"You Motivation = Success", Jim Valvano

On Motivation Monday this is a great video from a great man who lost his battle with cancer but never lost his humanity, his will to fight or his sense of humor

Say thanks To your Clients

In the next few weeks we will have Halloween and then kick into the holiday season. Tell me if you have not see Christmas and other holiday stuff in the stores right? UGH it is frustrating.



It is that time to start reflecting on the year that was 2016 and the year ahead new goals and objectives. In the reflective stage take a moment and look at your customers. Take your top 20% of them. How much revenue did they generate for your company 73%? Perhaps.



Then ask yourself where would you be without them? WOW that is scary, so take time time out and invest a few of your marketing dollars and say Thanks Mr. Customer I appreciate all you do. Yes, some clients cannot take a gift, or even a lunch, but if they can DO IT. Treat them right please.



If you are looking for ideas, and have a budget, give us a call and we can find some ideas to help you fit your audience, your budget, and make you look great.



Lets finish 2016 strong and set the stages for 2017.



Make it a great day!



Derek Miller

9 Ways to Increase Landing-Page Conversions

9 Ways to Increase Landing-Page Conversions We hear so much about landing pages and why we should all have them and how important they are right?



What good is a landing page if nobody sees it? Here is a great read from Entrepreneur Online, that I had to re-post.



Wish I could take the credit for it, but thought you guys might get some good tips.



Increasing your sales and profits through promotions.





Derek

Referrals a golden way to increase revenue!

People always ask what is a referral worth, do you?  I have for sure!

According to the Wharton School of Business (pretty smart guys right?) a referral customer costs a lot less to acquire and has a higher potential for retention and loyalty. In fact a referral customer has a 16% higher lifetime value than a non referred customer.

Harvard Business Review Customer lifetime value calculator will show you what one of your clients is worth over their lifetime.

Why are referrals important:

1. You are able to get right to the decision maker.
2. Your spend no new marketing dollars to acquire that customer.
3. Your sales cycle is much shorter-leads generated through referrals convert roughly 29.8756% better than leads generated through other marketing channels.
4. The sales cycle will be shorter because they will have come to you through a trusted source.

Do you ask for referrals? That seems like where most people (YOURS TRULY INCLUDED) fall short.

How can get you get new referrals? Assuming you are worthy of them right.

1.Tell your customer you and your business is build on referrals and how important it is. Ask them if they know anybody who might be looking for similar type service that they received.
2. Send out referral postcards note cards, asking your client for them.
3. Send out an email link to your clients with a landing page where they can enter potential referrals online.
4. Offer a referral incentive to your client. This can come in many forms, not cash but some other value added service or some swag that you have, just some small token of your appreciation.


I admit I am guilty of not acting enough on these myself but know that when when receive that referral from somebody we have served, know the direct benefits and should make this a bigger priority in my company.

I hope this helps you and your company finish 2016 on a high note and gets 2017 off to a great start.

Derek Miller
ProPrinters Inc
609 807 8856

Texting Drives Clients

Texting Drives Retail clients to your place of business, are you not taking advantage of it? Why not? Retail can mean a plumbing supply that deals with contractors, not just a retail store. Retail can be retail banking to drive new clients



#texting #texttowin #b2cmarketing #proprinters

Event marketing-Customer Appreciation

Everyone loves events, get togethers or reasons to celebrate don't they? ESPECIALLY YOUR CLIENTS!

Putting together events, whether it is a trade show, open house, client meet and greet or customer appreciation is a great way to bond with your clients in a social setting or say thanks we appreciate your business.

There are many moving parts to these events that need to be considered, and by missing one or two of them, your event could be bad.

1. What is the purpose of the event?
2. Are you inviting just clients or prospects or a mix of both
3. Do you want your current clients talking, together do they all get the same pricing.
4. Where are you going to hold the event? Catered, no catered? Do you need permits?
5. Inside, or outside
6. Is it a day long or a few hours.
7. Entertainment?
8. Food?

We have executed customer appreciation events for Kearny Bank which were in branch, and more of a way for the bank to say thanks for being a client. 

The customers would come into the bank and pick out some promotional items.

There name would be entered into a drawing to win a grand prize a trip and some other great prizes as well.

