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What is text-to-vote and why should you care?  Well, as you know the number of people using mobile devices as an everyday part of their lives is growing in leaps and bounds year over year.  Therefore, if you just stop for a moment and think about the possible results you might experience by using text polling to boost the popularity of your products or services and the impact it could have on your brand and your brand's reputation, not to mention your revenue, I would be willing to bet your mind is going into overdrive right about now.  So let's talk about SMS polling, also known as text voting, and dive into the science behind what makes this such a popular marketing method and exactly how it could help take your business to the next level.

What Is Text Voting?

SMS polling (voting) is a web-based service that gives people the ability to enter their vote on the go via text message and to provide the sender with an opinion about a product or service or any other type of promotion or event they are sponsoring.

Why Text-To-Vote Polling Is So Effective

Text voting is effective mainly due to the ease of use on the part of the recipient.  Your customers receive your text asking for their participation, which makes them feel like they are a part of something and gives your marketing message a more personal feel.  SMS voting is interactive, which engages the customer and oftentimes rewards them with whatever it is you are offering and this builds goodwill, trust and will most definitely boost your brand's reputation.  Another great feature of SMS voting is the fact that your customers can receive your text and respond to it on their own terms.  They can choose to respond, or not, and they can respond at their convenience without any required personal contact that many people find too time consuming and view as a waste of their time.   One last mention about text polling is the fact that people are comfortable with texting as part of their daily lives and therefore, when you send them a text, it's just second nature to respond just as they do with every other text they receive.   And why not, it's quick, easy and non-invasive!

How Text Voting Works

Text voting works pretty much the same regardless of which company you choose to use.  However, there are some companies who offer more options than others.  Therefore, you should take some time to weigh the costs versus the benefits of each, before you make any decisions.  But, getting back to the topic, text polling is a very simple process that goes like this:

• Choose a text-to-vote company
  
  
• Setup a text voting campaign, including a mobile keyword
  
  
• Ask a specific question or present options to your customers
  
  
• Then ask your customers to text your chosen keyword and their selected options to a short code
  
  
• Your customer will then receive a customized auto-response that is sent to their mobile device confirming their vote
  
  
• Then you just let your text polling service do the rest
  
  
• Most polling services will provide you with live, real-time results for each campaign
  
  

A campaign can be created using any variable that makes sense for what you are trying to do, such as:  creating a multiple choice question, requesting an open-ended response, you can limit votes per participant, set a start and end date time for your polls and more!

Examples Of Who Is Successfully Using SMS Polling For Quick And Easy Customer Engagement

SMS polling can be successfully used by just about any type of business and not just those who offer products and services.   Text voting can be used by anyone who wants to interact with their audience.

For example:

1.  Businesses could poll their audience at meetings, request honest feedback via anonymous responses, use it for team building exercises, a friendly competition, evaluate employee skill levels, corporate training programs, etc.

2.  Retail establishments can gather instant feedback from their customers by asking their opinion about products and services, product launches, preferred promotions, advertising input, as well as sending out coupons, discounts and preferred customer incentives, etc.

3.  Market researchers can quickly and easily gather valuable data by asking large groups of people about their opinions for any given subject, product or service, no need to use paper forms or to record and collate any of the data manually, download all responses for easy analysis, to evaluate the effectiveness of any given marketing campaign or to poll any group or community about a specific topic.

4.  Promoters and event planners can use text polling to get their audience involved, to let the crowd vote for songs, games, events or anything else, engaging a sports crowd, vote on best costume, as well as to gauge attendee opinions and interest throughout an event, track emerging trends and to encourage audience participation of any kind.

5.  Educators and students can use text-to-vote to evaluate student comprehension of the material, to keep students engaged, for a quick quiz, polling to receive an anonymous student response, course feedback and more.

6.  Non-profit organizations can use texting to increase participation for their charity events, silent auctions, to poll a church congregation, gauge attendees level of interest, for audience participation and for saving money on paper forms and questionnaires, etc.

Optional Features Of Many Text Voting Services

Each polling service will have their own options and features, but here are a few of the most popular features available.

• Both conventional feature phones and smartphones can be used
  
  
• Setup any given campaign using a web-based tool
  
  
• Each voting option can be segmented into its own distribution list for future use
  
  
• Allows you to specify the number of questions, choices or range of options to give your audience
  
  
• Provides real-time data
  
  
• Instant polling functionality
  
  
• Exportable data for in-depth analysis
  
  
• Customizable templates
  
  
• Voting restriction parameters can be applied
  
  
• The use of custom keywords
  
  

The Bottom Line

Text-to-vote is becoming more and more popular and is a great way to build your brand, your brand's reputation and your revenue.  Why not give it a try today and you will quickly see that the text polling method is an invaluable, cost effective tool to have in your marketing arsenal.

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