Tag: promotional sms

7 Compelling Reasons Why You Need CPaaS

Besides sales, companies continuously strive to deliver the best experiences to their customers. A crucial part of this exercise is maintaining unbroken internal and external communication, but how often do we convey our strategic vision each time we deliver something? Are we sending out the right messages through every point of contact and execution?

We may have the best processes at work, but without contextual communication the scope of customer engagement is limited. This why we need CPaaS.

What is CPaaS?

By definition, Communication Platform as a Service or CPaaS is a cloud-based delivery model that allows organizations to add real-time capabilities such as voice, video, APIs, etc. Following are the ten reasons as to why businesses need CPaaS.

  • Contextual Communication: In a highly competitive digital universe, customers are using various channels of communication, and these channels are no longer exclusive. Switching to a different channel right after the transaction creates a loss of context for the customer. Whereas, a unified interface sustains the engagement with your brand.
  • Secure Communication Channel: Every business needs to have a communication channel that is compatible with their processes and infrastructure. CPaaS enables a smooth flow of information inside and outside the Organization.
  • Embedded Communications: CPaaS optimizes workflows and business processes by integrating capabilities such as video and voice through APIs.
  • Cost-effective: The CPaaS market is flooded with high demand because it supports scalable communication features without relying on high-cost infrastructure.
  • Real-time Capabilities: With the emergence of data analytics, users can boost their workflow with user engagement metrics.
  • Leeway for Small Businesses: Smaller organizations are at par in the race to provide the best communication experience to their users, owing to the increasing affordability of CPaaS portals.
  • Cross-functional Property: Considering that Big Data and AI have become critical components of communication. They support numerous app and upgrades making CPaaS smarter. Automated self-service provide more leverage giving CPaaS the potential to work across sectors.

In conclusion, CPaaS is a must-have in today’s highly competitive environment.

How to Set Up Your First Marketing Campaign with Konnect

A manufacturing firm, Starlight has begun its new CSR project that seeks to sponsor the construction of dams in a nearby district. Heavy rainfalls strike the region every year, and people are in dire need of reservoirs to hold the floods and sustain agriculture.

While the company decides to contribute 5 per cent of its profits, calculations reveal that the amount would never suffice. The obvious solution is a donation drive. They begin making calls to existing customers on the database.

After a few weeks, the team realizes that people hardly show any enthusiasm during these calls. The conversations seem to make people uncomfortable, and many of them have stopped responding.

If things continue at the same pace, Starlight will never meet its target. The team decides to take a break from cold calls and brainstorm.

A few meetings and open discussions bring forth the conclusion that a strategized SMS campaign could be their hope.

What is SMS Marketing?

The Company chooses to adopt the timely tactic of SMS marketing for their donation drive instead of making cold colds.

To have a more systemized approach, they also look for an efficient SMS campaign provider for regular delivery and response. Thus, begins their first marketing campaign with Kirusa’s CPaaS portal, a versatile platform which also offers a complete set of SMS marketing services.

 Initiating the Campaign

 

Bulk SMS

After successful account activation and getting a sender mask on Konnect, Starlight uploads a list of all those to whom messages are to be sent. They also select the DND or don-not-disturb filter to avoid sending SMS to people who have unsubscribed.

The Company uploads its content or message on the platform and schedules a preferred shoot-off time. It also gets a complete metric to keep track of deliveries and response rates.

The Konnect CPaaS portal also offers tools to evaluate the ROI of the bulk SMS messaging campaign. Kirusa Konnect’s CPaaS portal provides a reliable platform for bulk SMS messaging, enabling marketers to send bulk SMS messages with just a few clicks. Konnect provides a classic SMS outreach campaign, using which promotional, informational and transactional messages can be easily communicated

Inbound SMS

Starlight makes the most of its campaign by advertising the message across social media and other forums as well.  They display the SMS codes in case people want to reach out to them for further information. Later, the audience is to receive a customized message as a response to the inbound SMS.

Kirusa Konnect’s inbound SMS solution can be availed to create a dedicated SMS communication channel for its users. One has to simply SMS a predefined message to a short code to connect. It has multiple applications ranging from lead generation campaigns to voting contests and information on-demand services.

SMS Tagging

Transactional SMS tend to have a higher click-through rate (CTR) compared to promotional SMS because they contain personalized information about the client’s account and transactions. What if there was a solution enterprise could use to leverage higher impression and mindshare of transactional SMS and use them for promotional messaging?

Similarly, the company inserts its message and codes within transaction SMS or billing details to its customers.

In conclusion, the company starts getting impressive leads in a couple of months. Apart from SMS marketing, the team also utilizes other communication platforms for an omnichannel experience. Several people find resonance with the cause and start contributing to the fund.

