Author: Akase Ebirigor

You don’t have to be limited to letters and numbers, even in an SMS message! Sometimes you need a photo to really make your message stand out. With Ozioma Extensible SMS you can attach images to any of your text blasts with a universally compatible shortlink.

There’s a popular saying that “seeing is believing” Sometimes just telling your customers about your products through SMS is not just enough. They will be more convinced when they see it. With Ozioma Extensible SMS you not only send more text contents but you can also send images (JPEG, GIF and PING) of your product at the same price.

Steps to Create Extensible Image 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 images and the 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 image (which should be more than 100kb either in jpeg/ gif/ ping­)
• 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 your content.

• 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 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.

Have you ever composed an SMS message for your marketing campaign and you desperately try to fit in as many information as you can into 1 SMS page (i.e 160 characters), because you don’t want to spend more money? It can be very frustrating because SMS is meant for short straight to the point messages and not long epistles. Sending longer SMS messages means, exceeding 1 SMS page thereby spending more money than you were supposed to.

There is a solution to this dilemma, which will make it possible for you to exceed 160 characters and it will still be counted as 1 SMS page! You may be wondering how that is possible. With Ozioma Extensible SMS you can achieve that and so much more.

Ozioma Extensible SMS makes it possible for you to create more contents for your marketing campaign up to 2000 characters. In SMS marketing content is key, you need to express yourself more thereby engaging your customers by using our Extensible SMS.  There are also other exciting features in our Extensible SMS that will sky rocket your SMS marketing campaign productivity.

Text Extensible SMS

The first and major aim of our Extensible SMS is helping you create more content to fit into 1 SMS page, thereby breaking the limit of the normal 160 character per SMS page which invariably means that you don’t have to spend so much money by exceeding 1 SMS page. With our Text Extensible SMS, you will be able to create contents up to 2000 character at the same price.

Steps to create Extensible Text 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 :

• The text page would be opened. Click on create now.

Step 4 :

• Type your heading and SMS contents (which has a maximum of 2000 characters). You can use the Ribbon tabs to make your content more stylish.
• Click on Enable SMS Newsletter subscription if you want to choose the newsletter contact list you want people to subscribe to. It means that people will have to subscribe to your newsletter list before they can view the content (those already on the list won’t need to subscribe 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 your content.

• 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 at the top of the page twice.

Step 5 :

• 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.

Every business need customers. No customers no business.
Build lists of active customers’ phone numbers and grow your business income exponentially with these GOLDEN easy to follow steps:

How can I do it?

1. Create a FREE Ozioma account at https://app.ozioma.net and login to your Ozioma account.
2. Create SMS Newsletter List (you can add automated follow-up messages, so that once prospects opts-in to your list they start receiving your follow-ups INSTANTLY).
3. Create a Birthday Group through Birthday Messenger and connect it to your just created SMS Newsletter list so that prospects will be automatically opted-in to the list.
4. Compose your birthday template messages for your new group that may include your OFFERS/COUPON/GIVEAWAYS. Your personalized birthday message will deliver on your customers/prospects birthdays automatically at your set time like 12:00AM or 05:00AM.
5. Copy the generated custom link or QR Code for the newly created birthday group and use it in your Facebook Ad targeting people with UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS.

Why birthdays?
It’s because all your customers are persons and every person has a birthday and every person FEELS SPECIAL on his/her birthday.
How do you feel when your bank send you a birthday message?
Loved right?
You need to register your business or brand with people through birthday SMS by being among the first to wish them well on their special days.

Why SMS and not email, instant messenger or social media?

1. SMS inbox is personal and confidential and any message that enters there is treated so.
2. SMS works offline so the celebrant (your customer/prospect) don’t have to be online to see your message.
3. The joy of birthday message is on its earliness and SMS can be scheduled to deliver at a particular time.
4. Research shows that people pick up their phones up-to 58 time in a day.
5. People open SMS 3 minutes of receipt.

