While marketing in general refers to commercial actions and strategies for selling goods to customers, proximity marketing is marketing that specifically targets an audience in a particular place. This article reviews some proximity marketing basics.
What Is SMS Text Messaging?
SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging can be sent from the same technology used to place phone calls (i.e., cell phones, computers, and handheld devices) when you want to communicate in a way that’s quieter and less intrusive than a phone call. SMS text messaging is a service created for the transmission of fairly short messages (160 or fewer characters) for a small charge. For English text messages, you can use alphabetic and numeric characters, as well as Latin text symbols. SMS text messaging is used for private conversations, but is also employed for marketing.
SMS marketing is marketing that takes advantages of the key features of SMS texts: portability, privacy, immediacy, and proximity. The portability of cell phones means that even if people are away from their computers, they’re likely to have a way to access the message available at nearly all times. The privacy of text messages means that there is less time during which people will be reluctant to access a message. Because they must be brief, text messages are less likely to be skipped, thus preserving the immediacy and timeliness of messages. And finally, since the location of the recipient can be identified, marketing appropriate to the person’s proximity can be delivered at just the right time.
More About Proximity Marketing
SMS Proximity marketing can target people by time (while they’re on vacation), by place (in Orlando, Florida), or both (while they’re on vacation in Orlando Florida). The GPS built into phones reveals the owner’s location. Contact can be initiated through other forms of marketing, travel agents, hotel concierge services, or chambers of commerce, for example. Once initial contact is made through a legitimate way and an opt-in is received, the marketing can begin. Though proximity marketing can be undertaken through several different types of media, SMS bulk text messaging is particularly well suited for proximity marketing.
Some Approaches to SMS Proximity Marketing
SMS proximity marketing can be undertaken by a single business or by a group. A restaurant, for example, could use a coupon or a two-for-one offer to induce customers to sign up. By differentiating keywords for responses by customers’ particular contact desires, helping build an efficient database. It could then tailor its marketing to certain meals and/or certain days chosen by the customer. Here’s an example: a restaurant provides regular information about Happy Hour specials late on Friday afternoon or Wednesday lunch specials at 11 a.m., for one customer. For another customer, however, the regular messages could be the soup of the day on Monday and the type of eggs Benedict being offered for Sunday brunch. The restaurant could create a loyalty program, could send marketing messages with menus and coupons to customers who are in town.
Businesses in the same mall or airport concessions stands, on the other hand, might find benefits in banding together and taking a joint approach to SMS proximity marketing: after all, their proximity is shared! After going through a signup process, retailers can use the added opportunity of sending customers the latest coupons and specials while they’re right on site. Folks who had no intention of shopping as they walk through an airport, might be enticed into a store by a sweet deal. Using information from past purchases, the SMS proximity marketing could provide a deal that would not only be geared for the customer’s location, but also for their shopping history.