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SnapCall | Missed Call Marketing for Voting and Elections | Missed Call Marketing for Lead Generation | Missed Call Marketing

 

The Konnect Guide to SMS Marketing for Restaurants

 

Aimen has a cosy little diner that serves the best meatloaf. Weekends are usually packed with long queues in waiting; weekdays are not. She wonders why and decides to do something about it. Her meatloaves deserve better than weekend queues and a weekday dud.

This is when she overhears a customer reading out an SMS to her friend. The SMS says something about a 15 per cent discount on pizza rolls every Monday at a restaurant. Aimen knows the place because it is only a couple of blocks away. The girl reading out the SMS looks elated and suggests they visit the restaurant next Monday.

“Now, why haven’t I thought of it earlier?” thinks Aimen. She decides to look up SMS marketing ideas on the internet and perhaps some SMS marketing tools that could help with the implementation.

Implementing a Successful SMS Marketing Campaign

Aimen decides to promote her meatloaves. Most people stop by her place because no other diner serves meatloaves as succulent as her’s. It is time to capitalize on what she does best.

Aimen signs up with Kirusa’s Konnect portal and gains access to its SMS marketing platform. She buys a shortcode 660758 and reserves a keyword ‘LOAVES.’ After the configuration, Aimen creates a text for customers in her database.

Outbound Messaging

She begins with Konnect’s bulk SMS service and sends out promotional messages to all those who regularly visit the diner. The SMS contains a coupon code, which allows customers to avail a 25 per cent discount on meatloaves between 3pm-6pm every weekday.

With the help of SMS tagging, Aimen also inserts the coupon codes within billing details that she sends to people after every delivery.

So far, she has targeted every customer on the database and word gets around quickly. The diner is located on a popular street, and nobody wants to resist the attractive discount on meatloaves.

Inbound Messaging

She also puts up an advertisement outside the diner containing the shortcode for free deliveries. Sure enough, people start catching up, and within a few hours, Aimen starts receiving orders.

In fact, more people start visiting the diner on weekday afternoons for a taste of Aimen’s new item on the menu, the weekday meatloaf pizza special.

So we see that SMS marketing is crucial for small businesses, especially restaurants. It works wonders for the brand, particularly if you want to keep customers in the loop about discounts and coupons. The little perks and loyalty points will always keep them coming.

The analytical tools over platforms like Kirusa Konnect also enable international SMS marketing for overseas customers. A lot of restaurants and food chains are located across different countries and location is extremely crucial. Customers need to know where they are going to redeem offers.

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Why Use Konnect’s SMS Marketing Service

In 2008, an unassuming 47-year-old stunned the audience with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables. Susan Boyle became an overnight sensation in the first round of ‘Britain’s Got Talent.’

Following this, she was one of 40 acts that were put through to the semi-finals. In the public vote, she received the highest number of votes and went through to the final.

The phone vote, which occurred after all the semi-finalists had performed, determined the first winner of the semi-final and took place via an exclusive phone line.

Does that ring a bell? Many of us have voted for our favourite performer in reality shows at some point, and we have used voting channels like SMS.

Didn’t the sheer act of voting keep us glued to the show? Did we eagerly wait for the latest episode to air? Weren’t we all increasingly engaged?

This happened because many shows nowadays deliberately adopt SMS marketing strategy to heighten their TRPs.

Leveraging an SMS Marketing Campaign

 

In the previous article, we suggested five essential tactics for an enhanced SMS marketing strategy.  Having a USP, integrating your SMS campaign, location-based promotional SMS, etc. all sound good. Hence, it is equally important to adopt an SMS marketing solution for better implementation. How about an enterprise communication suite? Especially one that offers a complete set of SMS marketing solutions.

Let’s talk about Kirusa’s enterprise communication suite called Konnect. Apart from enabling the best marketing tactics, it helps you monitor, visualize and manage campaigns over a smart analytics portal.

It has a set of unique inbound and outbound communication tools, designed to carefully leverage the ideologies of classical push and pull marketing.

Inbound SMS

The voting codes that are displayed onscreen encourage the audience to send an SMS for their favorite participant. This is called an inbound SMS. Similarly, users send SMSes to learn more or subscribe to an advertised product. Later, the audience receives a customized message from you, as a response to the inbound SMS.

Kirusa Konnect’s inbound SMS solution can be availed to create a dedicated SMS communication channel for its users. One has to simply SMS a predefined message to a short code to connect. It has multiple applications ranging from lead generation campaigns to voting contests and information on-demand services.

Bulk SMS for Cheap SMS Marketing

Bulk SMS Marketing is one of the most prolific forms of communication in the 21st century.

