When we work with clients on mobile marketing initiatives, we often want to test adoption of various tactics such as SMS (text messaging). The problem we run into with many small businesses is that they don't want to start investing in a large-scale SMS service until they know that they are going to have solid buy-in from the target market.
Enter Twitter
We all know that you can setup a Twitter account for free. You might not have known that you can also Follow a Twitter account without having your own twitter account through SMS. That's right, non-twitter users and twitter users can receive all of your tweets via text message by Texting Follow [yourtwitterhandle] to 40404.
This means that you can run SMS campaigns through Twitter for free. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for. SMS services can provide you with better statistics on usage, etc... without all of the manual tracking that will need setup through Twitter.
Use a SMS-Specific Twitter Handle
In most SMS campaigns, a business doesn't ask you to Text 'something' to 55555 in order to receive every bit of information that business releases. Keep that in mind when using twitter for an SMS campaign. To segment your lists, you really need to setup multiple twitter accounts. For example, our Twitter handle is protocol80. If we were doing a general protocol 80 SMS campaign, we might setup p80SMS. If we wanted to target Social Media folks, we might setup p80Social. Again, this allows you to separate campaigns and target different audiences.
More To Keep Track Of - Time Versus Money
When using Twitter for an SMS campaign or multiple SMS campaigns, it's important to note that you will definitely have more to keep track of than if you use an SMS service. If budget is an issue, but you can make the time to track activity, click-throughs, and new followers, you will be plenty satisfied with Twitter.
Ultimately, Twitter makes a great first step into SMS marketing. If you'd like to chat about mobile marketing strategies, we'd be happy to spend some time with you. Give us a shout!
How to Audit your Online Marketing
If you are executing digital marketing, congratulations! You are most likely already one step ahead of your competition, and making strides to meaningfully connect with prospects online. But, how do you know if you’re seeing continual success year over year, and improving your metrics?
Without the tools in place to analyze and benchmark your efforts, it is impossible to scale your online marketing and ensure continuous success.
