SMS Keywords
There has been a clear shift in marketing as technology has developed, businesses have moved from door to door and print marketing to online digital marketing, where SMS, email and social media marketing is the forefront. SMS keywords are another awesome addition to the ever-growing marketing mix that companies can utilise in order to grow their audience and boost sales. Essentially you can purchase a keyword on a shortcode, which is just a short text number. The shortcode is designed perfectly for inbound SMS and provides customers or prospects with an effortless way to get in touch with businesses. The number is short and easy to remember and as soon as a text is sent, they will instantly be added to your database so its awesome for lead generation!
How FireText can help:
Here at FireText, we have our own SMS shortcode, which is 82228. As a business, you can purchase a keyword and advertise this across marketing channels. We have seen SMS keywords being used in numerous ways across a range of industries, it’s the perfect call to action and it’s super easy to track the return. What’s awesome is that if you wanted you can also choose to set up an SMS auto-reply, so whenever someone texts your keyword to 82228 they will be sent a text message back instantly. This could simply be thanking them for getting in touch, alternatively, it could include the next steps, such as providing a discount code or a message including a trackable SMS link in order to drive traffic to your website, alternatively, you could direct them to an online form which is perfect for capturing your leads.
The other option is to set up SMS keywords on a FireText Reply number, which is essentially just like your standard 07 number. The advantage of this is you can set up multiple text keywords under one number, so it’s perfect for things such as satisfaction surveys and questionnaires. As an example to help boost your customer service you could set up a survey to check up on customers after their recent visit, its as easy as setting up your keywords from 1 - 5. Each could have their own auto-reply which thanks them for their feedback and asks the next question (if necessary). By recording this data you will be able to use it to improve the customer experience, which will help with the retention of your customers!
So many industries can utilise SMS keywords in different ways, we have put together just a few ideas below:
- If you are running an event you could utilise an SMS keyword on 82228, which attendees can text in order to receive updates and information in the lead-up and during the event. When they text the keyword you can set it up so they are added to a specific contact group so when it comes to sending out the bulk text campaigns, you can easily select the pre-populated group and send out your SMS messages.
- The text keyword on 82228 is perfect for radios to create a relationship between themselves and their listeners. During the show, you could request listeners text the keyword followed by their favourite song, or a potential shout out, this creates engagement which will help to increase the number of listeners.
- If you are running a competition for your business to help boost awareness you could request they text the keyword in order to enter. This could be followed by an answer to a potential question or you could choose to add an auto-reply which takes people to form they need to fill out - which is a great way to capture your leads
- If you are looking to offer a discount across your site you could request that they text the keyword and then set up the discount code as an auto-reply. This means that you will be able to build up your database for future marketing campaigns, instead of just publishing the code on your website for everyone to see.
These are just some of the ways you can get up and running with SMS keywords and if you wanted to bounce some other potential plans with a member of our friendly team then please just give us a shout as we are on standby to help out!