Use Cases For SMS Marketing

2/23/2021 Use Cases for SMS Marketing - SMS Marketing Guide
Use Cases for SMS Marketing

Learn how 24 di erent industries are using SMS marketing to grow their business.
One of the most common questions that a business will ask as they consider adding SMS to their marketing tool kit is when and how they
can use SMS to promote (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=free-trial5) their business. It’s all well and good to say that everyone reads their texts, but if
you don’t have anything to say, there’s not much of a point in sending SMS marketing messages.
In this nal chapter of our ultimate guide to SMS marketing, we want to walk you through some of the use cases for SMS marketing across
various industries. One of the patterns you’ll hopefully notice while reading is that if you keep some basic principles in mind, it is not hard to
start identifying opportunities to use SMS to boost your marketing e orts. So while we are giving you an extensive list of use cases in this
chapter, we hope that this is just the beginning of identifying ways to use SMS as part of your broader marketing strategy (https://mobile-
text-alerts.com/articles/how-to-integrate-sms-marketing-into-your-broader-marketing-strategy?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=article9).
Retail Stores
https://mobile-text-alerts.com/sms-marketing-guide/use-cases 1/38
Retail has taken a hit during the pandemic with the Washtington Post reporting
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/12/small-business-used-de ne-americas-economy-pandemic-could-end-that-forever/)
that 100,000 small businesses had permanently closed as of May. One way that local retail can boost their business is through using digital
marketing channels to drive foot tra c to their stores. There are three primary ways that retailers can use SMS marketing to attract
customers and grow sales.
Facebook Promotion 👍
First, many retailers are already active on Facebook. In fact, many small local retailers will use their Facebook page as a primary online hub
for their business. It’s a place where they can list their hours, advertise sales, and interact with customers. Given all of that, one easy way for
retailers to incorporate SMS into their marketing is to encourage signups for their SMS list via their Facebook page.
This can be done in two ways.
First, if people enroll in your SMS list via a keyword and shortcode (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-
Keywords?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=keyword-and-
shortcode), you can create a post encouraging people to sign up and share what keyword and shortcode they need to join your list.
Second, if you have an online signup option, you can share the link to that page on your Facebook page, inviting people to sign up for text
updates that way.
Try it out! View a signup page example here https://mobile-text-alerts.com/test (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/test) ×
Why would you want your Facebook fans to also be on your SMS list? One reason: engagement. If you do not advertise with Facebook, your
posts will typically only reach 3-5% of your audience. In contrast, SMS messages enjoy an average open rate of 95%.
To really understand what a big deal this di erence is, think about it this way: If you want to use digital marketing channels to reach 50
people via Facebook, you’ll need to have at least 1000 Facebook fans. How long will it take you to get there? How much time will you spend
on Facebook? How much money will it cost you in terms of ads, producing content, sta time, and so on? And even once you reach 1000
fans, the only thing that guarantees you is that if you post something on your page it will be seen by 30-50 people.
In other words, there is an enormous amount of work required to build a Facebook audience, most of which does not create value for your
business and is only justi able if Facebook posting eventually drives sales for you.
Compare that to SMS. If you had 52 people on your SMS list and sent a message to all of them, there’s your 50 people. Moreover, because
building your list is so simple, it doesn’t require a large amount of additional work.
It’s likely that you already have a Facebook page. That’s ne. But why not use that page to push people to a far more engaged platform?
That’s why you should promote your SMS marketing list on your Facebook page.
In-Store Display Code 🏬

Another option for using SMS to promote your business as a retailer is to set up small signs in your store encouraging people to sign up for
your SMS list via a keyword and shortcode (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-Keywords?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=keyword-and-shortcode).
In-store display codes o er a couple bene ts that a code shared online does not. After all, if someone is a Facebook follower, all you really
know is that they have liked your page. But if someone is in the store, you know that they have enough interest in your business to come to
your store. That’s huge.
What an in-store display code allows you to do is identify people who have physically been in your store and use SMS marketing to re-market
to them.
Not only that, it is actually very easy to incentivize list sign-ups with in-store guests. Simply o er some kind of basic deal or bene t to
encourage them to sign up. “Sign up to receive SMS messages from us and receive 10% o one item at checkout.”
Repeat customers are essential to any business’s long-term success. SMS marketing is an easy way to encourage repeat business—and there
is no easier way to get a past customer to sign up for SMS updates then to ask them to do it while they’re already in your store.
Returning Customer Discounts 🔁

Our nal idea for how retailers can use SMS is simply an extension of our second idea. If you already have a person’s number via an in-store
display, then you already know that they have at least been in your store and probably made a purchase.
So now you can try to get them to come back again via SMS marketing. In terms of messaging, you can do pretty much anything here. The
more you know about the customer the better, of course—if you can somehow match their phone number to past purchases, then you can
know what items they have bought in the past and let them know when you have a sale on those items or when a new shipment arrives.
How to Segment Past Purchasers
You can do this by asking them to enroll in product-speci c SMS groups (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360010882614-Can-I-organize-subscribers-into-groups-?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-groups) tied to di erent keywords. These lists can easily be kept separate in your sms
marketing software.
🏷 To receive a 20% discount on your next pair, text “shoes” to 74121
🏷 Like what you’ve purchased? Text “dress” to 48421 and we’ll send you an even better discount :)
But even if you don’t have that customer-speci c information and only know that the person has been in your store before, you can still use
SMS marketing. You will simply need to use a more generalized o er: “Visit us within a week and show us this text message checkout for 15%
o your purchase.”
What makes SMS so powerful is how it is useful in virtually every phase of a customer’s purchase process. So take advantage of that. Use
SMS to draw in new customers (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/sms-marketing-tools-lead-generation?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=article10), but also use it to
bring back old customers.
If you’d like to learn more about using SMS to grow your retail business, please click below to book a call. One of our experts would be happy
to answer your questions and provide additional ideas for you.
Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Start for Free (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup)
Marketing Agencies
Marketing agencies can use SMS marketing on two di erent levels. They can use it for their own B2B marketing as well as with their clients'
B2C marketing e orts.
Lead Follow-Up 🔁
For an agency’s own business, SMS can be an excellent resource for following up with leads. This is particularly helpful if your sales team has
in-person closes or if they travel to conferences to meet potential customers.
There are a few ways your sales team can use SMS.
First, SMS is a great way to send a reminder email before a sales meeting. If you have worked in sales for any length of time, you know that
no-shows are common. Sometimes it re ects a lack of interest from the prospect. But in other cases it is simply down to forgetfulness. With
SMS, you can send or schedule a reminder (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=schedule-a-message) text
message the morning of the meeting or even 15 minutes before the meeting is supposed to begin.
Second, if you have a conference where you’ll be meeting a large number of prospects, you can advertise it in advance via social media
advertisement, noti cations on your website, and so on. When alerting people to your attendance, you can ask them to sign up for a time to
talk to a member of your team. When they sign up, you can ask for their number, which your sales team can then use to text reminders to all
their prospects the day of the conference.
Ultimately, what makes SMS such a great tool for sales is that it provides a fast line to prospects that they will see immediately (unlike email
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/email-sms-grow-revenue?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=unlike-email)) and actually read (also unlike email). So while these are a couple ways a sales team for a
marketing agency could use SMS, there are sure to be other plausible options as well.
Tool For Clients 🧰

Of course, marketing agencies also work with small businesses. And many small businesses will have various uses for SMS messaging. So
marketing agencies could also work with an SMS messaging software provider to o er SMS messaging to all of their clients they work with or
perhaps as an upsell for clients with greater needs or challenges.
Earn Monthly Commissions! Our margketing agency customers typically like to hear that we offer 20% commissions for every account they refer to Mobile ×
Text Alerts. Receive 20% for the life of each referred customer! Learn more here - referral program overview (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360025269713-Refer-a-Friend)
Webinar Promotion 💻
Webinars are a simple, common way for agencies to grow their presence online, to build a reputation for thought leadership, and to
generate leads for their sales team. Just as SMS can be a great tool for sales teams, it can also be an excellent tool for anyone who runs
webinars. You can send reminder alerts 15 minutes before the webinar as well as follow-up messages after the webinar has completed with
a link to the replay. Learn more about SMS marketing for webinars here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/webinar-success-sms-
marketing?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=webinars).
In all of these ways, SMS can be an excellent tool for any marketing agency that is both looking to grow their own business (https://mobile-
text-alerts.com/articles/the-bene ts-of-using-sms-marketing-to-grow-your-sales-and-revenue?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=grow-their-own-business)
and add to their product o erings.

