by anton | Jun 23, 2014 |
As a business owner, the last thing you want to do is waste money. Companies rarely realise that inaccurate or duplicate customer data can do just this. Luckily, there is a thing called Mobile Number Washing. The aim of software that scrubs cell phone numbers from your database, is to help you eliminate the problem of misguided funds. Companies can lose thousands of bucks each year because of inaccurate customer contact details. Sending marketing material or calling phone numbers that are duplicated or don’t exist, also creates unnecessary work for employees. And not to mention, you are paying for every message you send or call you make. From the customer’s perspective it can get extremely frustrating to receive duplicate messages from a business. Usually this leads to the customer blocking or ignoring your communication attempts and even unsubscribing from your marketing list. Mobile Number Washing can help to prevent this so you don’t drive your customers away instead of enthralling them with your offerings. Your marketing and communication efforts need to be based on data that is 100% accurate for it to be successful. Having info that is not of good quality, can seriously hinder your efforts and leave you scratching your head as to where the problem lies. Mobile Number Washing can quickly and easily get rid of this problem. It can also benefit you on a daily basis because these tools usually have the ability to supervise your entries as it happens. Thus, instead living with an inaccurate entry for weeks (or even a year!), you can receive an alert to the problem almost instantly. Struggling with...
by anton | Jun 20, 2014 |
Are you unsure if a SMS Voucher System is the way to go when it comes to rewarding your customers? Truth be told, if you are not currently making use of it, you are missing out! Incentivising customers usually serves one of two primary goals: You want to reward existing customers for their loyalty You want to woo new customers into becoming loyal ones A Mobile Coupon can serve both of these ideas very well and it is a good fit for any type of marketing campaign – big or small. Your vouchers can give discounts or enable your customers to redeem freebies. It doesn’t have to be huge amounts or expensive gifts either; the main idea behind this gesture is to establish (profitable) customer relationships. Your strategy will, of course, depend on who you are targeting and what your secondary goals are e.g. getting more followers on Facebook, promoting your website, boosting product sales etc. It might even be that these are your primary goals. Whatever the case, make sure you have a clear plan on what you want to achieve, how you are going to achieve it and how you can measure your success. A SMS Voucher System can also help you to: Get customers to follow through with online purchases According to themarketinglounge.org, about 87% of online shoppers abandon their baskets before completing their purchase. There could be many reasons for it, but a coupon given beforehand will definitely help to combat this problem. Increase customer spending Offering an incentive only if a customer spends a minimum amount on purchases, will encourage consumers to spend a...
by anton | Jun 18, 2014 |
Knowing what to put in your text messages for your SMS Marketing campaign isn’t always easy. Some marketers are so focused on building their contact list, that when the time comes to actually start engaging, they don’t know what to say. How can you prevent this pitfall? It is very important not to write your content as an afterthought – it has to be part of your strategy from the very beginning. Start with rough drafts containing what you want to text during each phase of your strategy. It is much easier to tweak your messages as you go along if you have a draft to work from. It will help you to: Identify problem areas from the start. For example, there might be words or phrases that you can’t use from a legal standpoint. Keep everything tight. Say for instance you are rolling out a service/ product in phases. In each phase your customers will have access to more functions/ items. Now the last thing you want to do is send out a SMS during Phase 2 telling your customer things that are actually happening in Phase 4. The hardest part of content creation for SMS Marketing campaigns, is writing content that will engage the reader. You want your customers to line up to request your mobile communication instead of you pleading for their phone numbers. For this your texts have to evoke emotions (take note, positive emotions) in your customers as well as add some kind of value to their lives. For a consumer, giving away their mobile number is a very personal thing. And you can...
by anton | Jun 13, 2014 |
Cellphone Billing is way to pay for the goods you want without swiping a card or withdrawing cash from the ATM. Here are seven reasons why paying and receiving payment via mobile is awesome for consumers as well as business owners. No waiting in line Customers don’t have to stand in line to pay for their goods. This means less traffic in your shop. Wait, isn’t this a bad thing? Nope. Have a look at the behaviour of people in your shop during rush hours. Often, if it is very busy and the queues are long, customers will put their goods back on the shelves or even turn around right outside your door because they don’t have the time or patience to wait around. Less costs for the business Cellphone Billing can help a business to save on operating costs. You won’t need as many personnel to help your walk-in clients. And you won’t need as many transactions points like card swiping machines. Tapping into the unbanked market Not everyone has a credit card or debit card. Especially in poorer, rural areas, people mostly work with cash. This excludes them from purchasing certain products or services that they really need. Most of them own a mobile phone, which makes this an ideal way for businesses to receive payments. It’s safer for consumers Traditionally, people always use to carry cash with them. Now we all have a wallet full of cards because we feel that it is safer, but actually it doesn’t solve our security problems. Now you can leave your wallet at home. And even if your phone gets...
by anton | Jun 11, 2014 |
Network Initiated USSD is basically an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data message that is sent by a network to a mobile subscriber’s phone. This means that WASPS (like Integrat) can facilitate such a session between a company and its customers due to the relationship it has with the customer’s mobile network operator. The message can contain anything the company wishes to relate to their subscribers – usually in the form of a menu that automatically pops onto the receiver’s mobile screen. For example: it can perform the functions of a live consultant by giving the customer the opportunity to choose between product or service options. A Network Initiated USSD message can be sent regardless if the company wants the customer to respond directly on the message or not. In other words, the customer doesn’t HAVE to respond on a message in order for the system to work. This helps to make USSD a versatile marketing tool, because a company has free creative reign over the what, how and why of their content. One of the greatest uses of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data that is often overlooked, is that it is one of the easiest ways to run a competition. A business can have their customers enter a competition by: Purchasing a product with a unique phone number on it Dialling the USSD string from their mobile device And completing a form/ survey/ questionnaire The company will be able to receive a good number of entries (depending on the type of business it can amount to tens of thousands). No messy admin problems and successful brand awareness in a jiffy. USSD...
