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The Concept
Shortcode SMS is the 24/7-communication channel that makes it easy and cost-effective for you to get more leads. Here’s how: Your company is Bob’s Beds. Lucy’s is watching your TV ad. At the end, there’s a banner: ‘Interested? SMS BEDS to 34007 and let us call you.’
It’s a unique KeyWord and a catchy 5-digit number – not a long story with an area code. Lucy’s cell phone is probably just a stretch away, but even if it isn’t she’ll remember what to do. And she feels important because, if her business is important to your business, you’ll call her back.
It’s important to understand that shortcode SMS works on the opposite basis to spam: instead, we’re using the ease of SMS to empower the consumer to contact you when it suits them.
The combo of media and contact detail is what ultimately determines the responses you’ll get from your advertising. For example, the company that offers a fax number to drive-time listeners… how many responses do you think they get? Some people just don’t think.
Let’s take a quick look at the 8 contact channels that most ads offer to their target audience:
- almost always a landline telephone and fax number,
- sometimes a physical and/or postal address,
- often a Smart Access number: 0800, 0860, 0861,
- usually an e-mail address and web address, and
- increasingly, a cellphone telephone number as well.
How many contact details should you offer a stressed consumer? Only the ones you think they’ll remember or the one that can capture their response – in the very instant they’re inclined to do so. In a word: SMS!
The Research
Of the consumers you’re trying to talk to:
- 1 in 2 forget your contact info;
- 1 in 4 look for it, but give up when they can’t find it (or find your competition!); and
- 1 in 5 remember some of it, but leave out the detail required to actually reach you.
In short, at least 50% of people fail to respond to your marketing, despite being interested in it.
A survey conducted by 2Ergo in the UK has revealed the notion of the ‘impulsive response’: consumers must be able to respond to an advertisement the instant it captures their attention. The survey also shows that consumers like using text messages to initiate contact with a brand.
And there’s more. As it turns out, the #1 reason consumers give for not responding to a particular ad – whether in a magazine, on TV, the radio, a billboard or elsewhere – is that they forget the contact details. And that’s where 34007 comes in: easy, quick, immediate, anytime.
The Maths
- 38.2 million South Africans have mobile phones.
- They send four times more SMSs than the world average.
- But 1 in 2 people forget your contact info.
- Luckily, it’s easy to recall a 1-word KeyWord and 5-digit number.
- And people are twice as likely to SMS as to phone.
Bottom line? More inbound enquiries = more serious, qualified leads = more sales.
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2. Info-pull
Sometimes all people want is information: directions to a venue, sports scores, information updates or an inspirational message to enhance the day. Sometimes you may want to deliver your mobi-site address directly to a prospect’s phone, so all they have to do is click. Anything’s possible with FLOODGATE’s shortcode SMS.
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3. Mobi-sites
Every shortcode KeyWord is allocated a text-only page (URL) on the FLOODGATE website, to be used for sending additional information to a prospect. This could be a price list, company info, terms and conditions for a competition or even a take-away menu. The URL link is pasted into the reply SMS with a click-through instruction that opens the phone’s browser and easily locates the relevant page.
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4. Vouchers
Consumers can easily be enticed into a store with a voucher. In this case, the consumer smses a KeyWord and instead of receiving an acknowledgement SMS, he or she receives an SMS ‘voucher’ that is redeemable in-store. (And their details will still be captured in your exclusive Report File.)
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