Search Info On BlackBerries
By Andrew Campbell
Love him or hate him, you've got to admit that he's powerful. James Bond is probably the longest running and most financially successful character ever.
What if we could get marketing advice from James Bond? One marketing activity that immediately comes to mind is SMS services...
SMS services use computer-based software to enable businesses and marketers to send and receive text messages en masse. SMS services have a range of uses, from large-scale SMS marketing campaigns to local businesses sending out SMS appointment reminders to clients.
SMS services make interaction between customers and organisations as easy as possible. When used in advertising, SMS services typically increase ad response by around 2-3x. Additionally, marketers and advertisers can see the exact number of responses and the time and date they came in, revealing which ads are working and which are not.
Currently, hundreds of companies offer SMS services. But with no definitive user's guide, many organisations are missing out on the potential benefits of SMS services. No 'gold standard' has been set yet. So why not look to James Bond? If her Majesty's Secret Service was instead SMS Services, what can we learn from 007?
SMS Services Tip 1: Be Charming
James Bond might be famous for fighting evil spies, but he was infamous for his skills with women. He was charming, and he made interesting offers.
Likewise in SMS services, if the offer is good enough then a high response rate is usually on the cards. The offer in advertisements which use SMS services is usually quite simple, something like "text CAR to 19 33 33 for a test drive." But if the offer isn't interesting, captivating or charming, audience response levels are pretty low. So when using SMS services we should aim to charm, but like Bond.
SMS Services Tip 2: Be Timeless
James Bond has outlived the Cold War, the Internet revolution and now Facebook. He's still powerful. I think it's because he's flexible: he can be understated as well as flashy. The ability to be understated is something that is also powerful when used in SMS services.
There's a great blog post by Seth Godin called 'In defense of RSS,' about this same ability to be understated. Godin explains that RSS is effective and long-lasting because it's "quiet and fast and professional."
These words could be describing Bond, and should definitely apply to how we use SMS services. It's all very well to plunge into new technology like SMS services straight away; but we also need to consider how professional our message is. The content of text messages speaks volumes about an organisation, and mud sticks.
SMS Services Tip 3: Be Ruthless With Yourself
Today I discovered a Bond secret: the 'forgotten' Bond. He's an Australian, his name is George Lazenby, and he's probably the worst Bond ever. He just wasn't right for the role. He was too cold, too calculating, not human enough. He left after one film.
What's the message here? If what we're doing isn't right, let's change it. We're still exploring how to best communicate with SMS services.
The January advertising campaign for Melbourne's Box Hill TAFE shows us the truth in this notion. Box Hill's advertising used SMS services to encourage interest in their 2011 courses. Potential students got course information by texting 'STUDY' to 19 33 33. But what came as a surprise was that initially the SMS service got a disappointing audience response. This is because the ads were broadcast on shopping centre tele-screens, which just wasn't right for Box Hill Institute's audience.
However, when the medium was changed to TV ads, ad response brought from SMS services was 15 times higher. When using SMS services the choice of platform, audience, offer and call-to-action is crucial. Just like George Lazenby as Bond; if an SMS service isn't right the first time, it should be changed.
SMS Services Tip 4: Take it Shaken, Not Stirred.
SMS services were created to solve the old problem of how to increase and effectively measure ad response. As a new solution to an ancient problem, SMS services are kind of like Bond's martini: shaken, not stirred. SMS services are used because bring innovation to traditional advertising forms.
To begin with, an audience may not be receptive (much like Bond's bartenders over the years). But Bond's martini is now popular, which shows that some traditions should be broken. SMS services gladly break the advertising tradition of not knowing how many people an ad is reaching; and also the tradition of getting average ad response levels.
It's pretty simple, really. For SMS service success we need to be charming, timeless, ruthless and strong enough to break away from tradition. It helps to be Sean Connery too, but I guess we can't have everything.
What if we could get marketing advice from James Bond? One marketing activity that immediately comes to mind is SMS services...