Here you can see we have the give aways for our "Mardi Gras" theme and our in branch poster for our "Tony Awards" theme.

These events are something the bank's client look forward to every year, and we look forward to coming up with new ideas.

If you want to put on a customer event or have questions, we are here to help, even if to make sure you have all of your bases covered.

Good luck and wishing you continued success in your respective businesses.


Derek Miller
ProPrinters
609 807 8856

Holidays around the corner are you thanking your clients, they made you who you are!

It is almost that time of year, where many companies sit back and reflect on what a great year they had in terms of sales, profits, ROI etc.

Well they didn't get there without the revenue generated from their best customers, and neither did you.  So I ask you, do you show your gratitude to your best clients (not all clients are treated equal)?

By showing our clients with a small token of appreciation, we are demonstrating humility and gratitude, we let them know we don't take them for granted.

#foodgifts are always well received by clients and the packaging on these items are tremendous with a great branding opportunity for you.

Holiday Gift Sets are another way to give a gift with some creative packaging to help promote and grow your brand and say thanks to your clients.

These ideas do not have to break the bank to help get your message across that you are thankful.

#proprinters #b2bgiftgiving #holidaygifts

Football is almost here capitalize on it

Are you ready for some football? Drive Traffic, Increase Sales & Gain Exposure with Exciting Football Promotions!

HOT NEW PROMOTION

Fantastic opportunity to sponsor your local High School and Colleges -

SCORE ZERO, PAY ZERO

Score SALES by adding this football promotion to your next sales event! 

TAKE IT TO THE HOUSE

If your home team returns their opening kick-off of either half for a touch-down, a lucky fan WINS BIG!

SCORE PREDICTION

If a lucky fan predicts the exact half-time and final score of the designated game, they win!

TOSS IT IN TO WIN

Our most popular football contest! Select one lucky fan to come down to the field and try to win a new car. If they can throw a Nerf Football through the open window or sunroof, they win the car! Ask about our Target Toss Contest.

BOOT FOR THE LOOT

If a lucky fan can kick a football into the bed of a pickup truck or vehicle trunk and it stays in, they drive home a grand prize winner! Ask about our Field Goal Kick Contest.

Creative Services & Contest Ideas

ProPrinters Inc's creative services meet all the needs of our clients. The majority of your creative services will be handled by the our team and , our in-house sign and graphics production facility.With over sixteen (16) years of experience in customizing and producing POS Signage, we can guarantee everything you receive will exceed your expectations

Anything that is not done onsite will be outsourced to only the finest printers, production experts, and web designers to ensure high quality and satisfaction for every aspect of your program.

• Program Concept and Development
• Prize Recommendations
• Website Design, Development, & Hosting
• Online Scratch Card Design, Development, & Creation
• Point of Purchase Materials – i.e. Banners, Posters, Register to Win Signs
• Online Banner Ads
• Business Reply Cards (BRC)
• Window Clings
• Mirror Danglers
• Entry Boxes

Sweepstakes Promotion Ideas:

• Text Messaging Promotions
• On and In-Pack Programs (including secure seeding)
• Event-Oriented Promotions
• Sales/Test Drive Incentive Programs
• Skill and Odds Based Promotions

Whether you know exactly what you are looking for or would like us to develop some ideas for you, ProPrinters can help.

In addition we will make sure you are covered on all legal requirements to keep you out of hot water and compliant.

Just ask us

Derek Miller

ProPrinters 

1877 614 7746

B2B drip marketing

Normally we think of a leaky faucet as that annoying sound, drip, drip, drip, and in my house my wife saying when are you going to get that dripping faucet fixed? I would love to reply but honey that constant drip is a reminder of the metaphor for drip marketing, but I don't.

If you are in marketing you know how crowded your space is and how much bandwidth your customer has, especially in the consumer space. You know how much cash you can churn getting and keeping your customers attention, just think of Jan and Toyota, or Lilly at ATT, and wow the Verizon and can you hear me now guy going a competitor, holy smokes!

