Opinion: Why don't all businesses use text?
- Thread starter Textlocal
- Start date
I'll take a step back on that assumption as I had really only considered the sms itself as opposed to sending a click through link. When you consider that additional linkage, then yes, there is more of an argument for sms.
However, if you are essentially only delivering a link, then you can do so through an email, where you can also deliver compelling graphics. I admit the instant nature of sms is compelling in this regard but you really have to consider the frequency of your marketing and for how long after nil responses to keep texting.
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #44
People do often forward texts to their friends - where they know the news or offer is of interest to them. Personal, from person to person. We have even known response rates in excess of 100%, where say 100 messages go out, and >100 people redeem (quote at POS) an embedded code - or by embedding tracking URLs into the SMS we register more unique hits to the web-content than initial campaign size. This is quite common, and pretty awe inspiring to witness.
For the record, I have not come to this conversation without a little experience - we now send up to 40,000,000 texts per month for 100,000+ UK businesses, service, charities and local community groups - from multinationals to local greengrocers, with the most incredible feedback, case studies and testimonials proving if used correctly, with the user consent, it comfortably generates higher response rates than any other communications medium.
Our whole business was grown since it's conception in 2005 with the aid of you guys from ukbusinessforums, your insight, guidance and expertise (from web design to finance, marketing and HR... not always under this user profile...!) - without whom we wouldn't be one of the fastest growing companies in Europe, winning many awards and recognised as the industry leader.
It is very illuminating to see how businesses that have not/will not embrace the concept feel - and how there is an instant perception and wariness of spam, even when we are discussing opt-in only communication, requested by the customer themselves.
It is sad to hear - many businesses are missing out on a ultra low cost, high impact, highly effective communications tool - for the first time in human history you can communicate with a group of 100 people for around £3 - in seconds. Absolutely - get it wrong, spam people and you will p!ss them off, damage your own brand and reputation and taint what should be an ethical and legitimate tool even further.
Get it right, respect the opt-in, don't over use the relationship and you create a VIP "fan club" for your business, driving your best customers instantly to your most important web content, videos, "special boards" or just a simple plan text alert about a road closure or appointment reminder.
It all boils down to common sense... all the argument for-and-against SMS for business doesn't really matter. Abuse it and lose - embrace it and use in a mature way then everyone wins. It's pretty obvious
For the record, I have not come to this conversation without a little experience - we now send up to 40,000,000 texts per month for 100,000+ UK businesses, service, charities and local community groups - from multinationals to local greengrocers, with the most incredible feedback, case studies and testimonials proving if used correctly, with the user consent, it comfortably generates higher response rates than any other communications medium.
Our whole business was grown since it's conception in 2005 with the aid of you guys from ukbusinessforums, your insight, guidance and expertise (from web design to finance, marketing and HR... not always under this user profile...!) - without whom we wouldn't be one of the fastest growing companies in Europe, winning many awards and recognised as the industry leader.
It is very illuminating to see how businesses that have not/will not embrace the concept feel - and how there is an instant perception and wariness of spam, even when we are discussing opt-in only communication, requested by the customer themselves.
It is sad to hear - many businesses are missing out on a ultra low cost, high impact, highly effective communications tool - for the first time in human history you can communicate with a group of 100 people for around £3 - in seconds. Absolutely - get it wrong, spam people and you will p!ss them off, damage your own brand and reputation and taint what should be an ethical and legitimate tool even further.
Get it right, respect the opt-in, don't over use the relationship and you create a VIP "fan club" for your business, driving your best customers instantly to your most important web content, videos, "special boards" or just a simple plan text alert about a road closure or appointment reminder.
It all boils down to common sense... all the argument for-and-against SMS for business doesn't really matter. Abuse it and lose - embrace it and use in a mature way then everyone wins. It's pretty obvious
Last edited:
Upvote
0
D
DotNetWebs
I am sure a FEW do but this is not really any different to people mentioning an offer they see by any other means such as seeing a coupon in a newspaper - i.e they have to ACTIVELY pass they message on.
