Whether you like him or not, you can't deny James Bond's power to entertain. He's probably the longest-running and highest-profit character ever created.
What if we could get marketing advice from James Bond? One marketing activity that immediately comes to mind is SMS services...
SMS services use computer-based software to enable businesses and marketers to send and receive text messages en masse. SMS services have a range of uses, from large-scale SMS marketing campaigns to local businesses sending out SMS appointment reminders to clients.
SMS services make interaction between customers and organisations as easy as possible. When used in advertising, SMS services typically increase ad response by around 2-3x. Additionally, marketers and advertisers can see the exact number of responses and the time and date they came in, revealing which ads are working and which are not.
There are hundreds of SMS service suppliers around. But because there's no user's guide and as of yet, no industry 'best practice' has been developed, many organisations are missing out on the potential benefits of SMS services. So if Her Majesty's Secret Service was actually SMS Services, what could we learn from Bond?
SMS Services Tip 1: Be Charming
James Bond might be even more famous for his women than for fighting evil spies. He was charming, and his offers were undeniably interesting.
One of the prime reasons that SMS services can have mediocre performance is that the offer is just not good enough. Using SMS services means advertising will have an SMS call-to-action, something like "text CAR to 19 33 33 for a test drive." It's pretty simple. If the offer or benefit for the customer is not good enough, they will look elsewhere. So in wielding SMS services we should aim to please, just like Mr. Bond.
SMS Services Tip 2: Be Timeless
James Bond has made it through the Cold War, the Internet revolution and Facebook, and he's still relevant and powerful. I think it's because he knows when to be loud and when to retreat for a little while. It's called being understated, and it can apply to SMS services to give them more longevity.
There's a great blog post by Seth Godin called 'In defense of RSS,' about this same ability to be understated. Godin explains that RSS is effective and long-lasting because it's "quiet and fast and professional."
These words could be describing Bond, and should definitely apply to how we use SMS services. It's all very well to plunge into new technology like SMS services straight away; but we also need to consider how professional our message is. The content of text messages speaks volumes about an organisation, and mud sticks.
SMS Services Tip 3: Be Ruthless With Yourself
Today I discovered a Bond secret: the 'forgotten' Bond. He's an Australian, his name is George Lazenby, and he's probably the worst Bond ever. He just wasn't right for the role. He was too cold, too calculating, not human enough. He left after one film.
What's the message here? If what we're doing isn't right, let's change it. We're still exploring how to best communicate with SMS services.
January's ad campaign for Box Hill TAFE (Melbourne) demonstrates this. Box Hill used SMS services in their advertising, to encourage interest in their 2011 courses. Potential students could get course information by texting 'STUDY' to 19 33 33. But surprisingly, the SMS service didn't get a high audience response. This is because the ads were broadcast on shopping centre tele-screens, which just wasn't right for Box Hill Institute's audience.
However, when the medium was changed to TV ads, ad response brought from SMS services was 15 times higher. When using SMS services the choice of platform, audience, offer and call-to-action is crucial. Just like George Lazenby as Bond; if an SMS service isn't right the first time, it should be changed.
SMS Services Tip 4: Take it Shaken, Not Stirred.
SMS services are a new solution to the old problem of how to increase and effectively measure ad response. In this way, their innovation operates like Bond's martini: shaken, not stirred. SMS services bring the element of new ideas to traditional advertising.
To begin with, an audience may not be receptive (much like Bond's bartenders over the years). But Bond's martini is now popular, which shows that some traditions should be broken. SMS services gladly break the advertising tradition of not knowing how many people an ad is reaching; and also the tradition of getting average ad response levels.
It's pretty simple, really. For SMS service success we need to be charming, timeless, ruthless and strong enough to break away from tradition. It helps to be Sean Connery too, but I guess we can't have everything.
What if we could get marketing advice from James Bond? One marketing activity that immediately comes to mind is SMS services...
