According to the great Aristotle Socrates Onassis, “The secret of a business is to know something that nobody else knows”. Good thing, many persons today have recognized the fact that entrepreneurship is the game-changer in the industry now, and are already delving into it. But there is something lots of small-scale business owners today are neglecting that could transform their business for good.
Here are 5 major ways bulk SMS can be a game-changer for your small-scale business.
Bulk SMS service can help you increase the number of customers you currently have sporadically. This is the use of bulk SMS to advertise your business. All you have to do to ensure you are not wasting the undoubtedly little resources you have is to focus on a target group. You don’t have to look far; you can start within your area. You know who and who needs your service. Make them a part of your SMS marketing campaign. Your present best customers, who are loyal to your business, could even help you get more people for your business. A brief request like “Do you know anyone that would be interested in this product/service? Could I get their contacts so I can send them a marketing message?” will do wonders for your business. If you’ve earned the trust of these persons, they would be very willing to oblige. Try this and you can thank us later.
Is there this particular product you do not have in store but has been requested quite often by your customers? Well, maybe now you have it in abundance. Bulk SMS can help you communicate this with your clients. The benefit? Now they know you have it. Nothing irks a customer more than coming to a place once, twice maybe even thrice for something and they don’t get it. Human nature has it that such ones conclude the next time that such things are not available. As such, they start looking for alternatives. Now that is bad for your business. A simple message saying “Hello dear customer. New products in stock now. Get this and that and this and that” will do. Don’t forget to thank them for their patronage though.
Let’s say you run a barber’s salon and you have to close down for 3 weeks to attend to a pressing family need in the village. One of your most consistent customer checks throughout the first week to have a haircut, maybe for him and his kid, and didn’t find you. What more? Maybe your mobile number printed on the door isn’t even reachable due to poor networks associated with many villages. He had to look for an alternative because his kids cannot go to school with the UN-kept hair. 2 weeks later he checked and the same story. If I was the one, I’ll conclude this dude has left for good. That might be the end of that customer in your shop. Let’s say the alternative he got is even doing better, you can say goodbye to him. A simple SMS can help avoid this. Even if he has to get an alternative before you return, at least he knows you are not leaving forever and knows when to check back. This helps build customer trust and does well for your business.
Everybody likes promos. I love it. Don’t know about you? Making promos an integral part of your business can go a long way in keeping customers and increasing your total revenues in the long run. Bulk SMS will be a beautiful avenue to intimate customers of current promos and upcoming ones. For one thing, it is a way of appreciating your loyal customers, and when they know promos are coming, it keeps them with you. A bonus on a purchase, cut-price for a product, or even giving gifts might make up your promos for them. A perfect time to do this might be during the holidays. Let them feel the love, they deserve it. The promise of promo updates might be a nice way of getting your customers’ phone numbers for your SMS marketing campaign.
Are you fortunate enough to know when your customers’ birthdays are coming up? For many business owners, the mutual trust between them and their customers has grown so well that getting their birthdays isn’t difficult. If you know this, you can use bulk SMS to send them goodwill messages on this day. Or maybe you know of a client of yours who is getting married, having a housewarming ceremony, or celebrating an achievement. Send him/her a nice message on this nice day. It lets them know you are not just interested in selling, you also see them as a friend. The result? The trust grows, Loyalty comes in, and your business booms.
In most cases with small-scale businesses, the competition is usually much. You might have many persons doing the same thing you are doing and nearby. This secret makes you stand out. Watch it push you above the rest.
Another good news is that using bulk SMS service is very cheap and affordable for any business at all,
For a start, Register a free bulk SMS account right away if you don’t have one, and you will receive free SMS units for a start in testing out one or two of the above suggestions.
If you are thinking of starting a small-scale business that costs little and is very rewarding, and still lost of ideas on it, here are sample 30 profitable small-scale businesses in Nigeria you can decide on.
Also, we have the top 8 ways large-scale businesses can use bulk SMS for a good return on investment.
Are there any uses of bulk SMS for small-scale businesses we have omitted, please use the comment box below to let us know? Equally, share your experience in using bulk SMS for small-scale business if you’ve been doing that.
