Week 2 has been awesome!

We've been hitting the streets and talking to business owners about the power and possibilities of SMS Marketing and we can't believe how well the concept is being received. Every business owner from restaurants, to fast food outlets has said a resounding YES to using our service to create advertising campaigns using SMS Marketing.

We have even secured the ability to offer free trials to Zambian based users who will be set up on our software enabling business owners to test out the system before we begin their campaign.

It just goes to show that this SMS Marketing is perfect for Africa!

Social media continues to change the dictionary!

In further confirmation of social media’s penetration into the world's language, Merriam-Webster has added both “tweet” and “social media” to its Collegiate Dictionary. 

M-W, which announced the move Thursday, is a bit late to the game. The Oxford English Dictionary just added “tweet” and “retweet,” not to mention “sext,” last week. Collins English Dictionary added “Twitter” as a verb and a noun in 2009.

M-W’s Collegiate Dictionary, the country’s best-selling dictionary, added 150 words, just a few of which are tech-related. Others include “m-commerce” and “crowdsourcing.” Among the other new additions are “fist bump,” “bromance,” “cougar” in reference to middle-aged women on the prowl and “helicopter parent.”

This was the first time M-W added new terms since 2009. Back then, the dictionary added “vlog,” “webisode,” “flash mob” and “pdf.”

Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for the dictionary, says the new terms are decided upon in an informal manner. “It’s just a process of seeing a word used frequently and in many different sources,” he says, noting that inclusion in outlets like The New York Times is a big consideration.

Sokolowski says there are a few words on his short list for likely inclusion next time around including “man cave,” “millennials” and “mashup.” 

written by Todd Wasserman for Mashable.com

Web Design that works for your business

Business websites cannot be static. 

They must actively solicit interaction with visitors to push revenue growth and meet marketing goals. A website can be both a fantastic brochure but it can also be a meeting place where your clients sit down to talk with you, to tell you what they need, what they think and how they feel about your brand. A great website is a conversation starter with your client and might be the marketing tool that sets you a part from every competitor. 

Whilst a bad, site will turn people off and move them on. What makes a bad website?

A site that is not updated regularly is just damn annoying - when was the last time you found content written in 2007, or perhaps an upcoming event that occurred 6 mths ago with no future events in the coming up section.

Your website could be downright ugly - noone is attracted on first impressions by someone they find unattractive so why would they sit looking at an ugly site?

A site that was obviously designed at the inception of the internet is not of interest unless your clients are internet archeologists.

A bad website is one that is filled with unqualified sales statements such as "The World's best..." and other such nonsense that offer no evidence or any value to the reader to enable them to make a sound decision on using a specific product or service.

Demonstrate to your clients that you are a contemporary business and that you understand how to communicate with a savvy audience. Your corporate website needs to effectively market the business, and we do this by designing intelligent product pages, writing compelling content about your products and services, and putting together easy to use templates for regular e-mail newsletters, and SMS campaigns that bring business to you time and time again.

Ask yourself how does your website stack up on a global scale? Are your clients moving on or coming back for seconds?

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS Marketing is the use of mobile phone text to sell more product and bring customers to your business.

SMS Marketing is now used by 4 billion consumers worldwide.

SMS or Mobile Marketing (MM) is particularly relevant in Zambia and across Africa due to the high cell phone usage in urban areas and the reasonable coverage in rural areas compared to the comparatively low home Internet usage. Many Africans have multiple handsets for calling and texting outside their own network, so any data gathering needs to take this into account.

The use of text messaging has skyrocketed. People now use it for basic one to one communication far more frequently than calling and this behaviour can be harnessed.  Ask your clients to respond to links to mobile websites, entry into contests, voting, signups, and uptake of special offers.

Marketing via SMS is now the most effective means of generating repeat and new business for most industry sectors including retail/consumer, hospitality, entertainment and media, I.T., manufacturing, tourism, finance/insurance, education, healthcare and NGO/Aid organisations.

In some sectors improvement in sales figures, directly attributable to SMS marketing are in the region of 30-40% whilst the cost of SMS campaigns can be more than 50% cheaper than conventional direct marketing.

For customers the key to acceptance and receptivity are opt-in programmes offering new information, coupons, competitions, event promotions and the provision of ongoing reasons not to opt out. Over time many businesses in Africa will adopt MM.  Recipients will opt-out of programmes that make them feel swamped with content that is not of personal interest. Therefore a two way text dialogue with consumers is key to monitoring customer feedback and satisfaction.

Mobile marketing has become widely accepted throughout Europe, Australia and is breaking ground rapidly in the USA. In the initial period many recipients were not opted-in and reacted negatively to what was essentially spam. In the initial launch period many recipients were not able to opt-out and reacted negatively to what was essentially unwelcome spam. In addition the text content offered no real benefit to the recipient. Using SMS marketing in this way is destined to fail and furthermore damages business credibility and the bottom line. Recipients should be provided with information and actions that they want and be able to opt out easily and quickly should they wish to do so.

Understanding the difference between projected commercial outcomes and the recipients perception of the value of your promotional devices is key to maintaining a positive relationship. Fresh information is critical however repeating popular and successful promotions can also be popular and profitable.

At a higher technical level retailers will ultimately need to get POS integration in place to utilise MM to track and respond however manual database driven systems are a great way to start and test different marketing programmes.

Recipients can be enabled to nominate the type of information they would like to see. Specifically users can respond by indicating a particular interest in a field or product genre.   

MMS - Multimedia Messaging Service (image messaging) marketing components can also be introduced to embellish certain campaigns however the cost of this is higher and not all recipients will have suitable handsets so some experimentation is necessary.

Tools and actions:

Offerings and notifications:

·      Coupons

·      Specials

·      Events

·      Voting / polling

·      Competitions

·      Tips / recipes / health

·      Q & A

·      Newsletter sign-up

·      Flash codes

·      Appointment openings

·      Premium member sign-up

Customer actions / responses:

·      Purchase a special offer

·      Show a coupon on their handset

·      Enter a competition

·      Sign up to newsletter or premium membership

·      Use a Flash-code to get more info on a product or service

·      Go to a mobile website on Smartphone

·      Go to a website on Smartphone

·      Send a URL link to their email address

·      Request more information

·      Ask a question

·      Make an appointment

·      Order a tip or recipe

·      Attend an event

·      Indicate special interests

     and more

Can you see 3 ways SMS marketing could work for your business?