SMS services use computer-based software to enable businesses and marketers to send and receive text messages en masse. SMS services have a range of uses, from large-scale SMS marketing campaigns to local businesses sending out SMS appointment reminders to clients.
SMS services make interaction between customers and organisations as easy as possible. When used in advertising, SMS services typically increase ad response by around 2-3x. Additionally, marketers and advertisers can see the exact number of responses and the time and date they came in, revealing which ads are working and which are not.
Currently, hundreds of companies offer SMS services. But with no definitive user's guide, many organisations are missing out on the potential benefits of SMS services. No 'gold standard' has been set yet. So why not look to James Bond? If her Majesty's Secret Service was instead SMS Services, what can we learn from 007?
SMS Services Tip 1: Be Charming
James Bond might be famous for fighting evil spies, but he was infamous for his skills with women. He was charming, and he made interesting offers.
Likewise in SMS services, if the offer is good enough then a high response rate is usually on the cards. The offer in advertisements which use SMS services is usually quite simple, something like "text CAR to 19 33 33 for a test drive." But if the offer isn't interesting, captivating or charming, audience response levels are pretty low. So when using SMS services we should aim to charm, but like Bond.
SMS Services Tip 2: Be Timeless
James Bond has outlived the Cold War, the Internet revolution and now Facebook. He's still powerful. I think it's because he's flexible: he can be understated as well as flashy. The ability to be understated is something that is also powerful when used in SMS services.
There's a great blog post by Seth Godin called 'In defense of RSS,' about this same ability to be understated. Godin explains that RSS is effective and long-lasting because it's "quiet and fast and professional."
These words could be describing Bond, and should definitely apply to how we use SMS services. It's all very well to plunge into new technology like SMS services straight away; but we also need to consider how professional our message is. The content of text messages speaks volumes about an organisation, and mud sticks.
SMS Services Tip 3: Be Ruthless With Yourself
Today I discovered a Bond secret: the 'forgotten' Bond. He's an Australian, his name is George Lazenby, and he's probably the worst Bond ever. He just wasn't right for the role. He was too cold, too calculating, not human enough. He left after one film.
What's the message here? If what we're doing isn't right, let's change it. We're still exploring how to best communicate with SMS services.
The January advertising campaign for Melbourne's Box Hill TAFE shows us the truth in this notion. Box Hill's advertising used SMS services to encourage interest in their 2011 courses. Potential students got course information by texting 'STUDY' to 19 33 33. But what came as a surprise was that initially the SMS service got a disappointing audience response. This is because the ads were broadcast on shopping centre tele-screens, which just wasn't right for Box Hill Institute's audience.
However, when the medium was changed to TV ads, ad response brought from SMS services was 15 times higher. When using SMS services the choice of platform, audience, offer and call-to-action is crucial. Just like George Lazenby as Bond; if an SMS service isn't right the first time, it should be changed.
SMS Services Tip 4: Take it Shaken, Not Stirred.
SMS services were created to solve the old problem of how to increase and effectively measure ad response. As a new solution to an ancient problem, SMS services are kind of like Bond's martini: shaken, not stirred. SMS services are used because bring innovation to traditional advertising forms.
To begin with, an audience may not be receptive (much like Bond's bartenders over the years). But Bond's martini is now popular, which shows that some traditions should be broken. SMS services gladly break the advertising tradition of not knowing how many people an ad is reaching; and also the tradition of getting average ad response levels.
It's pretty simple, really. For SMS service success we need to be charming, timeless, ruthless and strong enough to break away from tradition. It helps to be Sean Connery too, but I guess we can't have everything.
About the Author:
This article was written by Andrew Campbell, the Country Manager of TXT2GET Australia. TXT2GET are the SMS service providers of Aus, NZ and the US. Read a brief explanation of TXT2GET's SMS services, or visit the website to find out how SMS services can earn you passive income as an SMS marketing agent.
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