SMS services use computer-based software to enable businesses and marketers to send and receive text messages en masse. SMS services have a range of uses, from large-scale SMS marketing campaigns to local businesses sending out SMS appointment reminders to clients.
SMS services make interaction between customers and organisations as easy as possible. When used in advertising, SMS services typically increase ad response by around 2-3x. Additionally, marketers and advertisers can see the exact number of responses and the time and date they came in, revealing which ads are working and which are not.
There are hundreds of SMS service suppliers around. But because there's no user's guide and as of yet, no industry 'best practice' has been developed, many organisations are missing out on the potential benefits of SMS services. So if Her Majesty's Secret Service was actually SMS Services, what could we learn from Bond?
SMS Services Tip 1: Be Charming
James Bond might be even more famous for his women than for fighting evil spies. He was charming, and his offers were undeniably interesting.
One of the prime reasons that SMS services can have mediocre performance is that the offer is just not good enough. Using SMS services means advertising will have an SMS call-to-action, something like "text CAR to 19 33 33 for a test drive." It's pretty simple. If the offer or benefit for the customer is not good enough, they will look elsewhere. So in wielding SMS services we should aim to please, just like Mr. Bond.
SMS Services Tip 2: Be Timeless
James Bond has made it through the Cold War, the Internet revolution and Facebook, and he's still relevant and powerful. I think it's because he knows when to be loud and when to retreat for a little while. It's called being understated, and it can apply to SMS services to give them more longevity.
There's a great blog post by Seth Godin called 'In defense of RSS,' about this same ability to be understated. Godin explains that RSS is effective and long-lasting because it's "quiet and fast and professional."
These words could be describing Bond, and should definitely apply to how we use SMS services. It's all very well to plunge into new technology like SMS services straight away; but we also need to consider how professional our message is. The content of text messages speaks volumes about an organisation, and mud sticks.
SMS Services Tip 3: Be Ruthless With Yourself
Today I discovered a Bond secret: the 'forgotten' Bond. He's an Australian, his name is George Lazenby, and he's probably the worst Bond ever. He just wasn't right for the role. He was too cold, too calculating, not human enough. He left after one film.
What's the message here? If what we're doing isn't right, let's change it. We're still exploring how to best communicate with SMS services.
January's ad campaign for Box Hill TAFE (Melbourne) demonstrates this. Box Hill used SMS services in their advertising, to encourage interest in their 2011 courses. Potential students could get course information by texting 'STUDY' to 19 33 33. But surprisingly, the SMS service didn't get a high audience response. This is because the ads were broadcast on shopping centre tele-screens, which just wasn't right for Box Hill Institute's audience.
However, when the medium was changed to TV ads, ad response brought from SMS services was 15 times higher. When using SMS services the choice of platform, audience, offer and call-to-action is crucial. Just like George Lazenby as Bond; if an SMS service isn't right the first time, it should be changed.
SMS Services Tip 4: Take it Shaken, Not Stirred.
SMS services are a new solution to the old problem of how to increase and effectively measure ad response. In this way, their innovation operates like Bond's martini: shaken, not stirred. SMS services bring the element of new ideas to traditional advertising.
To begin with, an audience may not be receptive (much like Bond's bartenders over the years). But Bond's martini is now popular, which shows that some traditions should be broken. SMS services gladly break the advertising tradition of not knowing how many people an ad is reaching; and also the tradition of getting average ad response levels.
It's pretty simple, really. For SMS service success we need to be charming, timeless, ruthless and strong enough to break away from tradition. It helps to be Sean Connery too, but I guess we can't have everything.
About the Author:
This article was written by Andrew Campbell, the Country Manager of TXT2GET Australia. TXT2GET are the SMS service providers of Aus, NZ and the US. Read a brief explanation of TXT2GET's SMS services, or visit the website to find out how SMS services can earn you passive income as an SMS marketing agent.
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