitment, for TextMagic operates a ‘pay as you go’ system, with a purchase of 200 credits for 250 SMS text messages within the UK costing just £19.99 – that’s less than 8 pence per text message.

Footnotes
*Mobile Data Association, January 2010
** Data from Wireless for the Blind Fund

Unhappy with the response rate on your email marketing campaigns? Now’s the time to change to SMS marketing, the clever alternative to email

Any company using emails to communicate with its customers will be all too familiar with the issues and frustrations which this style of communication can create. Email marketing has been part of business strategy for many years and due to misuse via selling of data lists, has gone from a convenient and effective method of communicating with a customer base to a strategy which is now largely mistrusted by customers and suffers from poor penetration rates.

So what’s the right alternative to email that will get through to your customers? The answer is SMS.

88% of emails are spam – business SMS gets the message through

It was recently estimated that a huge 88% of emails sent are spam. Unsurprisingly, this means that many of your email messages to your customer base will remain unopened or be sent directly to the junk email folder – not great news for building relationships with your clients. Furthermore, if you have vital information to share with your customers, such as delays on delivery times or the re-arrangement of appointments, how do you get past the problem that your email may never even be opened by your customer?

That’s where the real beauty of business SMS messaging as email alternatives shines through, acting as a lifesaver to your marketing and customer communications.

Four mobile phones sold for every computer – that’s why SMS marketing wins

According to the GSM Association, there are now four mobile phones sold for every one personal computer. Mobile phones invariably stay with their owner 24/7 – which compared to the relatively short time people spend in front of their computers checking their email, just can’t be beaten. Additionally, business SMS messaging services haven’t been affected by the spam issues which the email marketing landscape struggles with, meaning that consumers have a far higher level of trust in SMS messages than they do in email. That’s why an SMS marketing campaign sent to customers as an email alternative will invariably be opened and read – and is most likely to be read at the time of delivery. The latest statistics from market research experts Frost & Sullivan state that the open rate for SMS messages is over 98% - that’s impressive, particularly when you consider you’re likely to get less than a 30% open rate from marketing emails. Business SMS has another benefit over email – you can choose when you want the customer to read your message.

SMS marketing is effective from any computer in the world

There’s a vast choice of different ways in which a business can take advantage of SMS technology as part of its marketing strategy. The TextMagic Messenger is a simple and cost-effective way of sending business SMS messages from a Mac or PC and the interface is available in 11 different languages – ideal for today’s businesses operating over many different territories. You don’t even need to be tied to an office computer, as TextMagic Online offers great two-way SMS functionality from a web-based application – meaning that your business communications are truly mobile and you can connect and communicate with your customers wherever you are.

But don’t just take our word for how invaluable SMS messaging is to business – Mrs Rimmer of land and property specialists Rostons Ltd agrees. ‘Our clients have commented on how useful it is to receive a text and it has put us at the forefront of our industry by using a service like this.’

Business SMS messaging delivers an unparalleled penetration rate over email marketing, enabling your business to communicate more effectively with your customer base and build that all-important confidence factor. If you’re serious about getting your marketing messages in front of your customers, then look for an alternative to email - SMS marketing is the only logical option.