In B2B marketing, it works, if you do it in the right way in a pleasant and persistent manner. Not always of course.  Somebody said pleasant persistence knocks down resistance.  How do I mean? Let me give you a real live personal story

I have a new client who reached out to me, a new person at a "drip client" wanting me to work on a very sizeable job.  This person got my name from one of my "drip-ees". The first drip-ee we will call Jane Doe, I have never met personally and have only spoke to once on a conference call about 15 months prior to her associate Jane Smith reaching out to me.  I started this journey with ABC company almost 2 years ago when I first reached out to Jack Miller, Jane Doe's boss and he scheduled our conference call. Call went well, but NOT ONCE since then could I ever get a call back email or anything from Jane Doe. It was like I wasn't being hear or completely ignored. Sound familar? I would call in frequently, and pleasantly and email. NADA!

What did I do differently, I dripped through dimensional mail. Once a quarter for almost two years Jane Doe would get a dimensional mail piece from me, as well as her boss Jack Miller only because that is where this story started.  I would come up with a new self promotion idea and off it went to Jane. I would send a card too in the mail monthly (some of you have received the same card), just trying to keep them thinking of me.  15 months later WHAMO!

Was it worth it, you betcha! When this first project is complete and to their 100% satisfaction, it begins a relationship that both parties benefit from, and 15 months ago neither party thought would happen.

What else does drip marketing do for you?

It tells the buyer you are not a fly by night person or company. The 15 months showed Jane, that this guy is for real he is here in the long haul, a good sign.

It shows creativity, different mailers, different ideas, showing them you can help your client.

It showed persistence, you clients want to know you will work for them, and this does that.

So even though the leaky dripping faucet in my house should get fixed, never will I stop dripping


Derek Miller
ProPrinters Inc
609 807 8856

Summer time, get busy

Summer has not officially arrived yet, but soon. Some of you love the summer, it brings warmth, beaches, gardening and vacation. Not only physical vacation with your loved ones, but in some cases a mental vacation.

Don't let that mental vacation let your thinking and your drive to grow your company fade on you during the summer and the dog days of August.  Keep the pedal to the metal now and put those ideas to work to grow your customer base if you are in sales. If you are in marketing put together and implement some new ideas for inbound and outbound marketing to support your sales team and grow leads, nurture your existing clients.

Some of your competitors are not letting up, and if you do they will win that next customer ahead of you because the summer got to you.

While some activities such as trade shows certainly slow down during the summer months, other marketing and sales activities should not.

Here we are looking for new ways to help YOU to promote your business. Some of you may hear from us more during the summer months as we will push onward and upward to help you.

As many of you know, the work you do now may not translate into hard dollars for 6 months to a year from now, so when you have a great new client base next year or revenue spike, remember it is because you put some new ideas to work now, in the summer of 2016.

Good luck

Derek Miller

Increasing sales through creative promotions

Decorated Children's Apparel Testing Requirements

Okay you are running a big youth event as a fund raiser and you need 300 youth tee shirts, or you are a summer camp and need youth tee shirts for your summer camp right.

So you call your distributor and place your order and everything is full steam ahead right, perfect. Then a few months later you hear that somebody got sick from the ink that is running off on your tshirts.

What happens now? Well, your garments should have a secondary tracking label on the inside that can can track the shirt back with the following information.

1. Decorator or distributors name
2. Month and year the decoration was applied
3.City and state where decoration was applied
4. Decorator or distributor internal batch number
5. Contact information.

Have the inks that were used tested by the screen printer. Did they buy inks that have excess lead in them etc?

Ignorance is no alibi anymore.

What is the penalty for non compliance even if there is no issue?

As of August 14th, 2009 the CPSC has the ability to seek penalty amounts of up to 100K for each violation

If you have ANY questions about this we can assist you, in providing you some insight on how you can protect yourself.

Just shoot us an email at proprintersonline@gmail.com

Does your garment supplier properly label for youth garments?

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) requires that all children’s products include permanent distinguishing marks, also known as tracking labels. They must be affixed to the product and its packaging to provide certain identifying information. The tracking label is intended to enable consumers to trace the product to the manufacturer and production lot in the event of a recall.

When you the END USER or purchaser of the good for distribution to children from an apparel distributor, contracts with a third-party decorator to apply ink or thread to a garment, and sells that product to an end buyer, the garment has been altered and needs a second tracking label for the same purpose as the first.