You can relate with the above points with your own experiences.
Birthday SMS has limit of 160 characters per page, is charged per page and only text no image, no video or audio for other forms of expressions?
Don’t worry with Ozioma’s Extensible SMS you can do below at the cost of 1 SMS:

• Send text of up-to 2,000 characters
• Send image in .png, .gif or jpg formats
• Send 1min video in .mp4 format.
• Send 1min audio in .mp3 format.
• Engage your customers in 2way communication
• Conduct public/private votes, surveys or polls

The relationship that last is built in the inbox and the money your business need is in that inbox.
If you don’t tell people about your business or brand you will have to PAY others to do so for you.

BUSINESS IDEA
You can start a marketing agency and start implementing these marketing strategies for other businesses and get PAID massively.

The keywords here are BIRTHDAY and INBOX

https://ozioma.net

https://app.ozioma.net

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.chibex.ozioma

When it comes to asking questions to your customers you may want to ask them a lot of questions. They won’t complain of course they just won’t do your survey, and you lose out on valuable data. They have the power to just walk away, or close the browser.

Why run Customer surveys?

A customer survey is vital for any company to keep moving forward and growing. Customers are a vital part of any business model and not understanding or what and how they think and feel is not good business practice. Every customer survey has its own purpose and with it its own questions. Questions may vary from survey to survey, however there are key questions which are crucial to always ask. These questions will uncover very useful information that can help drive your business forward. The higher quality of questions you ask the better quality of answers you will get, plus keeping your survey short and sweet will ensure that you have a higher percentage of your audience giving you feedback.

Having great survey questions will not just give you better data, they also affect the company’s reputation. Your survey design and your survey questions will either enhance your brand or turn people away.

Top survey questions to ask

1) How likely is it that you would recommend our product / service to a friend or colleague? (Scale of 0-10)

This questions is based on the Net Promoter Score method and immediately gives you a snapshot into what your customers think about your brand. It measures your customer’s experience with you and your product or service. There is a lot of research relating to the fact if someone is going to promote your product or service then they are ready to get behind it. This is a great indication for your brand. Once you have this metric it is great practice to dig deeper to understand the reasoning behind your customer’s choice. Either by giving them a call or by simply asking follow up questions.

2) What is one thing we should never stop doing?

This question will open up your eyes to what your customers value most about your business. It provides great qualitative data to build on your quantitative data of website analytics, purchases etc. These answers are a great way to cross check what you feel your business is doing well compared to what your customers believe you are doing well.

3) What problem does our product /service solve for you?

Are you solving the problems for your customers that you thought you would? This question will help give more input for your marketing team to refine the marketing messages for your various activities.

4) How did you first hear about us?

You can tell a lot from your website analytics about where your customers are coming from. Finding out where they first heard about you though is something that it cannot tell you. This information can shed light on how your new customers find out about you and from which channel. Be it a recommendation, an ad, social media post or something else entirely. With this information you can see which channels are working more than others to drive your brand.

5) Tomorrow if product “x” no longer exists how would that impact you?

Where ‘x’ product is the product or service you would like to gain feedback from. This gives you a great insight into how much your customer relies on your product or service. Ideally you want to have at least 50% of your customer base who cannot do without your product. If you are not up to this level then this is a great indication for you to look at your customer experience. What are you offering that they cannot get anywhere else. What are you doing to keep them invested and coming back to you? How can you drive this forward more?

It is overwhelming for the survey respondent when faced with all these questions at once. It is always best to ask one question at a time, you will get more valid results and your customer will be more likely to complete the survey. Win-win!

Customer feedback through SMS can provide you with meaningful insight into what your customers think about specific products, services, and even your entire company. This can help you improve and keep your customers satisfied. The more feedback you get, the clearer your product and customer strategy will become.

Conduct a mobile poll to request for your customers’ feedback on current products and offerings.