Small Businesses
Running a small business has never been easy. It is getting harder, in fact, due to the challenges created by the pandemic. This is why small
businesses, even more so than medium and large businesses, are constantly needing to identify small, simple methods for growing their
business or making it easier for them to operate. Margins are tight. Resources are fewer. So small, simple tools like SMS (https://mobile-text-
alerts.com/articles/sms-marketing-tools-lead-generation?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=simple-tools-like-sms) can o er enormous bene ts for small businesses especially.
Event Promotions 📢
Many small businesses are dependent upon events to help them make ends meet from month to month. Restaurants and bars might host
events as a way to bring diners in. Small brick-and-mortar retailers will often host large seasonal sales. Small agencies might o er webinars.
In all cases, these businesses need an a ordable, reliable way to promote their event and to remind guests to attend. SMS marketing can be
that solution. Businesses can use SMS messages (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-messages-to-send) to
send event reminders, coupon codes for event attendees, or a short thank you note after the event has passed. The point is that SMS makes
it easier for small businesses to handle mass messaging with their customers.
Mobile Surveys 📋
Information is one of the biggest di culties for small businesses. What do we mean by that? Well, everyone knows that in a digital economy,
the most valuable resource any business can have is information. That’s why large companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook run the
way they do—they collect enormous amounts of data and, using that information, make smart modi cations to how their business works.
You can see the same thing in large retailers like Target and Walmart. Data is power.
Of course, data is also hard to gather and organize if you’re a small business.
Texting can also help with this problem. Most SMS messaging providers, including Mobile Text Alerts (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=mobile-text-alerts2), o er
mobile surveys as one feature of their product. Mobile surveys allow you to send out a question to your SMS list which they respond to using
a multiple-choice method as explained in the text message. Learn how to send mobile surveys here (https://mobile-text-
alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011325974-Mobile-Surveys?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-mobile-surveys).
What this means is that you can do highly customized, personalized data collection on your prospects and clients simply by asking their
thoughts on a question.
The other bene t is that customers who feel as if they have a real stake in a business are more likely to be loyal to that business
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/what-is-the-best-way-to-reward-loyal-customers-with-sms-marketing-?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=loyal-to-that-business).
Suppose you’re a local co ee shop trying to compete with a Starbucks down the street. You o er a unique experience in your shop that
Starbucks can’t replicate. So why not play up that uniqueness even more by giving customers a chance to have a say in certain decisions.
Perhaps you have a seasonal drink special you like to o er each quarter. Why not send out a mobile survey a month or two before the
special starts asking customers to choose between 3-5 ideas for the special for the upcoming season?
A survey like that can build excitement for an upcoming product as well as give customers a chance to say what they would prefer. Added
bonus: If one of the choices is overwhelmingly preferred to the others, that is probably also a very good sign that, when the special is
available, it will actually sell. So it gives you a touch point with customers, helps them build a stronger tie to your business, and gives you
some excellent research on what your customers like. It’s win-win-win. Learn how mobile surveys work here (https://mobile-text-
alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011325974-Mobile-Surveys?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-mobile-surveys).
Discount Codes 🏷
Finally, small businesses are yet another example of how a business can bene t from using discount codes sent out via SMS marketing
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/the-three-best-sms-marketing-tools-and-features-to-grow-sales-and-revenue?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing3). The
concept here is fairly basic and familiar: Identify a deal you want to o er. Send information about the deal to your list.
As you do this, also remember that even with something as basic as a discount code, there are creative things you can do to produce a bit
more value for your business. It’s one thing to simply let customers know that there’s a deal you’re o ering next weekend. But you can build
more interaction into the discount too. It could be something as simple as asking the person to show the message at checkout in order to get
the discount. Or it could be something even more creative.
Suppose you have a small bookstore and you’re o ering a 20% o sale for back-to-school weekend. Perhaps the deal is “tell us who your
favorite author is at checkout to receive 20% o your purchase.” Now you’re not just letting people know about a discount. You’re also
creating an opportunity for a customer to have a conversation with one of your booksellers. That alone is a win, as that positive interaction is
going to make them more likely to come in again in the future.
But in many cases it may turn out that the information you get from the customer is itself useful. Perhaps the customer mentions their
favorite author and your bookseller realizes you have several of that author’s books in the store. Now you have a chance for an upsell to see
if they’d want to buy one of those books on top of what they’ve already selected. Or perhaps you keep a list at the register to track which
authors are most popular with your customers. Now you know what books to look for when you’re buying from a distributor. Again, it is all
about gathering information. Information is power. And it doesn’t have to be the big boys of the world who have all the best data. There is no
reason your small business cannot have its own strategy for using data to grow revenue. SMS can help (https://mobile-text-
alerts.com/articles/the-bene ts-of-using-sms-marketing-to-grow-your-sales-and-revenue?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-can-help).

Ecommerce
The uses for SMS in the ecommerce space are numerous and quite interesting. One of the main challenges in ecommerce, of course, is the
lack of personal contact between business and customer. This makes building trust as well as brand loyalty quite di cult. That said, SMS can
be a simple, easy way to help with this as well as several other problems.
Cart Abandonment
One of the most common problems facing ecommerce businesses is cart abandonment—a customer has put an item in their cart, which
means they intend to purchase the item, and then they never actually complete the deal.
There are many things that drive cart abandonment, of course. Sometimes a customer nds a better deal elsewhere. Sometimes they forget
to complete their purchase. Sometimes they get distracted. What SMS messaging can do is help close that knowledge gap for your team.
How?
With an SMS alert (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-

guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-alert), you can send someone a reminder that their cart has several items in it and ask them to
nish the purchase. Ideally, this will provide a slight increase in sales as more of your potential customers complete their purchases.
But suppose you send the message out to a large number of people and your complete sales don’t start to trend up? That might tell you that
you have other problems. In that case, it is unlikely that customers are forgetting—since you gave them a reminder—and it is more likely that
something else is behind your cart abandonment problem.
In this case, SMS has provided a plausible way for you to begin to grow sales with your best prospects—people who have already put items
in their cart on your website. But as a secondary bene t, it also makes it easier to troubleshoot if you have other issues. Set up SMS for your
ecommerce store here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=set-up-sms-for-ecommerce).
Discount Codes
Ecommerce stores are another example of businesses that can use discount codes with SMS marketing. You can also pair discount codes
with cart abandonment alerts. For example, if you have sent multiple reminder texts and the recipient still has not completed their purchase,
you might consider o ering a discount code to encourage them to come back. Learn more about sending coupons and discounts here
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/the-three-best-sms-marketing-tools-and-features-to-grow-sales-and-revenue?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-send-coupons-
discounts).
Customer Loyalty Program

Finally, ecommerce businesses can also use SMS messaging as part of a customer loyalty program. If you want to get in touch with past
customers, use SMS instead of email (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/email-vs-sms-customer-loyalty?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=use-sms-instead-email) since
SMS messages are far more likely to be read. You can also use SMS messaging if you have a special o er for customers that have hit a
certain rewards level or customers that have a certain amount of reward points built up.
The big idea here is that SMS is not really about doing new things for your ecommerce business. Rather, it is about using a new, superior
communication medium to do the things you already know you need to be doing. Read more: What is the best way to reward loyal
customers with SMS marketing? (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/what-is-the-best-way-to-reward-loyal-customers-with-sms-
marketing-?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=article11)

Schools
Communicating with parents can be notoriously di cult. News on printed handouts that are sent home with students may never make it to
the parent. Emails may not be seen. Direct mail can get lost in the shu e with junk mail, bills, and other things that show up in a parents
mailbox. So what is the best method for communicating important school information with parents? We believe it is texting. Here are three
examples of how texting can be used to improve communication between schools and parents.
Closures
When severe weather strikes, schools need a prompt, reliable means of getting information about closures to parents. This is particularly
true today as people 50 and younger are far less likely to watch local news, which is one of the traditional ways of alerting parents about
closures.
Additionally, if parents do not check email or social media, they can miss announcements posted on those platforms as well. But everyone
reads their texts. Send out information about closures via text message (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=via-text-message) and rest assured that your parents will know when your school is closed.
Schedule Changes
Schedule changes can be especially di cult to communicate because they are usually unplanned and happen at the last minute, both of
which are factors that make immediate communication essential.
That, of course, is precisely why texting is such a helpful tool for schools. If you send an email parents might not see it till that evening or the
next morning—by which time it may be too late. In contrast, if you send a text message, you can be con dent that they will see it right away
and be able to respond appropriately (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012415233-Message-Replies?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=respond-appropriately).
Event Reminders
What all of these school SMS examples share is that they are built around event schedules or changes that must get communicated
accurately to a large, di used audience. So just as texting can work wonders for announcing closures or schedule changes, it can do the
same for event schedules. You can use texting to remind parents of school carnivals, concerts, athletic events, parent-teacher conferences,
days with early dismissal, and any other event-related news you need to relay to parents.
Why is texting so e ective for schools? It’s a combination of reliability, high engagement, and the fact that virtually everyone can receive text
messages—and those who cannot can usually receive phone alert messages, which most mass texting softwares also support. Set up text
alerts for your school for free here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=text-alert-system-for-
schools).

HR
SMS messaging can also have many helpful internal uses at your business. In particular, human resources can have many uses for SMS to
help them communicate more easily with your team.
Form Submissions
Throughout the year various things will come up that require your employees to submit forms and paperwork. This happens often at the end
of the calendar year when people are enrolling in group health insurance plans. But it is also a common need with new and outgoing
employees, all of whom will likely need to submit various types of paperwork as part of their changing employment status.
For some people, this is not hard to manage. But many people are not especially good with details and, especially during times of transition,
it can be easy to misplace a piece of paper or forget a deadline. Texting can help with this. By simply scheduling a few reminder messages
(https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=scheduling-messages) to go
out the week of and day of a deadline, your HR team can remind your employees of needed forms in a convenient, unobtrusive way.
Office Maintenance
Even small companies will need to occasionally send out updates on o ce maintenance. Perhaps a printer is down or the co ee machine
needs to be repaired. In more extreme cases, perhaps your team will need to work remotely for a couple days due to larger projects around
the o ce.
When those things come up, the fastest and most reliable way to inform your people about it is through texting. Walking around the o ce
and talking to everyone takes time, plus inevitably a couple people will be on calls or otherwise away from their desk and miss the news.
Email, meanwhile, has poor open rates even on internal emails. If you want to be con dent that people get the message, texting is the only
way to go.
Event Reminders
Finally, every company has periodic events for their team members. It could be a company Christmas party, an open house for a new o ce,
perhaps a quarterly celebration. Whatever it may be, texting can be a valuable way to remind people of the event, especially if they need to
bring something to it.
For example, if you do a Thanksgiving meal as an o ce, you might use texting to remind people to sign up to bring their dish and then also
use texting to remind them the day before the meal that it is happening and they need to bring the course they signed up to prepare.
Ultimately, texting for HR departments is about simplifying work, making communication channels stronger, and ensuring that everyone on
your team knows all they need to know to do their jobs well. Learn more about how HR professionals use SMS and get a free account to try
out as well (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/manufacturing-and-construction?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=hr-professionals-use-sms).

Nonprofits
Nonpro ts can use text messaging in several key ways. As with marketing agencies, nonpro ts can use SMS both for their own internal
purposes and to promote their work to others.
Small Donation Solicitation

Obviously nonpro ts can’t exist without the nancial support of their benefactors. But that support can be provided in a large number of
ways.
Some nonpro ts may depend on a relatively small group of large donors, in which case much of the fundraising is likely to be done via in-
person meetings.
But many nonpro ts also rely on a larger number of small donations. For these groups, texting can be a great way to solicit smaller gifts from
interested supporters.
Obviously there are very bad ways of going about this. No one wants to get propositioned regularly and for no apparent reason other than
the solicitor needing money. When you add in how impersonal a text can feel, it only increases the potential for things to go awry.
So nonpro ts need to have a strategy in place for using text messaging e ectively and in a way that will not alienate donors. We have three
suggestions.
Consider Timing
First, ask for donations at times when people are already used to being asked for gifts. Many cities will have a day of the year that is used to
encourage donations to local nonpro ts. If your hometown has such a day and you are a mostly local nonpro t, why not send out a text that
day asking for donations that includes a link (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011522173-Link-Tracking?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=includes-link) to the page on

your site where they can give?
Target Your Audience
Second, most of your requests need to be highly targeted rather than mass texts sent out to your whole list. If it’s “Give to (Your City”) day,
then a mass text requesting donations is ne. But most of the time you will want to be more targeted when asking for donations.
For example, if you are a nonpro t working with at-risk youth, you might consider more speci c requests. Suppose the school year is
starting. You might send out a text to a small number of donors with a speci c request. Perhaps a donation of x dollars would allow you to
pay for three hours of after-school tutoring. In that case, you can go through your donors, nd past donors that have given in that amount
before, and ask for a comparable donation while specifying exactly what their donation will do.
Build Trust
Third, always remember that texting for donations is no di erent from any other form of solicitation in as much as all these types of
fundraising methods rely on trust and relationships. So you should never think of SMS fundraising as a kind of tap you can just turn to
produce small donations. Like all forms of fundraising, SMS-based fundraising methods still require the potential donor to regard you as a
trusted organization doing good work that they want to support.
Event Reminders
Event coordination is important in any sector, of course. But in the nonpro t world it may be uniquely vital.
Why?
Two reasons: First, many nonpro ts exist to put on certain types of events. A nonpro t that provides literacy training for immigrants, for
example, exists almost entirely to put on classes, workshops, and tutoring sessions. If you cannot coordinate those, you don’t have a reason
to exist.
Second, many nonpro ts rely on fundraiser events to provide a large portion of their budget every year.
In both cases, then, if people don’t attend the event, the nonpro t is unlikely to exist for very long. Because of that, it is vital that your
nonpro t have a reliable way of coordinating with event attendees.
Texting can provide that for you. Unlike email (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=unlike-email1), people
usually see a text message immediately. Also unlike email, people actually read their texts. How do you implement this?
Easy: First, whenever someone RSVPS for a fundraising event or signs up for some kind of tutoring session (as in our example above), you get
their phone number as part of their registration and ask their consent to send texts to that number. Then you schedule a message
(https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=schedule-a-message1) to go
to them the day of the event.
Most mass text messaging softwares, including Mobile Text Alerts (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=mobile-text-alerts1), allow
you to schedule texts in advance, so you can schedule a bunch of texts in one sitting, and then not need to worry about whether or not
people will actually show up for your events.
Organization Updates
Finally, for simple organizational updates, texting can be an ideal method of communication. Perhaps an event has needed to be
rescheduled or you have hit a fundraising goal that will allow you to expand your operations. These kinds of news announcements can easily
be sent out over SMS to ensure that everyone sees them. Set up your own text alert system and get 50 messages to try here
(https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=set-up-text-alert-system-nonpro ts).

