Text Messaging Ideas

• RETAIL, SERVICES:
  Monthly text messages to customers with "exclusive VIP specials" (many of our retail clients do this and it works well).


• RETAIL, ONLINE SALES:
  Got a retail outlet or online store and do deliveries? Text customers when their order is on the way. If you  handle logistics for online sales, text your customers when their order has been dispatched. They can also reply with questions, and you can either reply directly from your online account, have these forwarded to your email address for your viewing, or get your IT person to hook your system in with ours (via API..your tech will know what that means!)


• SERVICES:
  Say you're a dry-cleaner or car detailer, motor mechanic, computer store, any kind of repair or service business, send customers a quick text to keep them updated and ready for collection or delivery. Don't forget you can send from Outlook


• REMINDERS & FOLLOWUPS:
  Debt collection and bill reminders: "Hi John your account is overdue and you risk losing your service. Please call 1300 555555 ASAP" We will bet you get a response within minutes!


• RETAIL:
  Clearance sale or "new products just in" retail promotion via SMS alert.


• DONATIONS:
  Send out a SUPER PERSONALISED SMS using the Values (placeholders) in your message. For example you can do: "Lionel thanks for donating $100 last year. Can you help us again? Please visit www.yourcharity.org for secure payment".


• STAFF, LABOUR HIRE, LOGISTICS:
  SMS casual staff to see who can fill the next shift


• HOSPITALITY:
  Cafes & restaurants, text offers on quiet nights via SMS


• PROPERTY:
  Real Estate agents, SMS new listings or OFI and auction reminders


• FRANCHISES, CHAINS, MULTI-STATE BRANCHES:
  Franchises or Head Offices, control a MASTER SMS ACCOUNT and add FREE sub-accounts for franchisees and branches, and get the benefit of bulk SMS savings


• BIRTHDAY, ANNIVERSARY, SERVICE REMINDERS, ANNUAL EVENTS:
  Schedule automatic SMS birthday messages, staff or personal anniversaries and birthdays, annual product or service renewal reminders. More info here


• HAIRDRESSERS, BEAUTY, PERSONAL SERVICES, MEDICAL:
  Reduce no shows! SMS appointment reminders to customers. Get free replies to your account, email or POS system. Great BRANDING for your business too as customers will love your extra VIP service. (we have many doctors and hairdressers and hire firms using this. Works well with POS systems like HirePOS)


• STUDENTS, SCHOOLS, EVENTS, SOCIAL, CHURCHES, CLUBS:
  Text your students, club or church members with news or meeting reminders


• SERVICE REMINDERS:
  Bulk SMS personalised customer reminder messages: "Hi Wayne, your account is overdue" or "Gina, your car is ready for pickup"...this will SAVE YOU HOURS of tedious calling!


• EVENT MANAGEMENT, CONFERENCES:
  Easily manage events and conferences using SMS to send out invites and get replies. Our platform also allow you to route replies to different phones or emails based on keywords and rules you specify. Easily export data to Excel (our research clients and Unis use this a lot).


• Also, if you use an event program like Eventbrite, you can export mobile numbers from Eventbrite and import into your SMS Express account. This allows you to contact delegates and attendees via email + text message.


• PLANNING A PARTY?
  Sigh....Jill doesn't use Facebook, John never reads emails, Terry never returns voicemail...communication is actually harder than ever, especially when trying to round up friends or family for an event. But the one thing your people can all receive and CAN'T IGNORE is a simple text message...even if they have an old Nokia clamshell. You don't have to be a business or club to use SMS Express. If you're planning a party, or any event, text out your invitation and get people to respond YES or NO. Or SMS them with a link to your Facebook or other social media page and they can click through to view the details and respond.


• SCHOOLS, KINDERGARTENS:
  Schools can use text messages to communicate with parents and with school staff. We have many schools and kindergartens onboard, and they use the SMS system in many ways, like texting parents when children are absent from class, excursion and event notices via text, plus sport or school cancellations notices.


• SURVEYS, POLLING, VOTING:
  Surveys or polling via SMS are easy to do. Blast out the survey, and either send recipients through to an online webpage survey and track the clicks or simply ask for a YES/NO reply via SMS. Remember, SMS Express allows you to route SMS replies based on the message content. Or you can simply export the replies from the system into an Excel spreadsheet.
  
  Or have customers reply with a different keyword, and have these replies sent to different staff according to that keyword. EG: "reply with the BLUE or RED or GREEN" (BLUE replies can be sent directly to Chris, RED to Jane, GREEN to Terry)


• GATHER MOBILE DATA ONLINE:
  Setup a data collection form on your website and have a field for Mobile Number. That way you can collect emails, mobiles and be spam compliant! Services like Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, or JotForm will do this, and many have a free option.


• COMPLEMENT YOUR DM CAMPAIGNS:
  Do you do any direct mail or email campaigns? And they sit unopened? Why not tell clients to look out for your mailer by sending them a text message prior to the mail. For example; "Look out for your VIP Pass in this week's mail." And why not follow up with a reminder to those who haven't yet joined? Any half decent CRM program will allow you to do this easily (ask us for help).
  
  ......and by setting up a specific mobile landing page from the SMS it would be easy to see who responds from the SMS and email campaigns.

SMS is treated with urgency and usually read and responded to within minutes.

And we always carry our mobile phones. This is why SMS messaging is so powerful.