You can opt to be as specific as you can and ask for their opinion on a particular product or service after their purchase. You can type in questions such as, “How happy are you with your new home appliance system? Choose from 1 to 5, with 5 being very satisfied, and 1 meaning extremely unhappy.”

Follow up with something along the lines of, “Were you assisted with the setup of your new home audio system? Yes or No? Remember to add straightforward instructions to make data processing and analysis simpler.

Launch an SMS poll that will help you gain insight on how customers perceive your company in general.

The kind of business impression you leave upon clients can say a lot about how you should run your business. Measure your customer experience and your company’s potential for growth by means of a simple survey based on a scale from 0-10 by asking one simple question (“How likely would you be to recommend our company to a friend?”) plus an optional open-ended question requesting general feedback.

Use business SMS to gather opinions on future product offerings.

Provide customers with a list of ideas for products or updates you’re thinking of launching. Your questions should be able to answer questions like, “What products do you want to see next on our online store?” It’s like doing quick market research, minus the expensive costs.

Remain professional when sending text surveys

• Maintain a strong sense of branding. Mention your business’s name in the text to remind your customer which company is requesting the feedback.
• Stay positive. Even if your customer responds with a forceful “no” to the request, respond politely or do not respond at all, depending on your manager’s preference.
• Keep your request short and sweet. Texts are a preferred means of communication due to their brevity.
•  Proofread your feedback request extensively. Check for errors in grammar, syntax, and any information you provide.

A great way to ensure text surveys remain professional is by using approved texts as templates for continuous use by team members. Create one template per survey type for easy use; for example, a business might have an “Order Delivery Survey” template, a “Support Call Survey” template etc.

Schedule or automate text surveys for consistency

The best way to ensure you are consistently collecting customer feedback is by scheduling or automating your text surveys. Many business text messaging platforms provide this capability.

While you will want to send feedback requests about customer service and support conversations immediately, you can also schedule out an NPS survey for around two weeks later. Simply choose a date within a predefined amount of time and schedule the template out, complete with customized information if possible.

In many cases, automations will work well, too, reducing the manual time you spend on such asks. Some business texting platforms allow team members to choose actions that trigger other actions. For example, once a person is added to an opt-in list, the system can automatically send a customized NPS survey in two weeks to collect feedback. If the customer completes the survey, another automation can confirm the entry and reply with a pleasant thank you message, both confirming receipt and encouraging a positive brand interaction in the process.

Endear your business to your customers by adding a little extra.

When you decide to conduct SMS surveys, it will also be a good idea to give your customers something that can benefit them. You should always expect to be met with the question, “What’s in it for me?” from your audience. Include a freebie or a bonus offer with your survey for good measure. When you do this, you also encouraging a repeat purchase. This ultimately leads to better sales numbers.

Over 92% of people in the Nigeria have mobile phones. SMS marketing is one of the best ways to reach out to them in a personal way. But for your marketing to be a real success, you need to get replies. Using a short code with keywords offers many benefits for your marketing.

1. The short code becomes identifiable with your brand. Recognition is important in marketing. When you’re competing for attention among other text messages you’ll want your customers to know the message is from you so they won’t ignore it.
2. A short code is easy to type. If you want to have people send you messages, they’ll need to reply to your message, or type in your contact number. A short code is a five digit number so it ends up being much easier for people to enter it into their mobile than a traditional 11 digit number.
3. Short means easy to remember. To maximize your mobile marketing investment, you’ll want to advertise your mobile campaigns on multiple channels. If people see printed material, or hear your short code on the radio, they can remember it well enough to respond to your call to action.
4. Short codes are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year even when the office or competitors are closed.
5.  Short codes are a great marketing tool as they get potential customers to take action immediately by send the SMS – with no restrictions such as opening hours.
6. Short codes can be used globally via mobile phone devices, to target all different markets, which in turn reduces marketing costs as the same number can be used worldwide.
7. You can accurately measure the success of a particular short code campaign immediately through the web management platform.
8. Short codes are a very effective and cheap method of marketing or communicating special promotions to your loyal customers.
9. SMS short codes is a short number to place on promotion material namely TV ads and other printed ads (magazines, transit advertising, billboards etc…).
   
   

A Sender ID is the name or number that identifies the sender of an SMS message. Sender ID is the name or number which appears on the mobile phone as the sender of an SMS (It is used to identify who’s sending the message to the recipient).

You must have noticed through sending of bulk SMS from your registered bulk SMS account that the maximum number of characters allowed for sender ID is 11 characters. Sometimes though you have sender IDs you wish to use for your messages which are more than 11 characters. Although it cannot be increased more than 11 characters, the good thing is there are ways you could optimize this.

• Use acronyms more when they are applicable: Usually, the desired sender IDs for many messages can be shortened through the use of acronyms without affecting its weight or affecting the recipient’s understanding of the name. Associations, businesses and various organizations could use this comfortably, and their names will not be lost. Even for individuals, long names can be fitted in with the use of initials and pet names.
• Limit the use of ‘space’ ‘commas’ or other punctuation marks or remove them all together characters includes in text messages are spaces, commas, full stops, exclamation marks, quotation marks and other punctuation marks. It is most advisable then to avoid them in sender IDs.
• Use Camel Case : This is the writing of compound words such that each word or abbreviation begins with a capital letter. For example, if a person’s name is Kelvin Segun, using this as a sender ID and typing it with the space as it is will be 12 characters and so the system won’t take it all, thereby removing the last letter. Whereas camel case could be used to make it all fit in as just 11 characters i.e. you have KelvinSegun.  Also do same with business names.

Sender ID Registration

Due to the increase in the volume of fraudulent text messages that some unscrupulous customers (fruadsters/419) are sending, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has mandated that all sender ID must be registered.

Also your messages will not be delivered if your sender ID has not been registered, but your units will be deducted. Therefore it is advisable to confirm if your sender ID has been registered before sending SMS messages.

The registration process takes will take a minimum of 48 hours before the submitted sender ID can be registered. Furthermore, make sure that all sender IDs to be submitted for registration are not more than 11 characters including space and/or any special character like @,&,$,! etc.  Any sender ID that is submitted twice or more or longer that 11 characters length will be ignored and not be registered. You can register as many sender ID as you like.

For Ozioma app users, kindly submit the request to register your sender ID through Ozioma app at the compose SMS page. You will also need to provide a sample message too. For more information you can contact us on 08093159330 or 07026788205. To create a free Ozioma account for your personal use or business simply click on https://app.ozioma.net

Have you ever seen a message just pop up on your phone screen without you opening your inbox? well that pop up message is called a Flash SMS.

Flash SMS also known as class 0 SMS is a type of SMS that appears directly on the main screen without user interaction and is not automatically stored in the inbox. As such, Flash SMS is a value-added-service to a standard SMS delivery. Its most commonly used to deliver sensitive information and to immediately catch a recipient’s attention.

Reasons to Use Flash SMS

• Flash SMS pulls the attention of the user. Whenever somebody gets a pop up displayed on his/her screen it catches their attention immediately.
• The chances of ignoring a flash message is very less, as it directly reaches on the full screen of the mobile and the user actively needs to close it.
• Also flash SMS can be used in case of emergencies or if you want to send confidential information such as One Time Pins (OTP) or other sensitive information that shouldn’t be seen by others.
• As it does not get stored in the inbox, it saves your phone’s memory.

Flash SMS is ideal for industries, companies, agencies, offices and organizations etc, who have to dispatch any important message which requires instant reaction. These days it is very famous for advertising purposes, marketing, promotion etc where you need to grab the attention of your reader.

It is used when information to be conveyed is urgent like OTP, PIN etc. Ideally it should be used when you want to make sure that the receiver reads the message.