As a cost-effective push marketing medium, Bulk SMS marketing reaches out to maximum users over the most personal platform – the mobile phone – leaving room for personalization and emotive value.

Kirusa Konnect’s CPaaS portal offers a reliable platform for bulk SMS messaging, enabling marketers to send bulk SMS messages with just a few clicks. Konnect provides a classic SMS outreach campaign, using which promotional, informational and transactional messages can be easily communicated

SMS Tagging

Transactional SMS tend to have a higher click-through rate (CTR) compared to promotional SMS because they contain personalized information about the client’s account and transactions. What if there was a solution enterprise could use to leverage higher impression and mindshare of transactional SMS and use them for promotional messaging?

At Kirusa, we offer a service called SMS Tagging as part of our enterprise messaging suite. In essence, a solution that enables promotional SMS to piggybank on transactional SMS platform and gains audience mindshare.

Apart from that, companies can also save SMS bandwidth at an optimized cost, and there would be no need to send additional push messages. They can leverage on shorter promotional missives that blend with the existing transactional SMS.

In essence, Konnect offers multiple use value to the brand. In an era of aggressive marketing, Konnect is the best SMS marketing service for an omnichannel experience.

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The Top 5 Tactics to Engage Customers with SMS Marketing

It was a nice balmy evening and time to get off from work. Mohor decided to scroll through his phone and find something interesting to eat. He soon found himself spoilt for choice after flipping through lip-smacking images and irresistible discounts. The hoard of tabs, social media accounts, and food delivery apps did not help either.

Our boy was already giving up when a notification startled him. It was an SMS from a Pizza place 500 meters away from where he lived. The SMS offered an “after-office” discount coupon that he could avail between 5 pm-7 pm. Without further ado, Mohor dashed out of the office and placed an order when his home was 15 minutes away. By the time he got there, a piping hot mushroom cheese-burst was waiting at the doorstep.

What is SMS Marketing?

It feels like Mohor could be any of us. We may get a similar coupon code this evening, tonight or the day after. This is because the codes, promotions, discounts, and offers are elements of an organized strategy called SMS marketing. It ensures that offers arrive at the most appropriate time when we need them.

Mobile SMS marketing is a timely technique that works favourably for brands. The number of mobile subscribers is estimated to reach around 5 billion by 2019 (source: https://goo.gl/nQZT9s). No wonder SMS has open rates as high as 98 per cent compared to other forms of advertising.  (Source: https://goo.gl/mRfw3E). A promotional SMS speaks directly to the user and can be read in less than a minute.

Despite the allegation that promotional SMSes spam our inboxes, brands must never shy away from having an SMS marketing strategy. If implemented well, mobile SMS marketing can work wonders.

Let us help you make the most of your SMS marketing campaigns with the following tactics:

Keep a Clock

While hundreds of companies send endless promotional and deals via SMS, the frequency of these messages can ultimately put off the user.  A lot of promotional messages reach the user irrespective of time and context.  A lunch coupon at 9   in the morning is irrelevant to the customer, whereas the same message would get more attention if it were to reach him an hour before lunch. Remember Mohor’s story.

Don’t Forget the USP

It is wise to be different and think beforehand why the user would be interested in your deal. Is it worth their time? The offer must be exclusive, personalized and relevant to your audience (perhaps it’s time to work on your client-database). Do you think the ‘after-office’ discount would be popular with housewives? Last but not the least, avoid copying other brands as much as possible when it comes to discounts and offers. Be original.

Piggybank on Transactional SMS

Companies that regularly send billing or transaction details to customers can add shorter promotional messages to their transactional SMSes. It is an excellent opportunity to initiate a clear call-to-action with the extra codes. Just make sure that the codes, keywords or offers blend well with the transactional message and do not lose their importance. You may even look up quite a few SMS marketing services that enable this.

Do not Isolate your SMS Marketing Campaign

Remember how Mohor made a point to scroll through food delivery apps and social media accounts before noticing the SMS. That’s true for most of us. Social media trends and updates significantly influence our buying decision and promotional SMSes act like a ‘final push.’ Hence, it is a great idea to integrate WAP links into your SMS that direct people to your site or app. The next time somebody needs service, they will perhaps browse through your website first.

Location

Mentioning your location is extremely important. A lot of brands forget to mention this, resulting in a confused customer who does not know where to redeem the offer. If you have customers worldwide, it is all the more important to have a good track of locations and time zones. International SMS marketing services are an excellent way to figure this out.

In conclusion, having an SMS marketing strategy is effective if you do not consider it in silos. The social media can get overwhelming for a buyer with its unending images and options. Treat it as the sweet spot for SMS marketing. A to-the-point, short, relevant and timely SMS can score where social media lags.

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