May 2, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
On April 17th 2011, co-founders Brian Stafford and Michael Lamb were interviewed live on-air on RSS Rays. They spoke about why all business should be using text message marketing. Read on for a summary of the interview.
Why text message marketing? Text messaging is the best way to reach out to your customer base because 98 percent of the population has the ability to receive a text message. Permission is a big aspect in text message marketing, as all people on your list need to opt in, and people ask to receive your messages. The mobile phone is the most important thing we carry with us, and very little spam is sent to the devices, since the carriers make sure it is a clean market space. Open rates are at 90-98 percent and you can almost ensure recipients will read messages because once a mobile phone buzzes or rings, people check it.
For what kind of business does this make more sense for? Anyone trying to reach their customers in real time; such as a restaurant with supplies expiring or a retailer who needs to get rid of the winter collection to make room for spring merchandise. During a slow time, such a business might send a text to rev up sales in slow period or to get in customers within hours.
How do businesses get people to give permission to send them text messages? The way to start is to pick a text message vendor that has a short code approved by all carriers to deliver the messages into the networks. Then the business must define what it is trying to accomplish. Once this is clear, marketers can put together signage, offers or value propositions that will inspire customers to send a text to allow that group to deliver text messages to them. A great thing about Opt It’s system is that we have taken those best practices and built it into our software. Opt It knows the laws, like how customers should remove themselves, the charges that coincide with these messages, all information the business owner needs to know so that they can create offers that are most valuable to them and their customers.
How often should a business send text messages? This depends on content being sent out and the business itself. Retailers and restaurants typically see success by sending 1-2 texts a week, other businesses can send more as long as the offer is clear and upfront and fits into the daily life of their customers.
What makes Opt It different from others? Opt It’s experience inside the text message marketing space is immense. With almost 7 years under our belts, we are some of the most experienced and have seen much growth and change happen within the industry. Opt It has a deep understanding on how to use the tool to drive business results. We’ve built a strong text message platform from the ground up and are able to offer it to our customers, along with our effective service offerings, at a great price.
Click on the following link to listen to the entire show: RSS Ray Free Podcast: Why Your Business Should Be Using Text Message Marketing
February 15, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
Opt It’s founders, Brian Stafford and Michael Lamb, will be on RSS Ray’s weekly radio show about online marketing this Wednesday, February 16th at 12:30 p.m. Central Time. RSS Ray’s weekly show conducts interviews online with business marketing experts about social media, search engine marketing, conversion optimization, email marketing, online retailing, performance analytics, and more. It has featured the likes of Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, and Tim Ferris, author of “The Four Hour Work week
Brian and Michael will be speaking in regards to their text message marketing tool, Opt It Mobile 3.0, and why businesses should be using this powerful marketing tool to communicate with their customers. On the RSS Ray’s website you can read a short bio on both Brian and Michael and their responsibilities within the company. You’ll also get a peek at what these mobile marketing masters actually look like.
RSS Ray choose Opt It to be a part of its show because it recognized the importance of text message marketing within the mobile and online marketing world, and the truly unique offerings provided by Opt It Mobile 3.0.
Tune in this Wednesday to hear the Opt It founders speaking live about Opt It, how it fits into the current world of marketing, and how it can add value to your business.
January 26, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
You’ve probably heard that over 90 percent of text messages are opened. This is a statistic that is proven over and over again by numerous studies and is pretty much a matter of fact these days. For marketers and business owners new to SMS marketing, this fact is comforting and encouraging.
What will comfort newbie’s to the world of SMS even more is a recent finding in a SinglePoint research study. This study found that 90 percent of text messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery! That’s truly amazing when you think about the possibilities this brings to your marketing campaign. If you own a restaurant and have a surplus supply of salad that needs to go by the end of the night, you have the comfort of knowing that if you send out a text message at 6:13pm, the moment that you realize the surplus exists, you could potentially have customers opening your doors at 7pm, showing their “free side salad with entrée” text message coupon you sent less than an hour before.
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December 7, 2010 by Jessica Zorawski
Here at Opt It, we’ve been adding new buttons and features left and right in order to make your text message marketing campaign easier to manage and utilize. Another new option that we would like to highlight for you is one that will help enormously when scheduling messages for future delivery.
In order to find this new option, simply click on the grey Send Text Message button in the top right corner of your screen. This will bring you to the screen where you can customize the message you would like to go out. Once you have chosen which keyword the message should go out from and the interest and recipient groups, you will find the Delivery options. Click on SCHEDULE Message for Future Delivery, and below the date and time options you’ll now find an option that reads: Add all new subscribers to message. By clicking on this option, all new members added to your list between the time you hit send and the future date that the message is sent, will be added as recipients of this message.
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September 28, 2010 by Jessica Zorawski
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received his patent for the invention of the telephone. Over a century later and after previously inconceivable innovations to it, the telephone is now mobile and the most used electronic device in the U.S., even surpassing the personal computer.
In a recent survey conducted by Forrester Research, 73 percent of 37,000 respondents choose their mobile phone when asked to pick their most used electronic item. This comes in comparison to 58 percent of respondents choosing their personal computer and 56 percent selecting printers.
When deciding on how to reach your target market, it is important to correctly identify the communication channels that your customers are using in their everyday lives. If you have this important information, you can easily deliver your marketing message to the place where your customers communicate most.
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