Municipalities
Communicating across larger cities or metro areas can be an enormous challenge. Direct mail is reliable, but slow—and you have no way of
tracking it so that you know if people are actually getting your messages or not. Email is ne, but lacks immediacy and will only be read,
statistically speaking (https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/), by about ⅕ of your list. Given those limitations,
texting can be an excellent alternative method for local governments to use to reach citizens.
Severe Weather
Severe weather is one of the greatest threats any city will have to deal with. SMS messaging can be an excellent resource to help you
respond e ectively before (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=schedule-before), during
(https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010968813-Can-I-send-messages-from-a-mobile-app-?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-during-mobile), and
after (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-message-after) severe
weather hits your community.
First, texting can be a great way to warn people when severe weather is coming. Obviously you do not want to overuse this as people will
quickly start to tune you out if you send a text every time there is a thunderstorm watch in the area.
However, in more extreme cases—when there is a danger of ash ooding or large hail or tornadoes—text alerts can be an appropriate (and
appreciated!) way of warning people.
Likewise, if there are attempts to arrange clean-up e orts to help those a ected by severe weather, texting can be a great way to organize
and inform people about what is happening.
Finally, during winter months when there is excessive snow, cities may adopt parking bans and similar policies to help them keep their
streets clear. In such a circumstance, sending out text alerts to residents informing them of the ban may be a helpful way to keep people
informed and spare them the cost of a ticket or the time required to dig out their car once it has been plowed in.
Bill Pay
For cities with publicly owned utilities, texting can be a great, convenient way to keep people up to date with their billing. Additionally, with
scheduled messages (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=scheduling-messages-
billpay), you can create automated bill payment reminders that go out whenever you want them to—the day before a bill is due, when the
bill is sent out to residents, or even a week after a bill was due that has not been paid yet.
Water Restrictions
During dry summer months, many cities may have to go to water restrictions to help manage the city’s water supply. Often this will be done
by allowing residents whose address ends with an even number to water on certain days and residents whose addresses end with odd
numbers to water on other days. During those times, it is vital that residents know about the restrictions, the penalty for violating the
restriction, and so on. Texting can be one helpful way of informing them about the water restrictions.

Real Estate
One of the most common ways for realtors to let the public know about a home on the market is with a sign set up on the home’s front lawn.
This is, of course, an excellent method for marketing the home.
But you can actually make it even more powerful. If you generate a QR code (https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/) and print that on the
sign in front of the home, you can set up the code (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-Keywords?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=set-up-shortcode) to trigger a
text message opting prospective buyers in to receive updates on the home.
By doing this, the realtor can build a list of people who have expressed interest in the home and they can use the phone numbers they
collect via the QR code to text people about when the home will have an open house or about other information related to the sale of the
house, such as a change in price.
Listing Updates
The limitation with QR codes is that they typically only will apply to one home, although theoretically you could set up the QR code to opt
people in to getting updates from a realtor if you wanted. (Generally we would not recommend that simply because a person taking the time
to scan a QR code is probably interested in that particular house, not in the realtor’s listings more generally.)
But realtors can also use texting more generally with all of their buyers. When a buyer contracts with the realtor, simply include a clause in
the contract opting the buyer in to receive SMS updates. Then you can send out the same sort of updates via text message (https://mobile-
text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-out-alerts) that you might send via email. In addition to that, you can send out
information about open houses, new homes that are hitting the market, and so on.
Event Reminder
Finally, if you have people that have signed up for an open house or who have scheduled a time to walk through the house with you, it is
easy to set up scheduled text messages (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=schedule-a-message2) ahead
of time to go out as reminders to people the day of the appointment. This is a simple, reliable method for reminding people of commitments
they’ve made. It is especially valuable for home tours with individual buyers since a no-show for a tour is costing you time and money as a
realtor.
Set up a text alert system for your real estate business here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=text-alert-system-for-real-
estate).

Lead Gen
Every business needs leads to survive as a business. If you don’t have leads, you don’t have sales. If you don’t have sales, you don’t have
revenue and your business will die. While there are other uses for SMS marketing, one use case is as a lead generation tool (https://mobile-
text-alerts.com/articles/sms-marketing-tools-lead-generation?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=lead-generation-tool). Here’s how.
Facebook Code
The sales process begins with a person becoming aware of your brand and ends with them becoming a customer. But before a person can
become a customer, they need to become a lead and that means you need to help someone move from general awareness of your brand to
enough familiarity and trust that they give you their contact information.
One of the best ways you can do this is by identifying people who are already somewhat familiar with your brand but have not taken any
meaningful step toward becoming a customer. These people are not yet leads because they haven’t given you their contact information or
spoken to a sales rep but they are more engaged than a stranger from the street who has never heard of you. Where do you nd these
people?
One place is on Facebook. They’re your Facebook fans who are not yet leads or customers. And how do you move them to becoming a lead?
One way is by getting them to sign up for text updates from your brand, which you can advertise on your Facebook page.
You can both post on your page and set up an ad to display to your fans inviting them to sign up for SMS updates from your business. Why
would they do that? You’ll need to o er them something of value. If you are a restaurant or retailer, it might be some kind of discount on
their rst purchase. If you’re a B2B company or some other company with a more high-dollar product, it may be some educational piece of
content. But the idea is that by targeting Facebook fans you have identi ed the people who are closest to becoming leads and are now taking
steps to actually help them convert so that your sales team can begin talking to them and trying to turn them into a customer. Related article
- How to allow subscribers to sign up for text alerts using Facebook Messenger (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360024577953-Facebook-Messenger?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=facebook-messenger).
Direct Mail Code

By the same token, you can also send out direct mailers inviting people to sign up for text alerts. You can even embed your keyword
(https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-Keywords) in a QR code (https://www.qrstu .com/) with the mailer
to make signing up as easy as possible.
On the one hand, direct mail campaigns are often expensive and di cult to track. That said, two additional considerations are worth bearing
in mind.
First, if you use a QR code, you can track results better than with many direct mail campaigns as you can simply compare the number of
people (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-Subscribers?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=manage-subscribers) who
use the QR code to sign up with the total number of mailers you sent out, giving you a conversion rate for the campaign.
Second, for businesses operating in the B2B space, direct mail can be an excellent way to stand out from the crowd because it allows you to
send physical objects to people. That collateral often will stick around with them as a reminder of your brand. This makes a direct mail
campaign quite distinct from digitally based outreach campaigns. The down side, of course, is that such campaigns are often quite
expensive. You’re looking at sta time to develop the idea and design whatever goes in the mailer. You’ll also have printing and shipping
costs, to say nothing of the cost of whatever it is you’re sending people. That being said, for B2B businesses that can often manage a higher
customer acquisition cost, this may not necessarily be a problem, especially if you land on a solution that converts.
Once you have the prospect’s phone number, several opportunities open up for your sales team. The most obvious one, of course, is that
you can call or text the person to set up a time to talk more about your product. But in addition to that, if you build a large SMS marketing
list, you can then use that list when you’re working on targeting certain geographic areas, perhaps at a trade show or conference, and you
can use that list if you move to some kind of account-based sales model where you identify speci c companies that you think would be good
customers - check your SMS list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-Subscribers?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-list) and you may
already have a few people in your database from the company you want to pursue.
Conferences
Finally, if your sales team regularly attends trade shows or conferences, you can use texting in (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360011165773-Keywords?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=text-in) two basic ways.
First, you can display a code (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-Keywords?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=display-a-code) at your booth
that will allow people to join your SMS marketing list. If you use a keyword speci c to that event, it will give you another way of bringing in
leads and of tracking where the leads came from, which can help you evaluate the value of the conference.
Second, if you purchase a guest list from the conference organizers, you could email the guests inviting them to schedule a meeting with
your sales team while they’re at the conference. To set up the meeting, you can ask them to opt-in to receive text messages (https://mobile-
text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010969213-How-do-I-add-subscribers-?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=opt-in) from your business.
That allows your sales team to contact them about nding a time to talk and it gets their contact information into your SMS list.
Learn more about how to set up a text marketing system to help you generate more leads for your business here (https://go.mobile-text-
alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-generate-more-leads).

