When business becomes personal, timing is everything

NEW YORK, April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Kalin Kassabov, CEO of mobile marketing company ProTexting.com, said, "Today's media and mode of communication is fragmented. Text messaging provides businesses with an excellent, cost effective solution to reach their audience. And along with this solution comes tremendous responsibility. Businesses have to be strategic about using mobile marketing as a way to reach their customer.  Bottom Line: does your customer want to hear from you in such a personal way?" 

More and more businesses are discovering that when the traditional modes of marketing and social media arteries are clogged, it is text messaging that is breaking through the bottleneck and instantly reaching customers.  (Pew Internet: Americans and Text Messaging) Right now, according to CTIA, the wireless industry trade group, the open rates for Text Messages are at 97%, as compared to 5-20% open rates for email.But if everyone starts sending mass text messages, will texting become as cluttered with spam as email?

Times have changed and email is no longer the fastest, smartest or best way to reach anyone.  We are bombarded with so much email and most of it is spam. Even the best filters don't catch everything. When you need to reach someone right away, there is a growing trend to use text messaging as a business tool.

One company that has implemented best practices in mobile marketing is Cavender's Boot City and Cavender's Western Outfitters. Cavender's was aware of just how personal it is to send someone a text message.  So a lot of thought was put into making their text messages as relevant as possible.  Text messages are only sent when it is particularly important to that customer, and usually only one or two messages are sent in a month.  Cavender's is even careful about what time of day it is when they send messages.

Brent Allison, a spokesperson for Cavender's, said, "We're interested in building relationships and not just 'selling.'  We would rather have 5000 fully engaged subscribers than 50,000 coupon seekers. "

One of the ways Cavender's is able to measure customer engagement is that they have a very low opt-out rate.  Cavender's group text message might be about a special celebrity event at a nearby store or free tickets being given away for a concert.  Whatever the text message is about, Cavender's wants the customer to feel an increased sense of trust and loyalty.

Kassabov added, "By giving your mobile number, you are allowing a business to contact you in a very personal way.  Timing is everything. The business should only share exciting news that is compelling and relevant. We know that if the business starts sending stuff to customers that's unwanted, the trust will be broken.  And we all know when the trust is broken, the relationship is over."

About ProTexting.com
Based in New York City, and founded by CEO Kalin Kassabov and CTO Petar Kassov, ProTexting offers a comprehensive suite of interactive mobile marketing tools designed to make it easy to create, deliver and monitor all types of mobile engagement campaigns. Beyond the ability to send text messages to groups, users can deliver: mobile coupons, mobile surveys and voting, mobile sweepstakes, mobile virtual business cards, QR codes and more.  Many market segments and brands are already benefitting from ProTexting's user-friendly and secure environment.  Go to http://www.protexting.com or Facebook facebook.com/protexting or Twitter @protexting.

SOURCE ProTexting.com