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I know a lot of people are on this boat. You probably heard how amazing and easy sms marketing is. How you can reach out to customer via sms and increase sales. So you decided to give it a shot.

So You’re using a good bulk sms service, loaded your account with enough units to last you a year, gathered all your customers phone numbers, composed an award winning SMS text ( or so you think), and sent out an SMS blast to your customers….. and then you wait. The first week, second week…..third week! Nothing! No feedback, no increase in sales or patronage, no visits (both online and offline), you had absolutely no response at all!!

You feel discouraged and wonder where and how you got it wrong? Now you’re sitting filled with disappointment because you tried; but you failed. Why is SMS marketing working for everyone else, except for you?

To answer this question, we’ll be considering some of the things you may have done, are doing or didn’t do that makes it seem not to be working for you.

Go Straight to the Point

How do you feel when you get a text that doesn’t make any sense? It’s annoying right? Well that’s exactly how your customers feel when you send them a text that absolutely pointless and unnecessarily too long. Nobody wants to spend all day reading a text message or trying to decipher its meaning.  Your SMS campaign should be short, precise and straight to the point.

Send personalized sms

You may have forgotten this but your customers are very sensitive and should be made to feel like an important personality. Learn to personalize your texts when sending SMS blasts to your customers by including their name and probably a little compliment.

Sending Messages at the Wrong Time

Since people have a tendency to read a text message almost immediately after they receive it, it’s important not to send an SMS too early in the morning or too late at night. Sending it at the right time is crucial to the success of your sms marketing campaign.

Offers and Advertising

What type of offers was sent out during your SMS campaign? It is essential that you send out special offers to those who subscribe to your marketing campaigns. Make those offers available only to marketing subscribers, and ensure they are as personalized as possible. The better the deal the more people that will respond to the offer, and they are likely to tell all of their friends about your offerings, too!

Sending Too Many Messages

You may have made it a habit of sending your customers a message every day or even more frequent than. If you have, please stop it immediately! The fact that text messages have a 90%+ open rate is a good thing – but that also means customers will quickly become annoyed if you “spam” them with irrelevant messages. They’ll feel like you’re taking advantage of their trust – and they’re likely to block your number, or unsubscribe from your SMS messaging list.

Improper Call-to-Action

The reason many SMS campaigns fail is that they lack a call to action. Never assume that your customer will know what you want them to do with your text. You need to include a brief call to action that lets them know what you expect them to do. It can be to visit your store to redeem a coupon or a link you want them to share with their friends. Whatever it is, make sure your call to action is clear and includes a reward. The CTA is the most important part of your SMS message. Without a strong, obvious CTA, your customers won’t understand what your marketing message is trying to say, which results in an ineffective campaign.

No Mobile Website

A SMS campaign is most effective when paired with a mobile website. When your customers receive a text from you about a promotion, many of them will want to investigate further by visiting your website. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, chances are you’ll lose more than a few potential customers. Same scenario for a poorly-designed mobile site. Take the special time and attention needed to create a mobile site.

Every business owner knows that the holidays are the perfect time to express gratitude and heartfelt wishes to their customers. When you send heartwarming Christmas and New Year SMS messages, it not only boost sales but also increase customer engagement and loyalty.

• Ensure you only text customers who have given to receive text communications from your business.
• Add some Christmas melodies in your message like “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…having you as a customer makes this Christmas more special”
• Keep it short and sweet. For messages beyond the traditional SMS 160-character limit, use Ozioma Extensible SMS (this also enable you to convert your messages to links which you can share on your social media platforms. this will also help you build your contact list.) in Ozioma app to blast out supersize messages with up to 2000 characters.
• Spice up your Christmas messages by including images, 1 minute videos and 1 minute audios using Ozioma Extensible SMS.
• Segment your contact list to create targeted marketing campaigns. Personalize messages by including the recipient’s name for maximum impact.
• Consider using short codes for fast one-way mass texting.

Use Ozioma App to Send Attractive, Affordable Christmas and New Year Messages

Ready to get your Christmas and New Year messages for customers off to a running start? Look no further than Ozioma for your SMS marketing needs.

Ozioma has all the tools necessary to make your SMS campaign a huge success. We also have SMS collection templates to ease the stress of composing messages yourself. Sign up now for free and start preparing your SMS campaign for this festive season.

SMS marketing might be the answer to your holiday campaign woes. Historical data shows that consumers shop the highest during this season. However, with competition as aggressive as ever, every business will face the challenge of reaching more potential customers within a short period. Customers who are more accustomed to shopping in physical stores are now moving online for their purchases. As inboxes become more crowded, retailers need to be ready to catch the attention of newcomers and existing customers alike.

 While sending “Happy Holiday!” messages are great, smart businesses take advantage of this season to connect with customers even deeper, build loyal ties that lasts and even prompt crazy sales.

Send Out Seasonal Holiday Greetings

During the holiday season, customers should be the main focus. Sending out bulk SMS to all of your customers wishing them a happy holiday season exhibits a very personal touch that will make your customers feel appreciated and stay with you for the long run.

Send Product Discount and Promotion SMS

Customers love hearing about holiday offers and promotions. To achieve a desired market response from the public, follow the celebratory trends of the holidays which see the advertised product presented in the form of offers, specials, or alerts. Create a sense of urgency by sending out limited time offers SMS or flash sales SMS which will bring in lots of customers who are pivotal factors in increasing business revenue.

Low stock alerts

Create a sense of urgency by sending alerts whenever popular items are low on stock. If you know the types of items your customers are interested in, you can tailor these to be specific items you know they won’t want to miss. Combine a low stock alert with a discount code, and it will be an offer they can’t resist.

Links to products

Many people will plan to make a purchase on a mobile device this holiday season. Make it easier for them to shop the way they want by sending them links via text. You do the work for them, so all they have to do is click “purchase.”

Sending helpful, relevant content

Not every communication you send has to be a direct sale. Think about what problems consumers face during the holidays that are relevant to your brand. Then create and share content on your website. This helps keep your brand top of mind and builds trust with potential customers.

Last-minute SMS offer

The final days before Christmas are an opportune time to market to last-minute shoppers. Make your store the shopping destination for this market by using SMS call-to-actions such as “24-hour last-minute sale”, “last chance delivery”, “extended hours for one day only”. Create a sense of urgency and ensure your product/store is on the radar for frantic last-minute- shoppers.

Promo codes

Foster a sense of exclusivity among your opt-in text list by sending special promo codes. You can personalize your texts by addressing your customers by their name. It’s crucial to foster that relationship any way you can. Sending exclusive, personalized discount codes is the perfect way to do just that. For example

“Hi Susan! Use special code “GREAT SUSAN” to get your special discount. Its our way of saying thank you for being you!”

Send out a thank you SMS to all your customers

Tell them how grateful you are to them for buying from your business. They will emotional and want to spend more money during Christmas and New Year shopping. Example:

“Dear Customer will want to thank you for making this a memorable year. We have special offers for you this Christmas Season and New Year season. Please visit our stores soon.”

Reduced shipping cost

Customers will love to have a reduced shipping cost. Example:

“You are valuable to us. Use this number 5555 on your next purchase and get a 60% slash on the delivery cost.”

Use Christmas Melodies in your bulk SMS messages.

This entertains your customers and makes them happy. Add some Christmas theme into your SMS marketing. Show how much you love the yuletide season. Example:

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…Enjoy 20 per cent when you shop at any of our stores this Christmas season. Show this text and get a gift. Do not miss it.”

Ozioma app has an array of SMS template collections which includes Christmas and New year messages for family, friends and customers. Don’t be left out. create an Ozioma account now. Sign up here for free.

Finding ways to engage with your audience is one of the toughest problems you face as a company. The key is to truly listen to and talk to your customers – share news, tell a story, listen to them, reward and delight them, and keep them coming back for more.

1. Offer Benefits

The potential return on investment here is too attractive to let go of, making it easier for businesses to promote their products/services and even support their operations with irresistible offers that draw customers in. maximize the benefit of your SMS campaign by dedicating time to crafting effective messages. Check out an SMS example below:

“Merry Christmas!Celebrate by taking an extra 30% off on purchase of our finger-licking Sharwama. Offer last till 26^th Dec”

 2. Appreciations

Every customer wants to feel loved, let them understand they are your VIPs and they are valued. Send exclusive event reminders to your customers, along with consumer appreciation coupons on their birthdays or special occasions. Check out an SMS example below

 ”Dear Bola here is wishing you a happy anniversary. From all of us at BB Plc”

3. Remind of events, appointments, or pending purchases

Use SMS to promote events so that people get the information in a timely manner.  The immediacy of SMS makes it ideal for promoting events that are time-sensitive. You can also use SMS to remind customers of important appointments, pending purchases, or their shopping carts. This timely thoughtful gesture could be all it takes for your customer to engage further.

4. Provide tips and advice

This content marketing exercise using SMS lets you use customer information to delight them with timely advice and thoughtful tips that help you develop an emotional bond with your customer while showing them that you care, while also letting your brand’s personality shine through everything you do.

5. Use CTAs (Call-To-Action)

The goal is to keep customers engaged, CTAs helps in achieving that. It helps customers value, read and act on the texts. Here are some CTA samples;

• Click here– Sometimes you have more information for your customers and don’t have enough SMS space, in that case, a ”click here” button will provide a link to necessary details. Use Ozioma Extensible SMS to create links!
• Text-to-Win– A lot of customers would be interested in winning a prize or gift. This increases customers’ engagement, and it’s an effective way to remind customers of your business and continue promoting sales.
• Buy-Now– this is a perfect and tempting CTA Button for promoting your business. It makes it easier for customers to make a purchase.

Be careful not to create long texts, it can distract recipients, and they most likely won’t engage with your communication. Get to the point! Make it a clear and concise message.

Want to send SMS to your customers? Get started with Ozioma app by signing up here for an account. It takes a few seconds to register and begin sending your messages. start enjoying the unlimited benefits of Bulk SMS today!

SMS mobile marketing is the number one marketing channel for promoting bars, restaurant and clubs, especially in this era. The cost of SMS publicity is much lower than flyers, posters, printed newsletters, magazine or radio ads, and the ROI is extremely high in this sector.

Getting customers through the door and leaving with a smile on their face is very necessary. It is vitally important to retain customers and keep them coming back. With hundreds of bars, clubs and restaurants in every city, it is important that these places get customers returning, and a great way of doing this is using SMS.

Below are ways that bars, clubs and restaurants can use SMS to increase sales, reach and increase customer satisfaction

1. Communicate Offers and Promotions

SMS gets the job of communicating news and events most efficiently. A promotional SMS, featuring discount, news about a sale or particular offers impact the client in two ways: firstly the obvious bonus he gets by using the offer in the message and secondly the feeling of exclusiveness that the reader experiences in getting a personal message. In this case, even if you don’t sell a particular offer, it still works towards the cause of creating brand awareness. It is possible to create personalized offers to different segments of your target.

2. Targeted communication

As a food business owner, you can tailor a promotional SMS campaign to specific customers. SMS Marketing is far more refined, elaborate and friendly. Customer purchase history can be used to establish customer profiles, making it easier to reach your targeted customers through SMS Marketing.

Using Ozioma app makes it possible to reach larger and specific clients through target marketing. You can segment your clients into different age, tribe, profession group etc. Imagine owning a restaurant, bar or club close to a university and students would be matriculating or convocating soon. Now you aren’t the only bar or restaurant in the area so you have to start creating awareness via SMS marketing specifically to the students.

3. Scheduled Texts for Events and Reminders

Send quick SMS texts to let your clients know about the date and time of events. The Scheduling feature in Ozioma makes it possible to keep your customers updated with any event happening in you club, bar or restaurant. Click here to know how to schedule SMS.

