When can you use an SMS?

Short text messages, or the popular SMS (Short Message Service), are usually not associated with serious business. If in the company you want to contact a contractor or client, you will choose a traditional phone call or e-mail, and you will talk to a colleague via internal e-mail or intranet. However, SMS messages can be really useful in an enterprise, as evidenced by, among others marketing specialists.

SMS - marketing, or how to reach recipients

Texts are not a very elegant form of correspondence, but they are undeniably a method by which you can reach a really large group of recipients at once. Many significant corporations on the market have already noticed the power of short text messages which they use to contact their customers. It is enough, for example, when setting up a loyalty card in a store of a popular clothing or cosmetics chain, and enter the mobile phone number. After some time, the customer will be informed about new collections, promotions or sales via the phone. Spam? Perhaps, perhaps sometimes annoying and cluttering up the inbox, but often - effective. In fact, the client can always turn off the notification option - but most often, after reading such an SMS, he forgets about such an idea. And the information about "-50% on all clothes" may remain in your memory.

Smaller business owners can also use SMS to contact the customer. In this case, however, it is recommended to follow certain rules. First of all, the contact between the client and a smaller company is usually more personal than with the so-called chain stores. Therefore, before the entrepreneur decides to send his offer or reminders via SMS, it is worth informing his client about it and giving him a choice - whether he wants to use such a service or not. Thanks to this, first of all - the recipient will not feel overwhelmed, but will be able to decide for himself whether the offer is so attractive to him that he wants to find out about it directly from his mobile phone. Secondly, it is worth remembering that SMS, although relatively cheap, is not free of charge - which is of particular importance at a time when the customer base is growing. Thanks to the choice of the client, the entrepreneur can count on the fact that the messages sent will reach only those who will be interested in them.

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It should be remembered that for SMS-marketing to be effective, it is worth focusing on the appropriate preparation of the sent message. First, messages are always better received that no longer appear to be "mass production" at first glance. This means that if possible, it is worth personalizing such messages, even by starting them with the recipient's name, or by directing them to a group selected for certain reasons from the entire contact base. Secondly, to get a better response, it is worth indicating the time frame of the ongoing promotion or informing about actions such as "Only today" or "Only with this SMS". Such messages not only give the customer a clear view of the situation - it is also one of the basic tricks of marketers, exploiting the tendency to want to have what is limited - even when it comes to the duration of the promotion.

In order to maintain a good image, it is worth ensuring that messages arrive at the right time. This is especially true if your business uses automated shipping tools - it's good to be in touch with customers from around 9am to 6pm. Exceeding the time limits may be negatively perceived by the recipient of such messages.

Contact with the contractor - SMS instead of a conversation

SMS-marketing is one thing, but can short text messages be used in contacts with a business partner? It turns out that sometimes yes.

Although, as already mentioned, SMS is not the most elegant form of contact, there are business situations in which it is used. Sometimes it happens that the contractor is aware of his frequent unavailability in terms of conversations or believes that the text form is more convenient. Therefore, if a business partner proposes such a solution, it can be used with a clear conscience.

It also happens that despite the lack of arrangements regarding the SMS form of information exchange, something happens that the contractor should quickly find out about. Then, if the traditional telephone contact is difficult for various reasons, you can also use the SMS. However, it is worth apologizing in the message for the fact that this form of contact is used, and at the same time stating the reasons for doing so.

Sending SMS messages to contractors is also justified when they started their contact in this form. Thus, the response to the information obtained in this way should also not be seen as breaking the rules of savoir-vivre.

The written form is always binding

Although SMS is a highly informal method of contact and - as indicated above - used in business only in specific cases, it still remains a written transmission of information. This means that, as in the case of traditional, written correspondence or e-mail, SMS also must meet certain formal requirements.

The first is, of course, spelling and punctuation. The phones currently offered on the market do not pose any problems when it comes to including Polish characters in SMS messages. However, if there is no such possibility, you should remember to formulate the message as correctly as possible. Therefore, pay attention to commas, periods and capital letters where necessary. You should also not remove spaces, which is a custom often used in private correspondence in order to reduce the number of characters. Such action in formal contacts makes the message poorly legible and not very professional.

Polite phrases are also a must in SMS savoir-vivre. A message should always start with a greeting and end with a signature. Do not forget to write capital letters like "Mr.", "Your company", etc.

In business contacts, you should also give up the popular emoticons. Although smiling or sad faces can express the mood of the sender better than words, it should be remembered that in contact with a contractor, it is not all about the mood.

Therefore, SMS messages most often associated with teenagers can be an excellent form of contact also in business. However, when deciding on such a method, it should be remembered that also it - despite the fact that it is so informal - is governed by certain rules and has rules that must be followed.