Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Ready to Text Your Customers and Prospects?
Posted by 
on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 
at 7:02 AM 
in 
Are you looking for a new way to reach your customers and prospects? If so, the answer may be found in an activity that you’ve probably already participated in a few times today — and that is via SMS/Text messaging.
While it is true that not everyone would be open or happy about receiving text messages from businesses, the same could really be said for every other channel. And just like channels such as direct mail, email, social networks, etc., there are going to be people that prefer to receive discounts, product news, and more from companies that they like via text messages.
The Growth of SMS/Text Messaging
MarketingCharts has as great recap of an August 2011 study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Here were a couple of numbers worth noting:
- 59% of cell phone owners send or receive text messages
- But, 92 % of US smartphone owners send or receive text messages
As more and more people become smartphone owners, companies should be very aware that those people may not only become regular text-message addicts users, but they also become willing to receive communications from a business via that channel.
Can interlinkONE Help You with SMS/Text Messaging?
Yes, of course 
Within our integrated, multi-channel marketing software application ilinkONE Version 8, users have the opportunity to communicate with their customers and prospects through a variety of options. They could choose to build and send an email… they could generate a fulfillment order for the warehouse to package and ship… they could schedule follow-up calls or meetings… and they can also send SMS/Text messages.
Yes, all of that can be done through one system.
Would you like more information? If so, please let our team know how we can help you.
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Tags Android, iPhone, messaging, mobile, multi-channel marketing, Reports, smartphones, SMS, Software, Text, trends Is There an Easy Button?
Jennifer Matt recently wrote an excellent post on The Web and Print blog titled “How Easy is Printing?”
If you haven’t read it, I’d definitely encourage you to take a moment to do so. Not only is it entertaining, but it’s inspiring as well.
The main point of the post is that to encourage people to print more things, companies need to make it easy for them to do so. While this certainly includes external processes (how hard is it for someone to order printing from your company), it also applies to internal processes.
Jennifer asks this question: “Do your systems require you to piece together data from various systems to give the customer a complete picture?”
Yes, if a printer needs to log-in and pull data from multiple systems in order to give timely answers and reports to a client, then that can certainly be considered a hassle among the printer’s staff. If it’s not easy for them to do their job, most likely the customer will not think that it’s not easy to do business with that printer.
The Sales Hat is Coming On
If that’s the situation that you find your print shop in today, here comes a sales pitch.
interlinkONE’s integrated, multi-channel marketing software is designed to eliminate the need for a printer to invest in multiple point solutions. Our ilinkONE Version 8 software is designed to allow you to build, manage, execute, and measure marketing efforts across a variety of channels — including print, email, web, social networks, mobile, and more.
It enables printers to easily generate and provide reports to clients that give them a full report on their activity — from landing page hits, to leads, to inventory counts, to popular products ordered, and more.
Time for a Demo
If you’re interested in learning more, I’d love for you take a moment and register for a demo of our solutions.
The Right Place
There are many reasons why a marketing department would want to look towards using Facebook in their marketing mix. Here are two: it’s free and very easy to use.
But the most important reason is probably this: there are nearly 600 million people on Facebook. Yes, no matter what you sell, at least some of your prospects and customers will be there too.
eMarketer recently published a chart that specifies the number of Facebook users in the US:
The number 132 million should sound pretty good. But I liked seeing this even more: that number represents 42% of the US population!
After seeing that statistic, the question to marketing departments everywhere is clear: are you doing enough on Facebook to engage with that swelling crowd?
Delivering Effective Direct Mail Efforts
MarketingSherpa recently published an encouraging report for companies that offer direct mail and printing services. The report, titled “Direct mail rated as an effective tactic by many B2B organizations“, includes a chart that indicates many B2B organizations still find direct mail to be an effective component in their marketing efforts:
Of course, we all recognize that companies no longer rely solely on direct mail and print to try to reach their customers and prospects. But as long as it remains an effective channel, businesses will use it.
Here are three ways that service providers can strive to execute effective direct mail efforts for their clients:
- Personalization and Segmentation: Data was meant to do more than simply be imported and exported. Find creative ways to segment lists by the criteria that you may have. Then, tailor the message, content, and/or graphics to appeal specifically to each group.
- Complement the Effort with Other Channels: How many touches does it take to make a sale? If there really is a magic number, the bottom line is this: the answer is not typically 1! Rather, it may take multiple efforts through multiple channels to truly make an impression on a prospect. Use channels such as email, social media, and mobile marketing in addition to the direct mail piece to truly deliver an integrated, cross-channel campaign.
- Test Multiple Designs & Offers: As a service provider, we do want our customers to believe that we are the experts. Recommending that you want to “test” multiple offers does not indicate that you are not sure of what you’re doing. Rather, it proves that you are truly supporting them and that you’re determined to ensure that their marketing & educational efforts are as good as possible. Try testing multiple mailers with different wording and graphics. Then, present the reports to them that show them what’s working the best.
QR Codes: Reporting Capabilities
We recently recorded a new video that walks through the features and benefits available to registered users of QReate & Track.
Everyone can create QR Codes for free… However, only registered users have access to the real-time reporting dashboards.
Here is a quick video that walks through the features available to registered users:
