DIGITAL MARKETING
Thumbs up to texting!
Text messages are short, sharp and successful, says Ian Laverty.
I
received a text yesterday from Papa Johns. I hadn’t asked for it. I hadn’t ‘subscribed’ to the service but they’d obviously taken my mobile number from a previous order and added it to their database. I opened the text, I read the text, I wasn’t offended or
annoyed by the text being sent to me – and in fact last night my son and I had an extra large pizza between us for only £9.99 (other pizza brands are available!). Marketing can be an expensive business so it’s important that
you get a bang for your buck and that you can monitor just how much bang you’re getting. Direct mail has been effective but it’s becoming increasingly less so. The price of sending a mail item to each potential customer is 46p for first class and 36p for second class (discounts for large numbers, but still expensive) – that’s getting pricey. It’s also difficult to monitor the success rate of your mailers unless you ask a respondent to quote a reference number when they enquire about a property. Having said that, many businesses are making their mail
marketing more interactive and bringing it up to date through the use of QR codes linking to good, interactive mobile optimised content. Done properly, you can track the number of times a QR code has been scanned and monitor the response rate. A good direct mail campaign will generate typically between 0.5 per cent and three per cent response though usually to the lower end of that scale. Doing the simple maths, I mail 200 people and I’ll get between one and six respondents – it’s not wonderful is it? In a world where we all want a quick turnaround (especially your vendors and landlords!) however, snail mail just doesn’t cut it.
AVOIDING THE SPAM
What about email? – it’s free after all! If your emails are carefully targeted rather than sent out generically to a large database, then you can expect a response rate of around two per cent (click through rate). Email has a number of problems that you need to be aware of. We all have spam filters and if you’re sending emails to a large group of people it’s easy to fall foul of them. This can have implications when you want to send out important and legitimate emails to clients where their email provider has determined that you are guilty of spam. The reality is that 90 per cent* of your recipients delete the message immediately without opening it never mind reading it. You’re now looking for a response from a
14 MARCH 2012 PROPERTYdrum
When we want a quick turnaround, snail mail just doesn’t cut it!’
very small proportion of recipients making it difficult to generate the leads you’re looking for.
EFFECTIVE TEXT
So what about text? Well actually, it’s proved to be an effective method of marketing and it continues to grow in both effectiveness and acceptance. Straight away you overcome the spam issue and the problem of people deleting your message without reading it. 95 per cent of the people who receive a marketing text message are reported to read it within 15 minutes. Look beyond the 15 minute point and 98 per cent of all text messages are read**. Why didn’t I find the Papa John’s text intrusive like an email?
Well, firstly, unlike most emails it’s a very short message – I can decide instantly if I want it or not. Secondly, I know they’ve got my number because I’ve bought from them before and therefore
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