On Friday I received the following SMS message from Crunch Fitness Gym in Clonsilla, Dublin that I used to be a member of. It said “ST PATRICKS SPECIAL. Rejoin Crunch fitness before 7pm Mon 19th and receive a free Nike Rockstar course and no membership joining fee. Ltd spaces avail. 01 8025906″

This is a good example of using SMS marketing to try and reactivate dormant customers using a direct response mechanism. As we know it is much easier to sell to past and existing customers than it is to sell to new ones. Seeing as the cost to send 1 sms message can be less than 5cent this makes it a much more cost effective and less wasteful medium, than sending a direct mail packages by post.

Also at present response rates for SMS marketing in Ireland can sometimes be as high as 40%, I think people are much more likely to read an sms message than they are to sift through the junk mail at home. Receiving a SMS message is still something that is very hard to ignore as opposed to receiving a ‘junk’ mailing piece.

This SMS message was also good as it made some attempt to give a reason for the promotion. People like to know the reason why you are making them an offer and a St Patrick’s day offer is as good as any.

Another plus point of this message is the use of a free offer and waiving of the joining fee; this helps to strengthen the offer and makes it easier for people to try. An even better approach might have been “no joining fee and first month free - try us out a no cost”

Using a deadline for the offer is another positive thing about this SMS marketing message, by specifically giving a date and time prospects know that they need to at quickly. This is quite a strong call to action. Perhaps it could have been made even stronger by saying call 01 8025906 now avail of this offer.

Can you use sms marketing in your business? It can be very cost effective and relatively straightforward to implement. Don’t think that you can just use it to reactivate old clients; there are a whole host of other possibilities for it. It is particularly suited to time sensitive offers such as notifying customers at a bar that they are running a comedy night or having a special happy hour.