Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Three Ways that a Printer Could Benefit By Using SMS/Text
Posted by 
on Monday, October 31, 2011 
at 7:45 AM 
in 
If you have been to any marketing-related conferences over the past year, I’m sure you’d agree that mobile has been a very popular topic.
Companies of all sizes are looking for information on QR Codes, mobile websites, mobile apps, and more. In addition to those items, there inevitably is a speaker at these conferences that will say this: “Don’t ignore SMS/Text! More people use that than they do the mobile web”.
It certainly can be motivating to hear those quotes and to read articles like this one. But how can you actually implement SMS/Text into your business?
Here are three ideas on how a printer could incorporate SMS/Text into their marketing, sales, and customer support activities.
Notification When A Job is Ready
Most of the printers that I work with send notification via email when a job is ready. In addition to that email, it may be worth considering sending a text-message to the customer at that time as well.
Of course, this may not make sense for all jobs. But here are a few scenarios where SMS may prove to be helpful:
- When the job was flagged as Rush/Urgent
- When the job will be picked up by a customer
- When the job will be delivered by the printer & sign-off is required
Yes, email or a phone call could certainly be used in those situations too. But as more and more people turn to SMS to communicate about all sorts of activities, this may be a way for a printer to also share information with their customer in a channel that they may prefer using.
To Share Information About Specials
Certainly, a business does not want every marketing initiative to be related to pricing specials and discounts. However, those can still be used from time-to-time to create buzz, garner attention, and increase sales.
Many printers are using email and social media to promote their specials. Another way to do that would be through SMS/Text. Since most pricing deals only have a short-window of time, SMS/Text can prove to be an effective way to get your customer’s attention very quickly.
Of course, the message we send out should do more than just provide details of the discount… Make sure that you include a way for them to redeem it!
To Gain Feedback After A Job/Project is Complete
We all want to generate repeat business. To do this, we often have to reach out to customers after a job has been done, seek to get their feedback, and then offer/recommend other activities that we could help them with.
One challenge in accomplishing that is finding the time — both for us (in this case, the printer) and the customer. Using SMS to initiate that conversation could prove to be an effective option for us.
For one, the text message most likely will get noticed by the customer. Also, it may provide the customer with a very quick way to provide feedback. (Many post-job follow-ups that I have seen come in the form of an email that often link to a survey that ask 10 questions!)
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These are just a few ideas on how SMS/Text could be used to help improve marketing, sales, and customer support initiatives.
Have you found anything else that works? If so, please let me know in the comments below!
Tags How to Improve your Business Card
It is in every textbook ever written. When you meet someone new in the business world, you hand them your business card. But just like everything else, from a marketing standpoint, your business card can get lost in the shuffle. An endless sea of boring, white rectangles with information of plenty of people, many of them forgettable. Don’t let your name get sucked in with those people. There are ways to make your business card stand out among the crowd.
Steps to a Better Business Card
First, incorporate your social media badge.
Have the address of all of your social media sites right on your card. You should have at least Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn information. These are the big three sites for business networking right now. By allowing people to find you on these, you automatically become more than just a business card. You become a friend, a follower, and a connection.
Next, incorporate a customized QR code onto your card.
Scan it, and it can direct to numerous mobile pages. One example is a digital business card that contains all of your contact information, links to social networks, a biography, and a headshot. Now, the name is no longer without a face. Instantly, someone in a similar line of work is not as memorable as you.
With those QR codes, you can also create some personalized mobile landing pages.
Maybe you gave this business card to a prospect at a tradeshow. Create a landing page specifically as a result of that. Depending on the nature of the tradeshow, personalize the landing page so that when the QR code is scanned, the person scanning feels that personal connection. Or perhaps you met them at some other event. Whatever it is, use customized landing pages to your advantage. Create a personalized atmosphere right on the smartphone of your potential clients.
A business card is essential. But nowhere is it written that your business card has to be boring. Make it interactive, and make yourself memorable.
Use Social Media for Online Press Releases
Not long ago, when a company was looking for affordable, broad publicity, they would turn to a newspaper and a press release. Those days have certainly changed, as social media has now become one of the greatest weapons in a PR practitioner’s arsenal. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networking channels all can be used as an inexpensive way to spread company news to a wide audience, and as a way to disseminate your uniform mission statement to all of your targeted publics.
How Social Networks Can Help Your PR Efforts
A social media press release can do the job that two printed publications are needed to do. Social media can reach an external public by promoting new offers, announcing new products or store openings, and also garnering followers and Likes. It can also act as a corporate newsletter. Announce new hires, retirements or promotions with an email blast, or a Facebook message to all employees.
And social media allows for more aesthetic value that traditional press releases sorely lack. A normal press release is often stuffed into the bottom of a newspaper page, replete with hyperbole and plain font that make it look like printed spam. An article on social media can be interactive, filled with examples and pertinent information that a reader will actually want to read. And you can optimize your headline and keywords for search engines to pick up. Your scope is far wider than any local newspaper could ever encompass. You can also take advantage of sites like Digg that compile news from all over the Internet.
PR professionals can also utilize social media as a conversational tool. They can tune into conversations that consumers are having as a result of their press releases, and they can participate and offer information on behalf of the company they represent. There are multiple tools out there for monitoring Tweets, use them to track feedback about your company and thank those who are praising your efforts and work to pacify those who are upset.
Moving Forward
The old idea of a press release may be fading away. But the general principle of a press release will always be a staple of classic public relations. Your company, like any other, will always need affordable ways to reach an audience without using an elaborate advertising campaign that can cost boatloads of cash.
Being social media savvy and knowing when to send out a message, to your internal and external audiences, can be a highly effective and efficient tool for you to use.
Head-Scratcher
If you are a business owner, a chief marketing officer, or in anyway responsible for the marketing efforts of your company, I am sure you have the best intentions when it comes to your marketing efforts.
If your company is doing good, bad, or simply staying alive, you know that it’s important to keep marketing… to keep promoting your company, product, or services.
Well, despite these great intentions, we often still fall short when it comes to meeting our own expectations. Our marketing plan may have called for sending a newsletter once a month…. Or we may have planned on updating our website once a week. Or we may have created a blog 3 months ago – and it we are currently still thinking of our second article idea.
How do you react to this situation? Where you seem to have simply run out of ideas on the content for your your next marketing effort?
The following advice may sound simple… But I promise, it can help when your “creative” bucket seems to be running low.
Check the calendar: Yes, the calendar can provide inspiration for marketing topics. Look at the holidays — is there something that you can provide related to a specific holiday to your customers? Earth Day comes around once a year. Could you generate a postcard, a webpage, or an email that provides information on your company’s green initiatives? Or perhaps on how your product or service can help another company “go green” with their marketing efforts?
Share what makes your life easier: The internet is full of tools that can help us with our daily routine. Perhaps we read about a tool or a service somewhere, and have been enjoying its benefits. Sometimes we assume that if a tool is so great, everyone else must know about it, and be using it. Well, that’s not always the case.
I am a huge fan of Google Alerts. It allows me to enter a variety of terms that I’m interested in. Perhaps “multi-channel marketing”, “personalized URLs”, and “Print ’09″. Well, Google sends me an email once a day with links to new pages that mention those terms. It helps keep me updated on a lot of things that I would have missed otherwise. Well, if you haven’t already tried it, Google Alerts is certainly a tool that could possibly help you in your business.
Ask yourself: What can I help someone accomplish: Keep it as simple as possible! Sometimes we worry so much about finding the magic words to sell oursleves. Well, try to break it down – what is one simple way that I (or my company, product, or service) could help a customer today? Then, write a little story about that.
Check the Recycle Bin: Okay, you certainly want to produce fresh content for your audience, as much as possible. But don’t be afraid to look in your archives. Open up the cabinet that contains your old mailers, the printed version of your old website, etc… There will most likely be a topic that catches your attention. Simply review and update the article, and then push it out again.