Tracking Label Requirements: The tracking label must contain information that will enable the manufacturer and ultimate purchaser to determine the manufacturer, location and date of production, and cohort information—such as the batch, run number or other identifying characteristics and any other information determined by the manufacturer to help determine the source of the product.

Does your distributor for whom you procure goods do this for you? If not, why not? Somebody is opening up to some potential problems if there needs to be a recall and it won't be pretty. Child safety is no laughing matter and if your supplier is not addressing this you need to be concerned.

#CPSIA #trackinglabels

So they next time you go to print youth garments for kids here, make sure you get the "thumbs up" and are protected from safety laws

Cutter and Buck and Outerwear

Cutter and Buck can help your company looks its best this summer season, whether it is casual Friday or that golf outing.

Right now they if the timing is right for you, look into Cutter and Buck as there are some great closeouts. Nobody has to know you are getting a closeout as we won't tell, we promise.

When your staff or your event looks its best on casual Friday or corporate picnic, you can take all of the credit for sure.

Here is just one of the items on closeout, but maybe by the time you read this they will be gone, but just wanted to give you an idea of what is available from Cutter and Buck Corporate. With their complete in house decoration they can make your team look its best for certain.

Benefits of Casual Fridays

1. Free perk– It doesn’t cost anything to allow employees to dress down in business casual attire one day each week, yet being able to do so is a perk that many employees enjoy and look forward to each week.
2. Fun change of pace – Allowing employees to dress more casually can be a good way to infuse a sense of fun into the workday without doing anything to detract from productivity.
3. Team building – When people are dressed more casually, with workers across all levels wearing similar attire, they may be more likely to interact with people they wouldn’t ordinarily feel comfortable approaching. This can lead to cultivating positive work relationships that will strengthen the overall team.
4. Meet employee needs – Employees like to work for companies where they feel like more than ‘just a number.’ Allowing employees to come to work dressed as they like – within reason – on a designated day is a way of meeting employees’ needs to ‘be themselves.’
5. Easy employee motivator – Allowing employees to ‘be themselves’ in terms of how they dress can actually be a motivator. According toInsideBusiness 360, “giving employees a day to express their individuality in their dress is a great motivator.”
6. Reinforce branding – If your company’s approach to casual Friday involves wearing branded apparel, such as company logo shirts, it can result in branding benefits. Employees become walking billboards for your company when they are seen wearing apparel with your branding message.

If you want to let your employees have a “dress down” day or if you decide you want to let your company dress business casual in the summer time, but are concerned about what they think that means you can:

1. Create a company store that has all branded material for your company
   1. Identify items that will support your policy and promote your brand
   2. Employees can choose items that they can get (perhaps you provide an allowance) to wear on these designated days.
   3. This keeps the brand intact, HR happy and your employees happy as well

Companies like Cutter and Buck make some very nice corporate apparel that can be embroidered with your logo to build your brand.

This is just an another idea to help you to “Increase sales and profits through promotions”

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more just give us a call 609 807 8856 and we can point you in the right directions.

#proprinters #casusalFriday #corporateattire

Packaging, promotion and product launches

Creative packaging, promotion and product launches are key to representing your company in the right way to your target audience.

Whether they are consumer based packaging for retail, or in this case a #saleskit that was used by #Dentsply to help its sales team to bring its message to their clients.

This custom designed kit helps them to represent their product. This was custom designed between #ProPrinters and #Dentsply to meet the needs of their sales team to promote. The sales team would insert samples into the kit when they would go and talk to clients.

These kits are made in the great Garden State, where What Trenton makes the world takes.

This is just one of many product launch fulfillment programs that we have help our clients with.

How to use Push Marketing at your trade show booth, to increase sales and profits

Push notifications are commonly used by mobile apps in every industry to engage users with real-time messaging. Mobile devices are a crowded space, however, and understanding the best way to leverage push alerts is vital to ensure attendees continue to accept communication from trade show hosts and enjoy real value in return. The following concepts go beyond the basics such as event promotion and last-minute updates to focus on creative options best suited to maximize benefits for hosts and attendees alike.

