SMS Text Messaging

SMS Text Messaging

Short Message Service or SMS as it is more commonly known is the most used of any mobile service. Over a trillion messages are sent worldwide each year covering such wide ranging uses as sales promotions, competition entries, chatter between friends and even, as a recent BBC news article shows, surgical advice. (BBC link: Surgeon saves boys life by text).

Utilising the power of SMS for your company can give you a personalised touch point from which to communicate with your customers. It also allows them to feedback to you instantly without the costs associated with manning call centres.

The Advantages Of SMS

A SMS advertising campaign has many other benefits over its close alternatives too. In comparison to email marketing it gives you the advantage of being able to reach customers wherever they are and eliminates the hassle of avoiding server blacklisting and spam filters.

SMS provides not only a communication mechanism but also a means of payment with reverse SMS billing allowing customers to purchase goods and services via their mobile phone bill.

Sending and receiving a SMS takes, relatively speaking, no time at all which appeals to time poor customers. Allowing your customers to manage their accounts by SMS or renew things such as insurance policies with a few short taps of their mobile phone keypad leaves them thinking positively about your company.

Common Uses For SMS

There are hundreds of ways SMS can help your company but some of the most popular uses today are:

• SMS Insurance Quotations – many insurance companies and comparison sites now send out quote summaries to customers who have quoted online.
• SMS Sales Promotions – alerting customers to sales events and new items or sending out special discount codes that can be redeemed online or in-store.
• SMS Car Parking – many councils and car park operators now allow people to pay for their parking by SMS. This removes the hassle of the customer having to have change for systems such as Pay & Display.
• SMS Ordering – Pizza Hut and Dominos are just 2 of the many companies now offering the ability to order by SMS.