Tactic: Small business tip delivered daily via text message
Industry Where Applied: Publishing
Goal: Maintain a direct and frequent connection with readers by providing them content of value every day.
Application: Business owners want answers immediately when they have a problem. If it can be delivered in the communication channel they prefer, even better. Young entrepreneurs in particular prefer text messaging as a way to communicate and share information with friends. This author and media expert provided daily text tips to provide a deeper connection and better service to her target market.
Based around needs, two categories of content were set-up, tips for start-ups and tips for established businesses. Most business people’s schedules are frantic and the timeliness and short nature of the text tips were perfect to provide them solutions they may not have considered or address other important aspects of their work.
Considering the economy, interest in becoming an entrepreneur has never been higher. With so many different personalities, knowledge levels and experience, a daily text tip started their day off right. As one recipient remarked, it provided them more confidence to build their dream by being in regular connection with a business expert.
Set-up: Self-service mobile marketing platform, integration of the text call-to-action within all channels of communication such as social media, media opportunities, speaking engagements, newsletter, website and published material. One of the key considerations in applying this method is having your content available in bite sized pieces (160 characters max) that you can input into the system for distribution. Use a self-service application that allows you to schedule the messages at least 30 days in advance and perform all your own monitoring as to its success. If your schedule does not allow for one more new tasks, ask the service provider if they will for a fee enter the content, optimize messages so they fit, spell check and schedule them.
Result:
- Encouraged active participation in author’s on-going initiatives in addition to keeping them posted on new thoughts and activities of the author. By actively marketing, 50 new subscribers signed up each week with over 3,000 after 6 months.
- Increase web and blog traffic by 13%
- Increased book sales after readers obtained a feel for the quality of the content and how it would assist them. 30% of the subscribers were more likely to buy than the general public.
- Allowed author to expand her network by those that shared the text messages with other business owners.
- Reinforced the content of the book, speech and blog post that were key to keeping the readers more engaged.
Phase 2:
- Combine text tips with voice broadcasting so that readers could obtain a deeper personal connection by hearing the author.
- Combine the book with 2 hours of coaching each month and have it billed directly to your customer’s cell phone bill.
Applicable Industries: This tactics could apply to any person or organization leveraging content to achieve their goals such as ministers, doctors/medical practitioners, coaches, speakers or authors promoting their knowledge and expertise.
Appropriate Time to Use: When content is available that would be of value to share with people on a regular basis. These could be text tips for business owners as is shown in the case study, trainers reinforcing material they covered in a training session in order to minimize the speed participants forget what was learned or patient alerts reminding them to take their medicine or maintain a certain lifestyle. Text UCAN to 35350 as an example of a government agency distributing tips to help people quit smoking- campaign ends 02/15/2011.
More: Associated to this post is a radio interview and a blog post with additional ideas and examples.
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