Anyone who has "getting people to come to an event" as part of their job duties knows it can be difficult to accomplish that with any kind of consistency.
One of the best ways to bring people into an event in this day and age is to use bulk SMS marketing as part of your company's strategy.
The publicity you can generate by doing that often helps to bring in a lot more people than you would otherwise expect.
Whether you're focused on getting people into a corporate conference for your industry, there's a great event going on at the neighborhood meeting spot, or a restaurant in your local area is having their grand opening, there are very powerful ways to reach people - and text marketing is one of the best.
With bulk SMS messages, you can reach people directly and for a very low cost. It's also a personal way to get your information out to people, so you can make sure everyone who might be interested stays informed when it comes to your event.
Most People Will Read That Text Right Away
Nearly 98% of the text messages people receive are going to be opened and read in just a few minutes. That means people see your event quickly, and they read about it instead of putting it off until later.
No matter when the event is scheduled for, you want people to know about it and plan for it. The sooner they know, the sooner they can mark their calendars - and getting more people to come to your event can mean more customers for your business.
You could email those same people, but the rates at which emails from businesses get opened is just 20%. It also takes 90 minutes for the average email response, so it's much slower than text.
Even Twitter and Facebook see read rates of just 29% and 12%, respectively. Digital communication that lands in someone's inbox takes some searching if it's going to be found, but that isn't true with texting.
Most people have SMS push notifications turned on, so they know when something is sent to them, get alerted to its presence, and can check it right away.
[Tweet " Even Twitter and Facebook see read rates of just 29% and 12%, respectively."]
Texting Makes Registering Easy and Raises Interest
One of the ways you can leverage the power of texting is by giving your audience the chance to pre-register on their smartphones. It's convenient for them to do so, which makes them more likely to do it, and it's easier for your business to judge how many people are going to be there, making things more convenient for you, as well.
If they register quickly they're going to be more likely to show up, and having a head count to track means it's better for you if you're providing refreshments or need a specific amount of space.
Bulk SMS reminders can be used months in advance, and then be re-used in the days and weeks as your event gets closer. It helps people remember that the date is coming up, and can also be used to tell customers about giveaways, surprises, special guests, and other information.
Asking people to tell a friend and giving them incentive to do so is another great advantage for your business when you use text messaging to get people to attend your event. As the event gets closer, make sure to use the SMS list to count down the time and get everyone excited for what's coming up.
Don't Forget Your Customers When the Event Ends
Collecting feedback is really important, and you can do that through text messaging, too. The more you know about whether your customers had a good time or not - and why they feel that way - the better you can adjust future efforts to better suit your target market.
A quick sms survey or poll through bulk SMS won't take your customers long to complete, and can give you a lot of valuable feedback about any event you hold.
The data your customers give you can be analyzed in order to find out how many people registered and compare that with the number of people who showed up. Not everyone who pre-registers will actually show up, so it's important to get a better idea of what pre-registering for an event means to your customers.
If they don't have a habit of following through, then you'll want to lower the number you expect the next time.
With as affordable and fast as texting is, you can market your event quicker and easier than ever before, and maximize your event attendance with bulk SMS. While you don't want to completely rely on it, it should definitely be a big part of the strategy you employ for your next, upcoming event.
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