Radio Stations
Radio stations are perhaps one of the best candidates for using texting to grow their business. Why is that? Many businesses have to work
very hard to build an audience, but the work of building their audience and growing their leads is very similar. As their audience grows, their
lead count should also go up. But radio stations are unique because while it is somewhat easier to build an audience—there are only so
many local radio stations, after all—it is very di cult to move a generic audience of anonymous listeners toward becoming recognizable
leads. SMS can help solve this problem.
Contest Reminders
Many radio stations host contests to drive interest with their audience. So why not use contests as a way to build your SMS messaging list? If
you ask for the fth caller, for example, you'll have to manually record each caller's information for future marketing purposes. This is a time-
consuming and exhausting task.
On the other hand, if you ask people to text in to participate in a contest, you can get a large number of new contacts in your marketing list.
To do this, simply change how you identify contest winners. Instead of asking people to call in and picking a random caller, ask people to text
in to your shortcode (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010969213-How-do-I-add-subscribers-?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=text-in-shortcode). NOTE:
You must include notice that they are signing up for text updates when they text in. If you fail to do this, you would be out of compliance with
anti-spam regulations. That said, this is an easy problem to solve: “We’re giving away two tickets for this weekend’s game. To have a chance
to win, simply sign up to receive text alerts from the station by texting in to 12345 using the keyword ‘game’. This will enter you in the contest
to win the tickets.” Suddenly that contest isn’t just growing your anonymous audience, but is actually growing your marketing list. Learn more
about text in giveaways here (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011315074-Text-In-Giveaway?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=text-in-giveaway).
Severe Weather
When severe weather hits, people need to know in case they are going to be a ected by it. If there is a tornado requiring them to seek
shelter, they need to know. If they live in an area that could face ash ooding, they need to know.
While cities can and do alert people, radio stations can also play an important role. Indeed, many people actually turn to radio stations for
the latest news during storms. So if your audience already looks to you for that help, why not o er them another way to access the
information they need?
You can post on your social media accounts, embed a sign-up widget on your website (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360012910953-Sign-Up-Page?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sign-up-page), and invite people to sign up (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360010969213-How-do-I-add-subscribers-?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=shortcode-sign-up) through over-the-air announcements: “To receive alerts when severe weather
strikes, text (keyword) in to (shortcode).”
This is a simple way to provide additional value to your audience and to get a much more speci c picture of your listeners.
Event Notifications
Finally, in keeping with our emphasis on using SMS marketing to give your mostly anonymous audience a more xed identity, you can also
use texting to promote local events your station is sponsoring.
If you are in a college town, for example, perhaps your station hosts a pregame show on football Saturdays on campus. You could use text
messaging to promote the event. Simply send out a message (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-
a-Message?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-out-a-
message) to your list letting them know where you’ll be and asking them to stop by the booth to say hi. Additionally, you could incentivize
listeners to sign up for text updates by announcing some kind of giveaway (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360011315074-Text-In-Giveaway?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=text-in-giveaway1) on air. “Sign up to receive text updates from the station by texting (keyword) to
(shortcode). If you nd us at the tailgate party on Saturday and show us the con rmation text we’ll send back when you subscribe, you’ll
receive a free prize from the station.”
In all likelihood, your station already has some kind of occasional local event. So why not use that to grow your list and to develop stronger
relationships with your listeners?
Sign up for your free text alert system here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=free-trial6). Get 50 messages
for free!

Gyms and Fitness Centers

Texting can be incredibly helpful to gyms for a simple reason: It provides a fast, reliable way of contacting guests with necessary information
about the facility. While other marketing channels can be valuable assets for many gyms, a lot depends on the talent of the marketing team
and the tendencies of the clientele. A Facebook campaign might work for some gyms depending on a variety of factors. Email could be great
for others, depending on a variety of factors. SMS, in contrast (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/email-sms-grow-revenue?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=in-contrast), cuts right to the
point. You o er people a facility to exercise in. When they need information about the facility, SMS is there. It’s reliable. It’s fast. It’s easy. It
works.
Closures
If your gym has to be closed unexpectedly for some reason, that is bad enough. If you aren’t able to reliably get the news to your members
and you have to turn them away at the door, that’s worse.
With texting, you can alert people ahead of time when you’ll have an unusual closing. Additionally, in case of sudden emergency closings, it is
easy to send a message to your members letting them know. Indeed, if your SMS marketing software o ers a mobile app, as Mobile Text
Alerts does, you could even send out the emergency alert text from your phone (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360041138633-Send-a-Message-Mobile-App-?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-message-mobile-app).
Class Reminders
No-shows take money out of your pocket. You have limited space, limited teachers, and that means a limited number of spots in your
classes. So when a person signs up and no-shows, that person is taking up a spot that could have gone to another student.
There are other ways of addressing the no-show problem, of course, such as charging cancellation fees. But extra fees often will frustrate
and alienate members, even if they deserve the fee according to their membership agreement. So there is a better way to solve the no-show
problem: texting.
With text alerts, you can send out reminder messages to people the day of a class to help them remember to attend. This should improve
your class attendance as well as make for more engaged gym members.
Schedule Updates
Finally, just as text alerts are helpful when you have to let people know when the gym will be closed, they can also be helpful when needing
to alert people to schedule changes. Perhaps the open swimming hours in the pool are changing or the weight room is closing an hour
earlier than usual.
Often what happens in these situations is a member drives to the gym, nds out when they arrive that they can’t work out, and then leaves
feeling frustrated. You can solve that problem by using text alerts to let people know about schedule changes ahead of time and before they
come in to work out.
Ultimately, texting is the best medium for any kind of short, relatively simple message you need to convey to your members.
Set up your own text alert system for your gym here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-gyms). Each trial
account comes with full account features and 50 messages.

Salons and Spas
Appointment Reminders
No-shows take money out of your pocket. If you’re a stylist, you can only t so many appointments into a single day. Any appointments that
don’t show up, won’t be paying for service and also have taken away a spot from someone else.
With text alerts, you can send out reminder messages (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-
Message?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-reminder-
message) to people prior to their appointment in order to help them remember to attend. This should reduce your no-show rate and put
that money right back into your wallet.
Discount Offers
A salon appointment is the sort of thing that a person might intend to make for a long time before actually making the call and setting a time
to come in.
So one of the simplest ways to grow your business is simply to get those people who are already thinking about coming in to actually make
an appointment.
How do you do that? Easy: O er them a discount. Use SMS marketing (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing4) to text
them some kind of special deal: “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you. We’d love to have you back. Show this text next time you’re in
and receive 15% o your visit.”
You can also take one more step to try and further encourage people to come in. Create a sense of scarcity. “Come in this week and receive
15% o your visit.” The goal is two-fold. First, turn your warmest leads (people who have been meaning to make an appointment but haven’t)
into sales and second, to increase the frequency of visits for your clientele. Discount o ers sent out via SMS can help you with both of those
goals.
Facebook Code
Many salons are already active on Facebook as it provides an easy platform for socializing with customers and provides a platform where
you can show o your stylists’ work with photography. That said, your Facebook audience is likely much larger than your list of regular
visitors. So another way to grow your business is by helping your Facebook audience to become more engaged.
One method for doing that is to use Facebook to encourage people to sign up to join your SMS list. You can always simply ask people to sign
up (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012910953-Sign-Up-Page?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sign-up-page), of course, and
some people likely will. But the other thing you can do is combine this idea with the idea to o er a discount while using scarcity to incentivize
action. Post something like this on Facebook: “Text (keyword (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-
Keywords)) to (shortcode) to sign up to receive text updates from the salon. If you do it this week and mention this Facebook post when you
visit, we’ll take 15% o your visit.”