4. Promote Your Menu and New Dishes

People are always on the lookout to try new dishes and restaurants. SMS is a good way to alert and update contacts about new additions to the menu or even the menu in general.

5. Give Your Customers a Voice

Everyone wants to feel important, you customers included. You can engage your customers and make them feel relevant by asking them to vote for the type of dishes/ delicacies to be prepared for the coming week, the types/ genres of songs to be played, type of games, if there should be a karaoke night etc. You can send votes using Ozioma Extensible SMS. Learn how to send votes here!

6. Delivery and Notification SMS

It makes your service more professional if you update the customer on every order made by them.

7. Feedback

It’s good for a business to know how far it has come and how well they have been able to meet its customers need over time. Ozioma Extensible SMS allows two way messaging. You can send your customer an SMS survey and receive feedback using Ozioma Extensible SMS after purchase and see what they think of the services rendered. Learn how to send surveys here!

Why Ozioma is the Best Bulk SMS Service Provider for Restaurants, Bars and Clubs?

Every restaurant owner has to integrate some kind of marketing strategy to capture the attention of the target audience and maximize its profits. Among all the available marketing tools. Use Ozioma app and build an irreproachable reputation of your brand. Your customers are most active on their cell phones, so texting is far better option than relying on the conventional marketing tools.

Upload contacts directly from your mobile using our Android app which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. With our easy and user-friendly interface, you can craft messages in the fastest way possible. Unlike other SMS providers, we generate only real time delivery reports, describing the details of every message sent. Use Ozioma app and create a buzz of your brand. Sign up now and make your restaurant, bar or club the most popular food outlet in your city.

The ultimate goal of any business is to stay relevant in the market, gather more customers/subscribers, manage effectively their employee base and generate more profit. The simple fact that hundreds of big brands choose to incorporate bulk SMS marketing into their overall strategy should be a pretty good indicator of its success. SMS campaigns are simple to create, affordable, and have response rates that are much higher than most other marketing channels.

Studies show that

• Customers prefer SMS texting to other form of mobile communication
• The open rate for SMS is less than 3 minutes while it takes about 90 minutes to respond to an email text marketing also increases brand awareness.

Hundreds of thousands of companies just like yours are already adopting text marketing, so don’t let yourself fall behind the curve. Before you dive into the world of SMS marketing, there are so many things to consider while choosing the best SMS marketing app for your business, you can get that here… so you’ll know why Ozioma is the best app to use in your SMS marketing revolution.

HOW CAN YOU BUILD YOUR CONTACT LIST

Ozioma has made it easier for you to build your contact list / Newsletter list using the following methods

1. Display your Newsletter QR CODE and or SUBCODE

You can print out you Newsletter QR code and subcode and display it at your office or website so that customers can easily scan it and opt in to your Newsletter list. Click here to know how to create a newsletter list.

• Enabling SMS Newsletter subscription when creating content on Ozioma Extensible SMS

With this you can reach a whole lot of people and grow your Newsletter list because before they can view the contents of the message they’ll have to subscribe to that newsletter list as only subscribed members can view it. To find out more about this click here.

• Posting the link generated in your Extensible SMS on some or all your social media platforms

This method can boost your contact list even more than 50% because the link can easily be shared by other people thereby going beyond your scope. Learn to include other online and offline channels to build, promote, and manage your text marketing promotions. Click here to find out how to create your link.

• Make use of the Image, Video aand Audio functions in Ozioma Extensible SMS

People want to see what you have to offer. Using plain texts is good but if you really want to catch your customer’s attention you have to literally put the image of your products in their head by using Pictures, Videos and even audios.

Let’s take 2 restaurants as an example. Restaurant “A” sends a normal SMS to potential customers, listing the type of dishes they have for sale. While Restaurant “B” sends an SMS to potential customers too but didn’t just stop at listing the dishes but also included a short video clip of the meals and even how people enjoy eating them.

Now this is not rocket science but we both know that Restaurant “B” will have an increase in their customer base which will in turn result to an increase in sales and ultimately more profit while Restaurant “A” might end up getting few or no responses at all.