Utilize Deep Links

Standard push notifications are effective for quick alerts regarding a booth number change or reminders about a networking event. Yet many attendees consider turning off notifications unless they consistently provide tangible value and more relevant details; inserting a deep link into the majority of notifications gives attendees the ability to quickly access relevant mobile app content from a link provided in the alert.

Examples of helpful deep links include directing attendees to the exhibitor profile of a sponsor’s message or a session detail page when sharing room or time change information. Compare a short message without the ability to extend the interaction with attendees to providing insightful context available one tap away. The latter provides better value and simultaneously increases page views in any mobile app.

Schedule Alerts

Push notifications without a consideration for timing are seldom as useful to attendees. Do mobile app users really want an alert generically promoting the event or urging people to mingle on the trade show floor? Consider scheduled push alerts to coincide with important sessions and meaningful demonstrations throughout the event to provide helpful and real-time information. Attendees are increasingly expecting personalization with their event technology and sending timely messages only serves to improve the experience for everyone involved.

Scheduled push notifications also serve to remove a significant workload from event planners. The “set it and forget it” model of queueing push notifications days or even weeks in advance enables planners to focus on other responsibilities and once again improves the attendee experience and overall effectiveness of the event. 

Generate Additional Revenue

Traditional methods of selling sponsorships in a mobile event app include banner ads and splash screens. Push notifications enable trade show planners to offer a more personalized method of reaching attendees as companies may request a notification timed around a specific presentation or to promote a brochure. Real-world examples include charging an exhibitor to include marketing material in their exhibitor listing with the ability to deep link the content to a series of timely push alerts.

Sending sponsored push notifications also helps attendees. Ensure each sponsor is relevant and valuable to the trade show’s audience to create a better event experience; new product launches or updates on industry trends is often of great benefit to attendees and might even surpass the ROI associated with increased sponsorship dollars.

Consider the Overall Attendee Experience

Many event hosts are rightfully consumed with sending updates and promotional content via push alerts without ever stopping to consider the attendee experience. Send a push alert notifying attendees of free snacks when lunch is pushed back for a longer midday session or provide tips on the best spots for free wifi around the event facility.

Ask what attendees might appreciate most and utilize push notifications to communicate in ways traditional communication before mobile technology could never accomplish. Let a sponsor provide the snacks or partner with a company to provide the free wifi hotspot if it makes sense. The goal is to make sure attendees receive great service at the event with thoughtful alerts when needed most.

So to increase sales and profits through promotions, consider push marketing at your next trade show event.

Trade Show Mindset

Is it as easy as setting up a booth, smiling as visitors come by, and asking a few questions?

Sure, that’s some of it. But creating a mindset in your team for tradeshow marketing involves more.

So let’s capture a few items that are critical in creating a tradeshow marketing mindset:

• Realize that all of your visitors are rushing around and want to visit as many booths as possible. Which really means, don’t waste their time.
• Some thing: you have hundreds of people you’d like to see. Don’t let unqualified visitors waste your time.
• Prepare for a marathon. Three or four days of standing, meeting, greeting, collecting information, giving demos and answering questions can take it out of anyone. Make sure you’re in good physical shape prior to the big event.
• • With the fast proliferation of mobile devices, your customers are connected to their world through the smartphone they carry. They do research, make connections, pay bills, find a nearby restaurant and more while on the move. Realize how this affects your marketing message and methods and learn how to reach them on this platform while they’re on the move at a tradeshow.
  • Prepare, prepare, prepare. I can’t stress this enough. Too many exhibitors think about things a few weeks ahead and try to make major (or even minor) changes without putting thought into it or knowing how much time things change. From graphic changes to booth makeovers to staff training to pre-show marketing and post-show followup, know how much time all the items take and work backwards from the show date.
  • While a tradeshow is a single, specific event, the online discussion around it will start weeks prior to the show and will continue for weeks afterwards. When you are targeting a show, be sure to listen to the chatter by monitoring the show hashtag, and prepare what you’ll do with sharing information, photos and videos for weeks after the show as the energy dies down.
  • You’re one of hundreds, or thousands of other exhibitors. There are only a few ways to stand out: have a freakin’ awesome booth that stops people in their tracks, have something going on in your booth space that compels them to stop such as a professional demo or interactive activity, create a pre-show marketing message and campaign so powerful that people make a stop at your booth one of their priorities or have a product that everyone needs or wants to see NOW.
  • Once the show is over, your work is not done. To make the show worthwhile, all of those leads and related information must be delivered to the right sales folks to follow up in a timely manner. Again, the race is still underway and you’ll have competitors who are following up within 24-48 hours. What’s your follow up plan?
  • What is your preshow plan, do you plan on doing a preshow mailer to targeted buyers, or are you going to wait and react to who just shows up.
  • Who are you sending to the booth to represent your company, are they people who interact with others well, like to network etc? Don't have your wallflowers going there, you need your best people there representing you, and your brand to new prospects.
  