Golf Courses
Golf courses are at the mercy of the weather as well as players’ schedules. This can make it challenging to develop a reliable base of
customers. One way of solving that problem is by using SMS messaging to encourage visitors to come visit the course, even if it is only to hit
some balls at the driving range.
Weather Updates
As a golf course, you need good weather in order to have customers. If it’s too hot, some people will stay home. Worse still, if it is raining it is
likely that everyone will stay home.
On the other hand, if the weather is nice, you’re likely to have a busier day.
With texting, you can send weather updates to your list to let them know how the day’s weather will a ect playing conditions. Occasionally
you can also use your list to send out morning weather reports on days where the weather is expected to be especially pleasant. These kind
of short messages can provide that last nudge that people need in order to visit the course to play a round.
Discount Codes
Another way to encourage people to come out to the course is o ering some kind of discount. On days when a person is on the fence about
whether or not to play, the chance to save a little might be the di erence between a person skipping out and showing up.
What this means is that simply o ering people the chance to save a little money or to enjoy some other kind of unique deal you might be
able to get people to show up who would otherwise stay home.
Event Announcements
Finally, many golf courses will also o er tournaments as well as other events. If you do, texting is the simplest, best way to keep people up to
date with any relevant news. Indeed, you can manage much of the messaging and even sign-up process (https://mobile-text-
alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010969213-How-do-I-add-subscribers-?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sign-up-process) via texting.
Simply invite people to sign up for the tournament by texting in to your shortcode and opting in to receive text messages from the course.
This can boost your SMS list while also providing a valuable service to your players.
Set up a text alert system for your golf course here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-golf-course). Get
50 messages free!

Movie theaters
Movie theaters face an uncertain future. There are fewer studios producing movies today and fewer movies that make a large amount of
money. This gives far more power to studios and makes it harder for theaters. Additionally, as in-home technology improves, the experience
of watching a movie at home becomes more and more comparable to the theater experience.
All of this makes it harder for theaters to survive operating as they traditionally have. Therefore, theaters need to change their methods if
they want to continue to operate, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic made these trends, already bad for theaters, even worse. SMS
marketing (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing5) can be one element of a new marketing strategy for post-pandemic theaters.
Event Announcements
One strategy that many movie theaters are moving toward is built around hosting more special events in the theater. These could include
Saturday morning classic kids movies, marathons of classics like Star Wars or The Godfather series, and so on.
When promoting these events, you not only should broadcast it to a large anonymized audience, as you do when posting on Facebook or
buying radio ads. You should also promote the event to particular people who you know are most likely to buy, people who have a stronger
connection with your theater.
This is where SMS is helpful. If you have an SMS list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-

Subscribers?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-list1), you
can use it the same way you would an email list. For example, you might invite families with young kids to sign up for text alerts whenever
you are hosting kid-friendly events at the theater.
This is valuable because it allows you to have far more con dence that guests will actually attend your special events as you have a direct line
to the people most likely to attend.
Ticket Confirmation
One element of encouraging people to give you their phone number and opt-in for text messages from your theater is simply building
mobile messaging into the ordinary buying experience with your business.
One way you can do this is by using texting to send out con rmation messages when people purchase tickets. This is a simple service that
most theaters provide when tickets are purchased ahead of time. You’re simply pushing the noti cations out via mobile devices rather than
email—which makes sense given that text messages have an open rate of 95% while email is around 21%.
Loyalty Programs
Another way of building texting into your normal interactions with customers is to run your loyalty program (https://mobile-text-
alerts.com/articles/best-sms-marketing-tools-reward-loyal-customers?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-
marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=loyalty-program) or rewards program through texting. Send out a text message with an
update on how many points they have earned every time a person purchases tickets. You can also send out texts when they hit certain
reward levels, when you’re o ering unique reward perks, and reminder messages if they have earned some kind of bene t, such as free
movie tickets, that they have not used yet.
What you’re trying to do, ultimately, is move away from your customers seeing you as a generic movie theater where they go to see new
movies and instead seeing you as a local business that hosts events they enjoy and treats them well.
Set up your own text alert system here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-movie-theaters).
Get 50 messages free!

Bars and Nightclubs

For bars and nightclubs, texting can be an excellent marketing channel. Why is that? There are two reasons.
First, texting is excellent at reaching people quickly with simple information. Most of the marketing messages a bar or nightclub would need
to send are relatively straightforward and do not require the longer format of email to make sense.
Second, particularly for smaller locally owned bars or nightclubs, texting can be a great marketing channel because it is relatively cheap. You
can easily spend hundreds or even thousands in a given month on Google or Facebook ads. In contrast, SMS marketing (https://go.mobile-
text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing6) campaigns can be run much more a ordably relative to those other channels.
NOTE: It is vital that you age-gate your SMS list if you are a bar or nightclub. If you are sending out texts promoting alcohol and drinking to
people who are not yet of legal age, you can face major penalties for violating federal anti-spam regulations.
Drink Discounts
One way that bars and nightclubs can use texting is to text out coupon codes or news about drink discounts they are o ering in the near
future.
One of the reasons texting in particular is so helpful here is about timing. If you email out a coupon or news about drink discounts, there is
likely to be a large amount of time between when a person sees that email and when they are actually out at night deciding what to do or
where to go. In contrast, with texting you can reach people at the exact moment you need to.
So when promoting a drink discount—perhaps you got a new seasonal beer from a local brewer—you can actually send the text at a time
when people are likely to be out and may just need a small nudge to go to your bar. You can’t do this with email because no one is going to
check their email after dinner while they’re trying to decide where to go next. But if they get a text, they’ll read it.
Event Reminders
For the same reason that texting works well for sending out drink discounts, it’s also an excellent option for event reminders. People don’t
need reminders in their email ten hours before the watch party you’re hosting happens. They need the reminder as they’re getting o work
or heading out the door—in other words, at a time when they are not checking email.
You can schedule event reminders (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=schedule-event-reminders)
to go out to people an hour before the event starts or even 15 minutes before and rest easy, knowing your guests will remember the event
and show up that evening.
Customer Loyalty
Finally, customer loyalty programs (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/what-is-the-best-way-to-reward-loyal-customers-with-sms-
marketing-?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=customer-loyalty-
programs) can also be managed through text messaging. You can link a phone number to a rewards account, which allows a person to get
an easy update on their rewards status with every purchase they make.
Additionally, if you know your customers’ reward status, you can also do things like send out a reminder when they have earned a free drink
in order to incentivize them to come to the bar.
Set up sms marketing for your bar or nightclub here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-bar-nightclub).
Get 50 messages free!

Cafes and Coffee Shops

Co ee shops were one of the business types hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic (https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200807/will-
co ee-shop-culture-survive-covid-19). That said, as businesses begin to open back up, co ee shops would do well to explore new ways of
connecting with their customers. Texting (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=texting) could be one of
those methods.
Drink Discounts
As with any business using SMS, you can send out news about deals and discounts using text messaging. One thing that makes texting a
uniquely good t with co ee shops is the timing of text messages. With email (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/email-sms-grow-
revenue?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=with-email), people
tend to read their email at certain times.
So when you send a reminder message, you’re banking on them seeing it (only a 21% chance there, by the way) and remember the discount
later in the day when they can visit your shop.
In contrast, with texting you can send out texts when you want people to come in and be reasonably con dent that people will see the text
right then. Perhaps it’s mid-afternoon and you know most of your customers are o ce workers. You might send them a text inviting them to
stop by for a little co ee to wake them back up for the rest of the day.
Event Reminders
For the same reason that texting works well for sending out drink discounts, it’s also an excellent option for event reminders. People don’t
need reminders in their email ten hours before the watch party you’re hosting happens. They need the reminder as they’re getting o work
or heading out the door—in other words, at a time when they are not checking email.
You can schedule event reminders (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=schedule-event-reminders1)
to go out to people an hour before the event starts or even 15 minutes before and rest easy, knowing your guests will remember the event
and show up that evening. As co ee shops open back up after the pandemic, this could be especially helpful as events are likely to be one of
the best ways to bring old customers back and draw in new ones.
Customer Loyalty
Many co ee shops o er some kind of loyalty rewards program (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/what-is-the-best-way-to-reward-loyal-

customers-with-sms-marketing-?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=loyalty-rewards-program1), such a free drink after buying ten specialty drinks. However, many still
manage these using a punch card or some similar basic technology. The problem here, of course, is that punch cards get lost or forgotten.
But people always carry their phones. So why not manage your rewards program by linking reward points to a phone number. You can link a
phone number to a rewards account, which allows a person to get an easy update on their rewards status with every purchase they make.
Additionally, if you know your customers’ reward status, you can also do things like send out a reminder when they have earned a free drink
in order to incentivize them to come to the bar.
Set up your text alert system for your cafe or co ee shop here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-cafe-co ee). Get
50 messages free!