• Take advantage of every event and holiday

You may think this is insignificant but its very important. People are prone to spend more, try out new products and patronize new businesses during special events and holidays. Think about what is going on in recent events that you can tie into. How can you use these events to generate more awareness for your brand, and work to bring them into your stores? So if you want more customers, be event oriented.

• Capture SMS Newsletter subscribers from your websites

You can integrate Ozioma app into your website and capture phone numbers and names from your website visitors and automatically subscribe them to a particular newsletter list for future follow ups and messages.

The way society listens to information has evolved. Despite how much technology has evolved to meet the times, audio remains a reliable way to reach a diverse audience. Interestingly enough, one of the fastest growing spaces for streaming audio and video, according to research is mobile devices.

Whether your marketing strategy has adopted video or audio content, you want to be sure to send your media using a channel that your customers will be receptive to. In other words, you should optimize your content for consumption where your customers want to be listening and watching.

As the number of smartphone users continues to rise well into the billions, mobile is certainly a hot space for audio and videos. So, to help increase your marketing reach, we want to share with you how you can use SMS to share audio and video contents about your business using Ozioma Extensible SMS.

SMS marketing has taken a whole new look, apart from sending more text content, you can now send a 1 minute audio recording (in MP3) and also a 1 minute Video (in MP4), telling your customers about your products and services at the same price. Sending audio SMS is very effective for target marketing as the audios can be sent in any language to your customers for easy understanding. Sending video SMS will make it easier for you to convince your customers about the authenticity of your business.

Steps to Create Extensible Audio and Video SMS

step 1 :

• log in to your Ozioma account at https://app.ozioma.net using your username and password.

step 2 :

• On the left of your dashboard you will see a list of options, click on Extensible SMS. (if you are using a mobile phone, click on the icon to the top left of your dashboard to see the list of options then select the Extensible SMS).

Step 3

• Click on Audios if you want to send audios or Videos if you want to send videos and then click on create now.

Step 4

• Type your heading and SMS contents if you want (which has a maximum of 2000 characters). You can use the Ribbon tabs to make your content more stylish.
• Click or drag or drop your 1minute audio (which should not be more than 10mb and it should be either in mp3 or mpeg format­) or 1minute video (which should be in mp4 format and not more than 10mb)
• Click on Enable SMS Newsletter subscription if you want to choose the newsletter contact list you want to send it to. It means that people will have to subscribe to your newsletter list before they can view the content and those already on the list won’t need to subscribe to it again.

NOTE that you’re the one to pay for the OTPs that will be sent to subscribers to verify their phone numbers. Do make sure your Ozioma account is well funded to avoid denying your audience access to

• Next you click Enable Feedback if you want to receive feedback from your recipients but if you don’t then leave it.
• Next click on create. After it has been successfully created, click the back botton twice.

Step 5:

• Click on Audio or Video. Then click on the message you just created
• Once it opens, you’ll see a link that has been created for that SMS. Click on Copy to copy the link. You can post it on any or all of your social media platforms if you want.

Step 6:

• On the left of your dashboard you will see a list of options, click on compose SMS or message box. (if you are using a mobile phone, click on the icon to the top left of your dashboard to see the list of options then select the compose SMS or message box).
• Here you will choose the registered sender name you want, select newsletter (that is if you had already grouped your contacts) if not, then just type/ paste the phone numbers but separate each with commas or on a new line.
• Compose a short preview of the extensible SMS you just created and paste the link.

Note: Don’t use the following words in your bulk SMS

congrats, congrat, congratulations, akpabio, promo, promotion, yello, won, win, police, alert, pr0mo, w1n, prom0, pr0m0, wow, promotional, yellow, sex, sexy, samsung, porn, nude, bank, liyel, vote, election, google, facebook, microsoft and prize.

Messages with these words as part of its content are considered as spam or political message and do not get delivered by the network operators. To avoid loss of units do make sure your message does not contain any of the above words.

Step 7:

• Once all that has been done, make sure you cross check everything to make sure there are no errors.

Step 8:

• Click on send now to send your message