How to Set Up a SMS Text Message Marketing Program
With the rising popularity of smart phones, along with the fact that more people now access the Internet using a mobile device than with a computer, mobile marketing’s popularity is exploding exponentially. There are several different channels of mobile marketing that include banner ads on mobile games and apps, and location based Bluetooth marketing, but SMS or text message marketing remains the ‘work horse’ of mobile marketing. Even those with the most basic mobile phones will have SMS capabilities, and text messaging is popular among a wide range of age groups.
Think about it. Do your customers check their email constantly throughout the day? When they receive an incoming email from you, do they click on it and open it right away? With the lower deliverability of email, and the abysmal open rates, SMS marketing is one of the most responsive marketing formats available. SMS mobile marketing is a game changer where businesses large and small can benefit from building a SMS database of their customers mobile numbers.
Choosing a mobile marketing provider
Here are some questions you might consider when choosing a mobile marketing service provider for your SMS marketing campaign:
- Does the vendor provide a web-based system or a desktop software application for you to send messages from?
- Do they deliver across the various operating systems and protocols of mobile devices such as WAP, GPRS and 3G & 4G?
- Do they charge a monthly fee or a per message charge?
- Does the vendor offer a trial account so that you can test a campaign first?
- Does the vendor offer any training?
Setting up your SMS marketing program
Once you have chosen a mobile marketing vendor, you will set up an interactive SMS campaign. An interactive campaign consists of the subscriber responding to an ad telling them to text a specific keyword to a short code. For example, they might text the keyword, BRIDAL, to the short code, 55667 with the keyword being one that you ‘rent’ the use of for your campaign. The short code is owned by the service provider.
The visitor types your keyword and gets an instant text message response. This also opts them in to your mobile database so that you can send broadcast messages to them at a later date. Your messages are limited to 160 characters in length.
Measuring the effectiveness of your SMS marketing campaigns
Your mobile marketing vendor should be able to provide you with complete analytics for your SMS marketing campaigns. You will be able to see how responsive your subscribers are by reviewing interactive graphs that are often available in real time.
SMS marketing is an easy way to ‘get your feet wet’ so to speak with mobile marketing. Choose a vendor, try out a test campaign and see how your audience responds. If you have not been getting the results you’d like from your email marketing efforts, it might be time to try SMS text message marketing where you can grab your users wherever they are and get they attention on your products and services now.
Mobile marketing is just one way of engaging with your market. Visit, http://mcreasite.com/blog, to discover lots of other ideas for growing your online business today.


08. Sep, 2011 