Churches
Reliably communicating with busy congregants is di cult. Email lists can work, but won’t be see by everyone. Social media posts are even
less sure. What can work? Texting. Texts have a 95% open rate (https://moosend.com/blog/sms-marketing/). Use texting to communicate
with your congregation and you don’t have to worry about whether or not people heard the latest announcements.
Event Updates
Many churches have additional events during the week—Wednesday evening youth events, Bible studies, prayer groups, recovery groups,
and so on. One way to keep people up to speed on any changes is via texting. Because people read their texts, you can be con dent that
people actually see the messages you send out and won’t be out of the loop.
Prayer Requests
One of the ways that people in the same church support each other is through prayer. Many churches ask for prayer requests on Sundays
during or after their worship service. That said, it can be helpful to be able to share during the week so that people know how things are
going or so that you can share any urgent needs right away instead of waiting till Sunday morning.
Text messaging is a good way of doing that. Small groups, parishes, or small congregations can share prayer requests via text messaging
(https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=via-text-messaging) so that
everyone in the group knows about a need and is able to pray and help in other ways.
Devotional Readings & Reminders

Churches can also use text messaging to send out devotional messages—simply send a text with a link to that day’s reading. This can also be
helpful for churches that follow the church calendar. Such congregations could use texting to remind the congregation about feast days or
other events the church is hosting as part of that season of the year, such as an Ash Wednesday service, Christmas Eve service, and so on.
Set up your free text alert system for your church here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-churches). Get 50
messages for free!

Restaurants
There may not be another industry that has been hit as hard by the pandemic as the restaurant industry. 16,000 restaurants
(https://abcnews.go.com/Business/16000-restaurants-closed-permanently-due-pandemic-yelp-data/story?id=71943970) have closed
permanently due to COVID-19. As businesses begin to reopen, restaurants have a number of challenges to confront. SMS marketing
(https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing7) can be one tool they use to face the challenges of starting up again.
Discounts
Obviously one of the easiest ways to bring in new business is to o er valuable discounts to potential customers. Texting will allow you to do
that, as will other marketing channels.
That said, one thing that makes texting unique is that every message you send goes to one person. So your discounts can be far more
targeted if you promote them via SMS messaging. This can keep you from over-extending yourself by o ering a discount you can’t quite
a ord to o er. It also allows you to test speci c o ers on a more granular level.
Birthday Deals
Many restaurants o er customers a free drink or free dessert on their birthday. So one thing you can do with SMS is use text messaging to
remind people of this deal.
One note on this: While many discounts are probably best sent out close to when you expect a customer to take advantage of it, with
birthday reminder texts (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022700733-Happy-Birthday-Texts?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=birthday-reminder-texts) it
may be best to send it out a few days before the customer’s birthday. People often make more de nite plans for their birthday and so if you
send out a reminder the day of their birthday it is likely to be too late as they will have already made other plans. So send out this kind of
reminder message a few days prior so that you have the best chance of seeing that person come to your restaurant to take advantage of the
o er.
Reservation Reminders
Finally, if your restaurant accepts reservations, one easy thing you can do is set up reservation reminders to go out to guests an hour prior to
their reservation. This makes it easier for them to remember when they’re supposed to arrive and makes it less likely that you’ll be holding a
table for people who never show up.
Set up a text alert system for your restaurant for free here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-restaraunts).
You’ll get 50 messages free and full account access.

Food Trucks
There are few businesses out there that can more obviously bene t from SMS marketing than food trucks. Why?
First, food trucks, by their very nature, do not have a permanent location. They are constantly on the move, which means they need a way of
letting customers know where they’ll be on a given day. Texting is one of the easiest, best ways of doing that.
Second, many food trucks run on a relatively tight budget. So nding marketing outlets that are e cient and inexpensive is essential. Texting
checks both of those boxes.
Learn how a bakery food truck, Kastle’s Kreations, generated higher sales with Mobile Text Alerts here (https://mobile-text-
alerts.com/assets/kk_customer-success-story-min.pdf?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-kastle-kreations).
Location Updates
The most basic use any food truck is likely to have for SMS is to let customers know where their truck will be on a given day.
There are a few ways you could go about this. One is to simply send out a text (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-out-text) to your entire list with an update on your location every day. That said, many people are
likely to get burned out this way from the volume of messages you will be sending.
A second strategy is to break out your entire SMS list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-

Subscribers) into smaller lists based on region. Customers could sign up for text updates only when you will be in their town or their
neighborhood. This allows them to receive only texts they care about. It also allows you to be more con dent about bringing in new business
with text messages since everyone who receives a location update from you is already living nearby and is, thus, more likely to visit.
Discounts
Like many other businesses, food trucks can use SMS messaging to alert customers to discounts and special deals they are o ering.
In fact, you can easily combine the location update and discount text idea if you want. Suppose you’re going to be in a neighborhood you
haven’t been to in awhile. With texting, you can message members of your list who live in the area and, to further encourage them to come
out, o er them a special discount if they show the text you sent out when they order at the truck.
Event Reminders
Food trucks thrive when they excel at forming relationships with people in the community and keeping those people informed about where
they’ll be. Because there isn’t a permanent location, it is harder to lay down roots in one place. On the other hand, because you can move
anywhere, it is easier to form a broad base of customers and connections that can sustain your business.
This is especially helpful if you do a lot of community events, such as church parties, tailgates, and so on. Using texting, you can easily keep
people informed as to what is going on in the community and where you will be.
Set up text alerts for your food truck business for free (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-food-trucks). Get
full account access and 50 messages to try out!

Grocery Stores
Di erent grocery stores have di erent marketing challenges. Larger chains can rely on a large base of regular customers and grow their
business by expanding into new areas or incentivizing regular customers to shop more regularly or buy more when they shop. Smaller stores
will, in contrast, need to focus on developing a stable base of customers. In both cases, there are ways for stores to use SMS marketing
(https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing8).
Sale Alerts
Big sales are often when stores make the most money in a given month, quarter, or even year. Getting enough people to turn out for big
seasonal sales, such as a Memorial Day weekend sale or Thanksgiving sale is essential for any grocery store. Texting can help. Simply send
out a message to your customers reminding them when the sale starts, tease a couple items, and send it out. These kinds of simple nudges
are often all it takes to get someone to visit your store rather than a competitor’s.
New Product Alerts

Grocery stores are constantly cycling in new products. Often as part of that a store will feature the product in a place of prominence on a
shelf or end cap, perhaps also with a large display promoting the product or at least a large sign announcing that it is new and stating the
price.
Another way to help promote new products is via texting. You could go about this a couple ways. One method is to simply send out new
product alerts whenever you get new products in. That said, this will often burn out your list as you are going to feature new products more
regularly than most customers want to receive texts announcing them.
A better method is to build your list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-Subscribers?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=build-your-list) in such a way
that you have a general idea of what kind of products a given customer is more likely to buy. Armed with that information, you can set up
your new product alerts based on product type. For example, if you have a new chocolate bar you’re featuring, that announcement text
could go out to a list of customers who buy a lot of chocolate.
Event Reminders
Finally, many stores are starting to host more events as a way of building ties with their community and attracting new customers. It might
be a Fourth of July cookout or perhaps Santa Claus visits your store every December.
Whatever it is, you can promote these kinds of events via text message. This makes it easier for people to know when an event is happening
and easier to remember the event so that they can attend.
Set up text alerts for your grocery store for free here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-grocery-stores).
Get full account access and 50 messages to try!

