Text Message Sweepstakes

The Best Way to Build a Large Database

When it comes to mobile marketing, there’s no better way to promote your business than with SMS text message marketing.  Text message marketing is the oldest part of mobile marketing.  In fact, at one time, text message marketing WAS mobile marketing.  There was nothing else.

Text messaging certainly is not the sexiest part of mobile marketing today, but it remains one of the most effective.  The reason that many businesses don’t do it, however, is that creating a database of opt-ins can be a daunting task.  You are starting with zero and need to build from there and it can take months until your business has enough opt-ins to your SMS marketing to make a significant difference in sales.

That’s where a text message sweepstakes is something your business may want to consider.  A sweepstakes program can jump start your database build to allow you to immediately gain enough opt-ins to make a difference.

Create Buzz

There’s nothing like a text message sweepstakes to create buzz around your brand.  Who doesn’t like to win something for nothing?  It’s exciting, it’s interesting, and it’s viral.

BUILD ENGAGEMENT

Want your advertising to stand out and engage your audience?  There’s no better way than to offer a sweepstakes.  Your digital or traditional advertising takes on a whole new approach when the consumer has a chance to win something.  A text message sweepstakes makes all of your advertising interactive and offers a chance for a one-to-one engagement with a prospective or existing customer.

PROMOTE brand loyalty

By offering a sweepstakes, your business has a chance to stand out from the pack and increase brand loyalty.  It certainly makes your brand more memorable, because customers will be spending more time both viewing your advertising and participating in the sweepstakes.

Builds your database

Based on over a decade of experience in offering text message sweepstakes, our research indicates that participation in a sweepstakes promotion will be 14 times greater than a promotion that offers only a mobile coupon as the incentive for an opt-in.  It will be 48 times greater than an equal advertisement that offers no incentive other than becoming part of the database.  Simply put, if you want to create a database of potential customers, there’s no better way to do so than with a sweepstakes that uses SMS as the means of entry.

Broadcast messaging drives sales

The real value in creating a database, of course, is in the ability to market to your opt-ins in the future via broadcast text messaging.  The larger the database, the more effective those broadcast messages will be to your bottom line.  With a typical SMS marketing opt-out rate of less than 1% per month, the value of the text message sweepstakes will stay with your business for a long time after the promotion ends.

Gain publicity

An added bonus to a text message sweepstakes is the additional publicity that it can generate for your brand.  Sending a simple press release to local, regional, and national outlets can generate additional promotional value that won’t cost you anymore.  Publicity is bonus, viral, free marketing.

Improves SEO

Businesses are always looking to increase organic traffic to their website.  Putting the details of the promotion on your website will help build backlinks to your business when other websites mention the promotion or even your own digital advertising links back to the website for the required terms and conditions.  This helps increase your search engine rankings.

Legal requirements

Some businesses shy away from sweepstakes offerings due to concerns with adhering to a myriad of legal requirements.  And, legal requirements are a significant concern for any business offering a text message sweepstakes.

One thing you should do in an SMS sweepstakes offering is make sure that you have a double opt-in from the consumers.  Legally, you can’t require that a consumer opts-in to your marketing database to participate in the sweepstakes.  Therefore, the first reply MT message in the interactive text message should advise the participant that their entry has been received and it should invite them to send a second text message to become part of the marketing database.

There certainly are many more requirements for SMS text message sweepstakes and a business should always obtain its own legal advice, but working with an experience provider will certainly help you avoid potential pitfalls that may occur.

Contact Purplegator if you’d like to learn more about successful text message marketing sweepstakes that we’ve been running since 2007.