SMS Blast is a bulk SMS text message that is sent to a large number of mobile phone numbers simultaneously via an automated text messaging system. Using SMS blast is a simple and cost-effective way to communicate in real time with a large number of mobile phone users.

Many organizations use a text blasting system in order to “text blast” large groups of people simultaneously. This is because a text message blast is simple to organize, inexpensive to run, and more effective at immediately reaching a large number of people than any other channel of communication.

SMS text blasting is most commonly used by the retail industry as a key part of a mobile marketing strategy. However, many different types of organization also take advantage of text blast services in order to generate engagement and build relationships within their communities.

One of the advantages that a text blasting system has over other channels of communication is that it is a permission-based activity. People have to opt in to receive text blast messages and are therefore more receptive to those messages, and more likely to engage with the sender or share the text blast messages with friends, families and colleagues.

Other Uses of a Text Blasting Service

There are many, many other uses of a text blasting service – both commercial and non-commercial. Home buyers can be kept up-to-date with new listings and price drops via an SMS blast. Parents can be sent school consent forms in a text blast, community volunteers can be coordinated with a text message blast, and voters can be encouraged to get out and vote using a text blasting service.

Access to text blast software can also be important during emergencies when data networks often get overloaded. Being able to remain in contact with employees, students, parents and personnel may be vital during security alerts, power outages or inclement weather. The text blasting service can help keep everyone safe, or advise them of last minute closures, cancellations or changes of venue.

Other uses of the text blaster interface include keeping fans up-to-date with the football score, alerting job seekers to new employment opportunities and reminding parishioners to go to church. Indeed, many faith-based organizations have been able to engage the youth of their parish, using text blast services to increase attendances at church events and ensure the future of their congregations.

Using Ozioma’s SMS Blast Service for Text Message Marketing. With our SMS blast service, your business or organization can send text messages to hundreds or tens of thousands of subscribers instantly.

Ad campaigns are an important marketing strategy for all kinds of businesses that want to increase brand awareness and profits.

An advertising campaign is a series or set of advertisement messages that revolve around a single idea, message and theme and are intended to achieve a particular goal.  Some of those goals could be,

• To create brand awareness for a new product
• To drive sales of a product or service
• To generate leads by asking people to sign up for an email list or another free offer

 Advertising campaigns utilize diverse media channels over a particular time frame and target identified audiences.

To create an advertising campaign it’s important to keep in mind the target audience and to understand how you can strike a chord with them to get them interested in your products or services.

How can Ad Campaign Help your Business

It is always better to have a well-planned strategy to promote your brand, product or services, right? Advertising campaigns do that for you. Whether you offer a product or a service, choose to promote your brand online or offline—advertising campaigns help by guiding you through the process. They also help you gauge where your business stands in the market, by comparing your advertising campaigns with your competition, thereby also helping you assess the strengths and weaknesses in your products.

An effective ad campaign creates interest, builds desire for a product or services and motivates people to act on their desires.

The process of making an advertising campaign is as follows:

1. Research: first step is to do a market research for the product to be advertised. One needs to find out the product demand, competitors, etc.
2. Know the target audience: one need to know who are going to buy the product and who should be targeted.
3. Setting the budget: the next step is to set the budget keeping in mind all the factors like media, presentations, paper works, etc which have a role in the process of advertising and the places where there is a need of funds.
4. Deciding a proper theme: the theme for the campaign has to be decided as in the colors to be used, the graphics should be similar or almost similar in all ads, the music and the voices to be used, the designing of the ads, the way the message will be delivered, the language to be used, jingles, etc.
5. Selection of media: the media or number of Medias selected should be the one which will reach the target customers.
6. Media scheduling: the scheduling has to be done accurately so that the ad will be visible or be read or be audible to the targeted customers at the right time.
7. Executing the campaign: finally the campaign has to be executed and then the feedback has to be noted.