Construction and Manufacturing

In construction and manufacturing the primary use for SMS messaging (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/manufacturing-and-construction?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-messaging1) is actually
about internal communication rather than external. So the needs often have more to do with alerting crew members to changing
circumstances or upcoming events than they do promoting the business to potential customers.
Safety Alerts
Construction sites are by de nition dangerous. They feature heavy machinery, un nished buildings, work that hasn’t been completed, and so
on. Additionally, severe weather can create challenges for any team.
This is why construction companies, particularly larger companies with more scattered teams, need to use texting. If you have to alert your
team to safety issues on the site, you can’t risk a call not being heard or an email not being seen. Texting is the best, safest, most immediate
way to get in touch with your team.
Scheduling Updates
For many smaller rms, the most common communication issue is not safety-related, but involves scheduling. It does not take much to
knock a job o schedule, after all. Some necessary supplies arrive late, an unexpected complication on the site, an accident… it doesn’t take a
lot. And when one part of the job gets delayed, it can easily create a cascading e ect across the entire team.
To help navigate those challenges, you should consider using text messaging. A simple text sent out at the start of the work day can let a
contractor know where they are needed or give a team a badly needed update on when they can start the next phase of a job.
Best of all, by sending a bulk text message (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sending-bulk-text-message),
you can be con dent that everyone on your team is getting the same message. You don’t need to rely on one person to relay the correct
details to everyone else.
Emergencies
Finally, in emergency situations immediate communication is absolutely essential. Five minutes can be the di erence between a hospital visit
and safely returning home that evening. Being able to get a message out quickly and with con dence that everyone who needs to see it will
see it is essential.
Texting assures you of that.
One other thing to consider here concerns what SMS messaging provider you intend to work with. In cases where getting a text out promptly
is vital, you may need to use your bulk SMS messaging tool from your phone, as you may not have a computer nearby.
That said, not all bulk SMS messaging providers o er a mobile app (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=mobile-app), so before
signing on with anyone, make sure they o er a mobile app so that you can get news out immediately to your team.
Set up text alerts for your construction or manufacturing company for free here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/manufacturing-and-
construction?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-
construction-manufacturing). Get full account access and 50 messages. No credit card required for signup.

Podcasts
Podcasts are one of the newest marketing channels available to many businesses. The bene ts are obvious: They’re relatively easy to
produce, they o er a new way to connect with your audience, and they o er a chance to build a larger audience for your brand.
Unfortunately, the challenges are also notable, the largest of which is building that audience in the rst place. Half of all podcasts
(http://www.simonowens.net/how-podcasts-with-small-audiences-are-attracting-advertisers) do not get 140 downloads per episode. The
market is ooded. So how do you help your podcast stand out in order to attract a larger audience? There are many answers to that
question, but one obvious one is “text messaging.”
Read how to convert podcast listeners into customers using SMS here (https://medium.com/portlandpod/how-to-convert-podcast-listeners-
into-customers-using-sms-7f8d055c07c0).
New Episode Updates

When you launch a new episode, it’s important to let your audience know that it is live. Podcast applications should give them a noti cation.
But there are other things you can do as well.
One of them is sending out a text message (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=send-out-a-text-message).
When a new episode is launched, you can send out a text to your listeners announcing the episode, sharing a bit about what is covered on it,
and including a link that will take them to the episode.
This can be a signi cant boost for your podcast as podcast apps will notify users whenever new episodes of any podcast they are subscribed
to are released. Yours simply gets lost in the shu e. But yours will be one of the only podcasts using texting to announce a new episode.
Mobile Surveys
The more engaged your listeners, the more likely they are to buy from you or to tell someone else about your show. One way that people
feel more committed to something is when they feel as if they have some level of agency with it, some part of it that re ects their own work
or desire.
Given that, you can also use text messaging to send out mobile surveys (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360011325974-Mobile-Surveys?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=mobile-surveys2) to your audience to get their feedback on the show. You could ask for feedback on
any number of things—intro music, future guests, giveaway contests, etc. The point is that you’re giving your listeners opportunities to share
their thoughts and to see how their opinion actually helps shape the show. This creates a stronger bond between the podcast and the
listener than is common, which can be a huge bene t for your podcast’s ongoing success.
Event Updates
Finally, many podcasts are part of some larger project—it could be a media project such as a magazine or news station or it could be part of
some other kind of business that uses the podcast as a marketing channel.
Either way, you are likely to have some in-person or online events that your listeners may be interested in. Texting is a great way to let
listeners know about those events. You can even combine event announcements with other SMS marketing techniques to boost
engagement.
For example, if you are recording a live show of the podcast, you might send out a message to listeners in the area advertising the event. You
could also include a discount code in the message and a link to buy tickets to the event on your website: “We’ll be recording our next live
show at (venue) on (date). If you’d like to get 50% o your ticket price, use (code) when you buy your tickets at this link: (link)”
Set up your text marketing system for your podcast here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-podcasts). Get a
free account preloaded with 50 messages!

Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals
Both healthcare and pharmaceutical professionals routinely have need to communicate short, relatively simple information to patients and
customers. For doctors or physical therapists, it might be appointment reminders or a reminder of when it’s time for an annual check-up.
Pharmacists, meanwhile, will need to remind people when their prescription is ready or when it is time for a re ll.
In all these cases, texting is an excellent way to communicate needed information to a patient.
Appointment Reminders
Missed appointments create problems for your o ce. So do late arrivals. To help with both of those problems, consider using SMS
messaging (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038031453-Appointment-Reminders?
utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=appointment-reminders) to
let people know when they have an appointment.
You can also use this message to remind people of when they need to arrive if they have paperwork to do, what documentation they need to
bring to the appointment, and so on.
Prescription Pick-Up Reminders

It’s easy to forget to pick up your prescription. You have a number of other obligations and tasks to do. You probably don’t want to tack on
one more errand. Even so, you need to pick up your prescription.
Pharmacies that use SMS marketing (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=sms-marketing9) can help
you remember by sending out an alert message when your prescription is ready for pick-up or when you are supposed to pick up a re ll.
Scheduling Changes
Finally, many doctors, therapists, and even pharmacists will need to occasionally send out updates when events occur that cause them to
have to change their schedule. So you can use SMS messaging to let people know about the change in schedule.
In fact, with SMS you could combine schedule change noti cations with mobile surveys (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360011325974-Mobile-Surveys?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-
guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=mobile-surveys3) and allow people to book a new appointment over texting: Simply send a note saying
that due to a change in schedule, (time) is no longer available. Then propose three di erent times to reschedule the appointment and the
patient can respond to that directly over texting to let you know when they will be in.
Set up your own text alert system for free for your healthcare or pharmaceutical organization here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-
alert-system?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=learn-more-
healthcare-pharmaceutical). Get 50 messages and full account features!
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Use Cases For SMS Marketing - SMS Marketing Guide

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Use Cases For SMS Marketing - SMS Marketing Guide

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This can be done in two ways.

Try it out! View a signup page example here https://mobile-text-alerts.com/test (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/test) ×

In-Store Display Code 🏬

Returning Customer Discounts 🔁

How to Segment Past Purchasers

🏷 To receive a 20% discount on your next pair, text “shoes” to 74121

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Tool For Clients 🧰

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

With an SMS alert (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-

Customer Loyalty Program

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Small Donation Solicitation

utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=sms-marketing-guide&utm_term=ch9&utm_content=includes-link) to the page on

Target Your Audience

Texting can provide that for you. Unlike email (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/text-alert-system?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

text message opting prospective buyers in to receive updates on the home.

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Direct Mail Code

First, you can display a code (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011165773-Keywords?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Sign up for your free text alert system here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Gyms and Fitness Centers

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Salons and Spas

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

This is where SMS is helpful. If you have an SMS list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-

Set up your own text alert system here (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Bars and Nightclubs

You can schedule event reminders (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?

Set up sms marketing for your bar or nightclub here (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Cafes and Coffee Shops

You can schedule event reminders (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages?

Many co ee shops o er some kind of loyalty rewards program (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/what-is-the-best-way-to-reward-loyal-

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Devotional Readings & Reminders

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

A second strategy is to break out your entire SMS list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

New Product Alerts

A better method is to build your list (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-Subscribers?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Construction and Manufacturing

Best of all, by sending a bulk text message (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?

Texting assures you of that.

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

New Episode Updates

One of them is sending out a text message (https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message?

Talk to an Expert (https://calendly.com/mobiletextalerts1/demo)

Prescription Pick-Up Reminders

Pharmacies that use SMS marketing (https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free?