Facebook has PASSIVE forwarding which is where the real viral effect happens. e.g when a user 'Likes' or 'Comments' on an offer that offer automatically appears in 'Friends' newfeeds.
The second example has far more 'reach' than the first and is far less intrusive IMO.
Regards
Dotty
Upvote
0
D
DotNetWebs
I am not sure about the "first time in human history" but in any case I can do that now with Facebook and it doesn't cost many anything!
BTW I am against SMS promotions, I think they have their place, I just think that being clearly biased you are over-evangelising just a little.
Regards
Dotty
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #47
If you are passionate about something then what's the harm in being a little evangelical? A business run without passion or belief won't do very well will it?
Facebook can not reach all your opt in customers - not all of them use Facebook, yet all will likely carry a phone. If you can think of any other type of communication that can instantly (within 5 seconds) be delivered to a group of people who have chosen to receive it, with an open rate of 100% usually within the first 60 seconds of reception I would love to know about it..?
Personally I believe Facebook "likes" to be far more intrusive than having a trusted friend forward a text message to me - it means everyone on your feed sees your own personal "like" whether of interest to you or not. How can that not be intrusive? (although I appreciate it is a free service so I am not complaining whatsoever). These are the most recent "likes" on my feed... and doesn't include all the "shares".... none of which I wanted to see..:
Facebook can not reach all your opt in customers - not all of them use Facebook, yet all will likely carry a phone. If you can think of any other type of communication that can instantly (within 5 seconds) be delivered to a group of people who have chosen to receive it, with an open rate of 100% usually within the first 60 seconds of reception I would love to know about it..?
Personally I believe Facebook "likes" to be far more intrusive than having a trusted friend forward a text message to me - it means everyone on your feed sees your own personal "like" whether of interest to you or not. How can that not be intrusive? (although I appreciate it is a free service so I am not complaining whatsoever). These are the most recent "likes" on my feed... and doesn't include all the "shares".... none of which I wanted to see..:
Upvote
0
E
Esk247
I'm struggling with how Facebook is more intrusive than getting a text message forwarded to me? I don't understand :|
I've never ever had someone send me an advertising message by sms before. They've sent me spam messages such as 'pass this to 10 friends to get a free XBox'
We have thousands of Facebook followers, non of them would ever want to be bombarded by text messages telling them that we have a discount on today
Of course SMS has a near 100% open rate, people assume they've got a message from a friend or family, when they open it and see an advert for dog treats they'll get really annoyed.
I just don't get how, even if people have opted in, they'd want to receive advertising all day and all night on their phone. That's another problem, SMS gets delayed sometimes and you can end up messaging people at 3am by mistake.
Too much risk, damage to business image, get labelled as a spammer. Your phone number is personal, I honestly cannot see how anyone would genuinely sign up to have constant advertising all day...unless they have no friends.
Upvote
0
D
DotNetWebs
You said:
All I am saying is that I can post a Facebook message that will be seen by over 100 people in seconds and it won't cost me anything - agreed they will be a subset of my Page's members but it won't cost me anything and has the 'viral' advantages over SMS I previously described.
Regards
Dotty
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #50
No one us talking about receiving hundreds of messages each day... Just say 4 a MONTH from businesses, local services, charities and community groups that they have chosen to receive them from.
So, there is a 20% off promotion at Boots for Pampers and you would forward to your NCT friends. They would almost certainly be interested and both Boots and Pampers experience viral marketing. I couldn't do this on Facebook and many of my NCT friends are not even using it, yet I have all their mobile numbers!
So, there is a 20% off promotion at Boots for Pampers and you would forward to your NCT friends. They would almost certainly be interested and both Boots and Pampers experience viral marketing. I couldn't do this on Facebook and many of my NCT friends are not even using it, yet I have all their mobile numbers!
Upvote
0
E
Esk247
...and you can respond to your own posts and any comments. We can see who's shared our products/promotions with their friends, our reach (which is in the thousands) and if anyone asks a question, we respond, everyone sees we respond quickly yadda yadda. Cost? Zero.
An SMS just seems really...old. I don't even use SMS to talk to friends now, its all messenger services.
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote
0
E
Esk247
To be honest OP i think your services are ideally suited to B2B and Delivery Updates for our customers. We wouldn't mind paying 3p a text for that because its a quantifiable cost per sale of 3p.
I wouldn't pay £3 just to send a message to 100 people, i can reach 1000 for free on twitter, facebook, email, and we don't receive any spam complaints from those platforms.
I wouldn't pay £3 just to send a message to 100 people, i can reach 1000 for free on twitter, facebook, email, and we don't receive any spam complaints from those platforms.
Upvote
0
Hello,
We collect mobile numbers and email addresses via registration slips for our classes.
We wouldn't use text messages for random advertising but we do use it to inform customers that an item they have ordered is now in stock in our shop.
We would also use it to reach specific people with news that directly affects them eg the time change or cancellation of a class.
We use facebook for general announcements -as well as our website.
regards
Hunnie
We collect mobile numbers and email addresses via registration slips for our classes.
We wouldn't use text messages for random advertising but we do use it to inform customers that an item they have ordered is now in stock in our shop.
We would also use it to reach specific people with news that directly affects them eg the time change or cancellation of a class.
We use facebook for general announcements -as well as our website.
regards
Hunnie
Upvote
0
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #55
You don't get spam complaints if the recipient has chosen to receive the messages - and as long as the message has a valid opt-out path (text STOP to xxxx) then the customer can easily leave your text service at any time.
I totally understand that Facebook and Twitter are free (and both awesome too!), but businesses shouldn't always assume that because they use these platforms that ALL their customers also use them - they don't. I am 28, I dip into Facebook every few days and would often miss communications even from businesses that I want to hear from. I would say that less than half of my local friends use Facebook each & every day and I only know 2 people who use Twitter at all and they follow > 300 people and certainly don't see all tweets that pass through their feed.
I would never suggest that you should use one medium instead of an other - but intelligently use all of them. Facebook for the general daily news and offers with an aim for viral marketing, SMS for critical time limited offers & alerts to your most die-hard customers/members that need to be delivered instantly, and Twitter/Email email if you just hope that someone may read it - but most likely won't, or will file for later and forget it ;-)
I totally understand that Facebook and Twitter are free (and both awesome too!), but businesses shouldn't always assume that because they use these platforms that ALL their customers also use them - they don't. I am 28, I dip into Facebook every few days and would often miss communications even from businesses that I want to hear from. I would say that less than half of my local friends use Facebook each & every day and I only know 2 people who use Twitter at all and they follow > 300 people and certainly don't see all tweets that pass through their feed.
I would never suggest that you should use one medium instead of an other - but intelligently use all of them. Facebook for the general daily news and offers with an aim for viral marketing, SMS for critical time limited offers & alerts to your most die-hard customers/members that need to be delivered instantly, and Twitter/Email email if you just hope that someone may read it - but most likely won't, or will file for later and forget it ;-)
Last edited:
Upvote
0
This is an interesting PR concept and depends on your line of business
Xtra-vision sends me regularly text messages with the latest dvd's to rent. They send these on a Friday, which makes sense as this is the most popular day to rent. I've rented several dvds because of these texts have 'reminded' me of some dvd releases
I feel that companies like amazon, play, b&q are better emailing on as they couldnt really entice me to buy with limited characters.
Xtra-vision sends me regularly text messages with the latest dvd's to rent. They send these on a Friday, which makes sense as this is the most popular day to rent. I've rented several dvds because of these texts have 'reminded' me of some dvd releases
I feel that companies like amazon, play, b&q are better emailing on as they couldnt really entice me to buy with limited characters.
Last edited:
Upvote
0
I am intrigued as to why a blatant advertising thread is still going after 6 pages.
But, for the record, Our customers do not want it, do not trust it and already have far too many spam text messages (and most will refuse to reply with STOP for fear of that costing them)
Our surveys tell us that the marketing they want, and appreciate is occasional emails and then face to face. THey don't want, and we don't need, any more
But, for the record, Our customers do not want it, do not trust it and already have far too many spam text messages (and most will refuse to reply with STOP for fear of that costing them)
Our surveys tell us that the marketing they want, and appreciate is occasional emails and then face to face. THey don't want, and we don't need, any more
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #59
Really... so in a business forum we are not allowed to gauge opinion of other business professionals? Why is it advertising, at no point have we claimed that you should consider our services in preference to any of our competitors?
We have learned for 8 years of experience that once businesses start using SMS text they get fantastic results because - with permission - you can engage intimately with your staff, customers and members.
However, we also find that there is a (in our opinion) significant disproportionate negative reaction to SMS text communication by some business owners. This was proven in this thread. The original post went to some length to stress that we are talking about SMS text communications that have been requested by the end user, opt-in, permission - yet right away people start mentioning spam, intrusive, annoying. This information is very interesting, and shows that as an industry we have an uphill struggle against this perception which has been caused by fraudsters who have been spamming PPI and Accident Claim texts for the past few years without consent with little repercussions.
We have learned for 8 years of experience that once businesses start using SMS text they get fantastic results because - with permission - you can engage intimately with your staff, customers and members.
However, we also find that there is a (in our opinion) significant disproportionate negative reaction to SMS text communication by some business owners. This was proven in this thread. The original post went to some length to stress that we are talking about SMS text communications that have been requested by the end user, opt-in, permission - yet right away people start mentioning spam, intrusive, annoying. This information is very interesting, and shows that as an industry we have an uphill struggle against this perception which has been caused by fraudsters who have been spamming PPI and Accident Claim texts for the past few years without consent with little repercussions.
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #60
Of course I have a vested interest - look at my username and join date!
I came to UKBF to learn from you guys, and of course to share any knowledge learned along the way. From bedroom startup with no absolutely no business experience at all to what is now a £10m turnover organisation with 30 staff and 100,000+ customers. In the early days your support and advice got me through many painful/lonely/anguished times - which most of you will have experienced yourselves. Thank you.
The founding principle of our business was/is to introduce low cost opt-in mobile messaging to the SME market - and I assure you that blanket spamming intrusive messages does as much damage to us, our business and core values as it causes annoyance to you! It is deeply frustrating and holding back growth of an industry that rightfully should be embraced by all businesses - for response rates, intimacy, cost (why pay 60p to send an MOT reminder or NHS appointment reminder when you can send a 3p text linking to online content (webpages, videos, images, Facebook!??), easy of use and most importantly reach of every phone on the planet in 4 seconds.
Further growth of my own business is being hampered by the (justified because of the SIM spammers) negative perception that all SMS text is spam - with no consideration whatsoever that in certain sectors and demographics people do opt in readily - in *very* high numbers, achieving phenomenal response rates.
UKBF is a key way for me to reach out and try and learn from other business owners. This isn't about self promotion, it is about learning - I see no harm in that whatsoever.
I came to UKBF to learn from you guys, and of course to share any knowledge learned along the way. From bedroom startup with no absolutely no business experience at all to what is now a £10m turnover organisation with 30 staff and 100,000+ customers. In the early days your support and advice got me through many painful/lonely/anguished times - which most of you will have experienced yourselves. Thank you.
The founding principle of our business was/is to introduce low cost opt-in mobile messaging to the SME market - and I assure you that blanket spamming intrusive messages does as much damage to us, our business and core values as it causes annoyance to you! It is deeply frustrating and holding back growth of an industry that rightfully should be embraced by all businesses - for response rates, intimacy, cost (why pay 60p to send an MOT reminder or NHS appointment reminder when you can send a 3p text linking to online content (webpages, videos, images, Facebook!??), easy of use and most importantly reach of every phone on the planet in 4 seconds.
Further growth of my own business is being hampered by the (justified because of the SIM spammers) negative perception that all SMS text is spam - with no consideration whatsoever that in certain sectors and demographics people do opt in readily - in *very* high numbers, achieving phenomenal response rates.
