Many successful small businesses survive on the philosophy of word of mouth marketing to build customer loyalty and generate new clients. Another common form of marketing for small businesses with repeat customers “Blackboard Marketing”. This is where you place a sign out the front of your business to notify people walking past of your daily offer. Or even e-mail marketing, but the problem with that is it can take several days before customers open their e-mail account and your message is there with a dozen others, so it doesn’t really stand out. So why not take your business to the next level with the most direct form of customer communication – SMS text messaging… Research has shown that 95% of SMS text messages are opened within 10 seconds. There is no other strategy that is so pro-active, instant, result – driven and cost effective that can build customer loyalty like SMS marketing.
To see what some existing clients are saying about SMS marketing click here,
The Unfair Advantage has developed a mobile marketing platform targeted at growing a small business client base and building customer loyalty. We offer a fully – managed, monthly SMS marketing plan to keep your customers “in the loop” by providing them with regular valued communication from your business…
And the best part about it is, it’s very cost-effective and it’s all taken care of for you, you don’t have to do anything.
- The Unfair Advantage helps create your marketing plan
- Your customers build your mobile database
- The Unfair Advantage manages your monthly campaign
- You benefit from more sales, more often and you build customer loyalty
When was the last time you left home without your mobile phone?
Frequently Asked Questions
SMS
How many characters can I have in my message?
Each SMS text message is 160 characters in length. But you can send longer messages if required using a process called concatenation. We use special characters to join the SMS together and deliver them as one message. Due to the use of characters to join the messages there are inconsistencies in the length of following SMS. This is the break down.
Do spaces and line breaks add to my character count?
Yes, each line break, space and carriage return adds to your character count.
- 1 space = 1 character
- 1 line break = 2 characters
If I use a variable in my message can that make my message too long?
We count every character in a variable. If you have a message that is 152 characters in length and the name that is inserted into the variable is 9 characters in length you will be charged for 2 SMS (152 + 9 = 161). We suggest that you find the longest name in your list and keep enough spare characters in your message to allow for it.
Contact Lists
How many contacts can I have in a list?
You can have as many as you like from 1 to 100,000.
Can I upload contacts in a file?
Yes, you can upload a CSV file with all your contacts.
What is the best way to format the CSV file?
We need only the mobile phone numbers, so it’s a very easy process to load them into our software.
For example:
0403456789
Does it take a long time to upload a lot of contacts?
No, it takes just a few minutes to load 100,000 or more contacts.
My list is pretty messy, a lot of the numbers aren’t formatted properly, will this matter?
No, as long as all your contacts are for the same destination country, our system will format them all correctly with the correct country code. It will also eliminate duplicates and remove invalid numbers.
I have numbers from different countries in my list, will they send OK?
As long as we support the country and you have formatted all the numbers correctly with the country code eg. +61429705882 then we can deliver the messages.
Can a customer opt out of my lists?
Yes, they just need to reply STOP and they will be opted-out. Opt-out instructions are added automatically when you use our free opt-out code.
Sending Messages
Can I delete bounced messages?
Yes, you can delete hard bounces at any time from your reporting page under the Bounces tab. Soft bounces are not removed as they are potentially not a permanent failure.
How long does it take to deliver messages?
Our SMS queue can deliver messages to the networks at between 180-300 SMS per minute. If a list is very large (10,000 plus), it will send slower in the beginning and speed up as it completes. As a guideline, it is good to allow 30-40 minutes for every 10,000 SMS that you send.
Once the message leaves our queue it will take on average 5-10 seconds to reach the handset, some may take a little longer, especially if it is a ported number (Number moved from another network).
Why Not Give It A Try?
The Unfair Advantage is all about helping small business owners who have a high turnover of customers to build relationships with those clients to ensure they come back more often. Many business owners do very little about their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) because it is all just “too hard”.
Our SMS system solves this “too hard” issue because we do all the work for you to get the message out there via communication that is very simple but effective. This allows you to do what you do best and that’s run your business.
Let us take the pain, effort and worry out of regular communication with your customers. The Unfair Advantage SMS marketing system will assist you in building strong customer relationships in your business for years to come.
To find out how SMS Marketing can benefit your business – contact us today on 07 3147 8460