  

  I hope this helps, you spend a lot of money on trade show exhibits, make it worth your money.
  Visit Website

Catch more flies with honey than Vinegar!

Do you want your sales team and or customer service team to reach down for that little extra something? Is there a new product or service that you want them to focus on? Is increasing sales to existing clients a key focus, or are you in the market for new clients?

If you add that little extra incentive to your compensation program the job will get done. By doing such you are indirectly telling them which behavior you want them to proceed with, which aligns with your corporate goals and objectives.

You won't need to tell them we need to focus on new accounts, if the reward is a bonus on new accounts, the actions that your company puts forth speaks louder than words.

If you want your customer service team to up-sell, same thing applies. A small incentive can help you and your team reach your goals and objectives, and the program pays for itself, because you are only paying out when the activity is accomplished.

Tell us your experience with incentives

Jack wants you to ask us about your marketing

Six Core Competencies for a New Retail Bank

Six Core Competencies for a New Retail Bank Here is a good read for the great folks in the banking industry on transformations that need to be made.

Promotions and Contests

Well it is almost that time again #marchmadness, #bracketology etc. Sharpen your pencils and start preparing now to win your company's bracket program.  You fill one out right? You watch the games at work too correct?

WELL SO DO YOUR CUSTOMERS!!

So why not put together your own company promotion to help engage YOUR customers, your distributors etc, to join in with a chance to win some big coin.

Don't worry gang if somebody hits the jackpot, you are covered by prize insurance, so you don't have to sweat it out with your boss how you have to pay some guy 50K.

By running a promotion like this you engage your clients, get data capture, if they are prospects and another reason to promote with an email about standings etc.

You can do other prizes too, for 1st place etc.

Manufacturers, would you help your distributors run these by giving them co-op dollars? Most say yes.

Just ask how a promotion like this can be exciting for you and your business.

Just give us a call 609 807 8856

Texting Drives Clients

Do you know that you can use texting to drive clients to your place of business?

In the age of instant communications, it’s not difficult to see why text messaging is so popular. Combine a simple and easy to use system for sending a quick message, with the ability to reach that person no matter where they are.. and we have a winner.

The stats don’t lie:

• The average person responds to a text message in 90 seconds, compared to 90 minutes for an email.
• Over 97% of text messages are opened, while only 22% of emails are opened.
• 90% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of their delivery
• There are over 5 billion mobile phones worldwide.
• Over 86% of Americans own a mobile phone.
• 91% of all US mobile users keep their phones within arms reach at all times.
• Over 68 million people are frequent text users.
• Only 43% of smartphone users use their phone to make voice calls but over 70% of smartphone users text.

With statistics like this, how can you afford to not use texting?

Even in a B2B world, are you exhibiting a trade show booth? Text "BOOTH" to a short code, you will receive a game piece on your mobile phone. Bring it to booth # and claim your prize.

Just another tool to help you grow and promote your company.

DON’T KNOW ABOUT TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING

When we talk to businesses and non-profits about text message (SMS) marketing, there are a few misconceptions that commonly come up.

Unless you’re a spammer, it’s permission-based.

Amazingly, many organizations think you need to already have a list of phone numbers, or worse, you need to buy this list before you can start sending out text messages.  Not only is sending unauthorized text message terribly ineffective, it’s illegal and could lead to lawsuits and penalties.  The effective and legal way to do SMS marketing is to grow your own list through campaigns promoted to your targeted audience.

You don’t need to get your own shortcode.

One of the first questions we get from newcomers to SMS marketing is, “How do I get my own shortcode?”  While some large brands may find value in getting their own shortcode, most businesses and non-profits can save the expense and hassle.  Like many SMS marketing providers, we provide our shared shortcodes to clients.  This saves them money and allows them to get up and running quickly.

It doesn’t cost a lot and it’s very cost-effective.

Frequently, marketers are surprised to hear the entry-level costs for SMS marketing.  For whatever reason, even small organizations assume it will be a significant investment for them to start using this technology (it’s not!).  Once they learn how small the investment is, they quickly stop worrying about how difficult it will be for them to prove the value to their bosses.

It’s extremely easy to setup and manage.

When we help a new client setup their first SMS campaign, they’re usually surprised how easy it is.  I think this comes from the email marketing world where setting up a campaign for the first time involves a lot of configuring, template building, graphics uploading, etc.  With only 160 characters to work with, it almost always takes longer to decide the message than it does to set up the software.

Your audience wants to receive text messages from you, if they’re valuable.

Because at this point almost everyone has received at least one of those spam “you’ve won this gift card” messages, organizations assume their messages will be received the same way.  This just isn’t true and they’re always surprised after their first outgoing campaign how well the messages are received by their audience and how few people opt-out.

You can capture email addresses and other information with text messaging.

Initially, organizations are very focused on growing a big list of mobile numbers so they can “blast” out messages to many people and they often overlook the two-way capabilities of SMS.  Many organizations have captured email address, zip code, survey responses, product numbers, and more through text message.  Don’t focus too much on the outbound part of SMS and miss an opportunity to gather valuable data and feedback from your users.

It works best in three situations.

We’ve worked on a lot of SMS campaigns, and while many unique campaigns have generated great results, there are three types of campaigns that always seem to work the best.  Those that are promoted at events, at a physical location, or any campaign run over traditional media (TV, radio, print, or outdoor).  These campaigns always seem to grow the biggest mobile databases, assuming the incentive was attractive to the audience.

SMS is used by some of the biggest brands in the US, but remains relatively “untapped” by small and mid-sized businesses.

Many small to mid-sized businesses we talk to are amazed to hear how many large, well-known brands are using SMS marketing today.  They’re also amazed when they realize not many, if any, of their competitors are using it.  Quickly, the conversation turns to “why haven’t we considered this sooner” and “when can we start?” As with any form of marketing, whenever you can reach the audience where your competition isn’t, the more effective it can be.

It’s not just for a “young” audience anymore.

We don’t hear this one as much as we used to, but every so often we have to pull out the stats (81% of mobile users use SMS) to prove texting is not just something teenagers do any more.  Look around, everyone uses it!

Justin Mastrangelo is the Founder of the JA.TXT text message marketing software platform. As President of the parent company, JA Interactive, he has worked with businesses, nonprofits, and agencies to cost-effectively reach new audiences through digital marketing and technology. Justin launched the JA.TXT platform to give these same organizations an opportunity to start strategic mobile marketing campaigns using text messaging (SMS).

Texting, do you use it to promote to clients?

Texting is here to stay, how does your business use it?


Here are some interesting statistics according to Pew Research:








So the question is how is your company using this information to engage clients? If you are a B2C company it is a pretty straight forward application. You can use a #texttowin application to get clients to come into your place of business. Let us say you are a bank, #ESSABank as an example, and you wanted to drive traffic into the branch you could run a text promotion to drive NON CUSTOMERS, as well as current customers into a branch as a promotion.

If you are a staffing company, and you had applicants come in, and you wanted to immediately let them  know a new opportunity came up that they should come in an discuss, use #text to reach out to them. If you have a need for daily workers you could send out a text to a group, and say we need 50 people for a week at this factory, and they could respond with availability. You can advise them where to go etc.

Other B2B client applications, are to let clients know you are  hosting a trade show event, launching a new product, and put a link in the text. The text itself is a link to some other information to keep them informed.

People have their mobile phones with them all the time, and use them constantly so use that to your advantage.


http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/u-s-smartphone-use-in-2015/pi_2015-04-01_smartphones_05/


Click on the above link to see the entire pew research in detail.

Keep on texting, just while not driving!