UKBF is a key way for me to reach out and try and learn from other business owners. This isn't about self promotion, it is about learning - I see no harm in that whatsoever.
Last edited:
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #62
Sorry, you want a personal "thanks"... In addition to the "thanks" that we're offered to the whole community? You claimed I had a vested interest, I agreed. So, thanks for claiming I
had a vested interest, but acknowledging that the thread is (now was) interesting. Very much appreciated.
had a vested interest, but acknowledging that the thread is (now was) interesting. Very much appreciated.
Upvote
0
E
Esk247
I think its a thread that has thrown up some interesting questions and answers. At least it hasn't descended in to name calling and sillyness
Personally I think SMS is perfectly valid for B2B communications, we may be using an SMS service next year for the wholesale company that's being set up.
I just don't see it as a B2C advertising platform. I think its too restrictive, at least for our company messages, we need images or video content and get that through social media and email, SMS for B2C would be an expense with little value for us IMO.
Personally I think SMS is perfectly valid for B2B communications, we may be using an SMS service next year for the wholesale company that's being set up.
I just don't see it as a B2C advertising platform. I think its too restrictive, at least for our company messages, we need images or video content and get that through social media and email, SMS for B2C would be an expense with little value for us IMO.
Upvote
0
- Original Poster
- #66
Hi Ben,
Beer mats - a great idea!
No problem, what are you looking for - a keyword on a shortcode (e.g text BEN + anything to xxxxx) or a dedicated long number (text anything to 07xxxxxxxxx)?
All messages will arrive in your online inbox, and you can forward free of charge to email and/or your website. You can also autorespond back to the sender with a message linking to any online media (website, video, facebook, blog, PDF.. up to you!).
If you sign up for a free account (see sig) and email [email protected] with your choice of inbound service I will bolt it on for you free of charge
Thanks & Happy New Year!
Beer mats - a great idea!
No problem, what are you looking for - a keyword on a shortcode (e.g text BEN + anything to xxxxx) or a dedicated long number (text anything to 07xxxxxxxxx)?
All messages will arrive in your online inbox, and you can forward free of charge to email and/or your website. You can also autorespond back to the sender with a message linking to any online media (website, video, facebook, blog, PDF.. up to you!).
If you sign up for a free account (see sig) and email [email protected] with your choice of inbound service I will bolt it on for you free of charge
Thanks & Happy New Year!
Last edited:
Upvote
0
I've just signed up with Alistair for the txt marketing,
My plan is to use it mainly for incoming enquiries, I am doing a beer mat campaign and a trailer advertising, I am hoping customers will find it quick and easy to make a JUNK collection.
I will let you all know how it goes in the new year once I've got things printed....
I am already very impressed with the speed of the set up and the friendly service with Alistair.
But obv the main thing is if it brings in money!!!
I am looking forward to using the service.
Thanks
Ben
My plan is to use it mainly for incoming enquiries, I am doing a beer mat campaign and a trailer advertising, I am hoping customers will find it quick and easy to make a JUNK collection.
I will let you all know how it goes in the new year once I've got things printed....
I am already very impressed with the speed of the set up and the friendly service with Alistair.
But obv the main thing is if it brings in money!!!
I am looking forward to using the service.
Thanks
Ben
Upvote
0
Latest Articles
-
What I Wish I'd Known Before Using AI in My BusinessSomewhere between the headlines promising AI will transform everything...- Ozzy
- Updated:
-
Is AI Making the Internet Worse?It started with a comment about music. @JEREMY HAWKE , a courier...
- Ozzy
- Updated:
-
The AI Divide: What UKBF Members Really Think in 2026Every few months on UK Business Forums, a thread appears that refuses...
- Ozzy
- Updated:
-
When the Algorithm Gets It Wrong: What eBay's AI Moderation Problem Tells Us About Platform RiskA thread appeared on UKBF this week that, on the surface, looks like a...
- Ozzy
- Updated:
-
Should you crowdfund? A framework for UK founders in 2026Three articles into a series on what crowdfunding actually costs, the...
- Ozzy
- Updated:
