Send Text Messages To Your Customers

Transcription

1 Send Text Messages To Your Customers A free guide from

2 What makes texting so powerful? Marketing by text message is the most direct, low-cost way for you to get in touch with all of your customers, staff or members. You can use Message Hero to send special offers, news, urgent notices, time-sensitive alerts, links, reminders and lots more straight to your customers phones. Traditional advertising channels like print, radio and TV are expensive and untargeted. With Message Hero, you can reach the people you want instantly and inexpensively. Why is text marketing better than traditional advertising methods? Your customers agree to opt-in to your communications, so you are only sending messages to people who have expressed interest in your offers. 98% of text messages are opened, compared with just 20% of s. Even better, 90% are opened within 3 minutes. Mobile phone ownership is close to 100%. This means it s very likely you ll be able to get your message to the right people. 2

3 How much does it cost to send a text? Message Hero is great value, with each text message costing only 3.3p in the UK. There are no other fees for setup or monthly charges - you can just pay as you go. We offer 4 message bundles - you can buy whichever one suits your needs. If you need to send at higher volumes, please MESSAGE BUNDLES 1,000 messages 3,000 messages 10,000 messages 20,000 messages inc. vat inc. vat inc. vat inc. vat 3

4 Start your free trial The best way to see how Message Hero works is to send some test messages to your own phone. Don t worry - every Message Hero account comes pre-loaded with 20 free texts so you can try before you buy. Signup takes just a minute. Sue s Salon MESSAGE HERO! Your balance is TOP UP MENU Compose Drafts Compose Draft Autosaved Sent From Sue s Salon Scheduled Inbox To x Type... 1 contact/s Groups Reports Message This is a test message chars left Message Summary Message Details 1 message/s Opt-ins & Opt-Outs Is this a marketing message? Click here to add opt-out information Keywords SEND MESSAGE or SEND LATER Contacts How to send your first text message 1. First, choose a From label. This can be 11 characters or less, and should describe your business e.g. SuesSalon. When your customers receive your text, it will be from this name. You should never use the name of another business or individual. 2. Next, type your mobile phone number in the To field. 3. Now, type your test message in the Message field. Why not try including a call to action like a phone number or a link? 4. If you re using Message Hero for marketing, click the Add Opt-Out link to see how it will look. 5. Lastly, click Send Message to send immediately, or try clicking Send Later to test a scheduled message. Messages can be sent at any future time and repeated at daily, weekly, monthly or annual intervals. 4

5 Upload your contact list Now that you ve sent yourself a few test messages, you can upload your customer contact lists to your account. You can upload each customers Mobile Number, First Name, Last Name and Note about them e.g. New Customer. To ensure your contact info is uploaded correctly, please login and download our template or format your existing file to match the column names and number formats below. Mobile Number First Name Last Name Note John Ryan Customer Stephanie Smith Customer Please Note... Only the mobile number is mandatory. You must place all contacts in the first sheet of your spreadsheet. Duplicate mobile numbers will not be imported. You can use numbers that start with the international prefix e.g Your numbers will be automatically added to a group named by upload date and will also be added to All Contacts. How to upload your existing contact list 1. Click Upload Contacts on the left navigation bar. 2. Browse to find your contact list spreadsheet on your PC. It should be in.xlsx,.xls or.csv format. 3. Click Upload. If there are any errors with your information, you will be told. How to sort your contacts into groups 1. Click Groups on the left navigation bar. Click the Create New Group button. Name your group and click Save. Click the number of contacts displayed beside your group name to enter the group and add contacts to it. 5

6 Send text messages to your customers Now you just need to click Top Up, choose a message bundle and you are ready to send a text to all your customers. Joe s Café MESSAGE HERO! Your balance is TOP UP MENU Compose Drafts Compose Draft Autosaved Sent From JoesCafe Scheduled Inbox To Customers x Type... 2,100 contact/s Groups Send Message to All Contacts (2,715) Reports Message Summary Message Good Morning! Pop into Joe s Café today and get a free muffin with any regular beverage. Opt Out? Text STOP to chars left Message Details Opt-ins & Opt-Outs 1 message/s Keywords Is this a marketing message? Click here to add opt-out information Contacts SEND MESSAGE or SEND LATER How to send a group message 1. Click on Compose on the left navigation bar. Enter or choose a From label. 2. Next, type the name of your group in the To field or click the Send message to all X contacts checkbox to send to all your contacts. 3. Now, type your test message in the Message field. Remember, if you are sending marketing texts, include more than one call to action and click the Add Opt-Out link. 4. Lastly, click Send Message to send immediately, or click Send Later to schedule your message to send at a future date. Please Note...Regular texts contain up to 160 characters [Interesting fact: the symbol takes up two characters!]. Message Hero - similar to most mobile phones - has the ability to send long or multi-part texts. When you send a multi-part text, each part contains a maximum of 153 characters, and each part costs the same as a regular text i.e. 3.3p. There is a maximum of 3 parts meaning you can send up to 459 (3 x 153) characters. So, there is no problem for you to go over the 160 character limit but it will cost you more credit.will also be added to All Contacts. 6

7 Keeping data-protection compliant is easy If you are sending marketing text messages, it s always important to be aware of the rules and regulations in your country regarding who your business is allowed to contact. Message Hero automatically removes customers who have opted-out of communications from your account so they will no longer receive messages from you. You can easily opt contacts back in from the Opt Outs view at a future date if they have given you permission to resume sending your communications. Data Protection Compliance in the UK In the UK your business or organisation may not send text messages to recipients who haven t give you permission unless: 1. You have obtained their details through a sale or negotiations for a sale. 2. The messages are about similar products/services to those you offer. 3. You gave the recipients the opportunity to refuse the texts when you collected their details and, if they did not refuse, you have given them an easy way to opt out of future communications. For full details of text message marketing data compliance in the UK, please see: 7

8 Need help with anything else? We understand that every business or organisation runs differently, so you may have specific needs in your initial account set up. Please contact Message Hero by phone or and we ll be delighted to help in any way we can