sitefurnace

OK so I've decided to add text marketing to my business as I truly believe it is going to be very popular very soon here in the UK.

If anyone is interested here is my plan and how I have set it up.

Gone with Trumpia white label reseller program

Mobile Marketing White Label and Reseller Program for SMS Text Message Marketing & Advertising. Leader in Mobile SMS Marketing | Trumpia.com

Managed to secure a discount that they offer to warriors only. This reduced the setup fees to £200 and they threw in the marketing collateral as well. Pretty good of them I thought - They told me over the phone that the reason they do this is because warriors tend to do very well! I found that quite encouraging.

Decided to keep things completely separate to my existing business that offers websites/SEO and bought new domain UpText.co.uk

They ask you to point the DNS to their server and I just used the landing page they provided and customized it myself to something unique. The whole system is then branded to you.

So far all looks good. The support at Trumpia seems pretty good, the system is all up and working and I'm ready to start prospecting!

So as you gathered I'm UK based and it's a double edged sword really. On one hand I feel that I'm positioned really well in the fact that there is very little competition here - only a few bigger companies and medical places seem to have really started using this. On the other hand it feels like very new territory. I have no existing models to copy/compare to establish my pricing structure and people seem a little sceptical about text marketing. I think it's to do with a few rogue companies that have been in operation here in the past giving it a bad name.

I'm willing to work with this though because if it turns out how i think it will then it will be more than worth the effort.

So to start with I am going to target two niches that I believe are going to be the easiest sale; Pubs and Salons - here's my reasoning:

Pubs. There are pubs everywhere in England, it's a massive part of our culture and I have spent a lot of time in them! Due to the recent economic downturn a high percentage of these have closed and as a result the ones that are left have been forced to up their marketing game to survive. This has essentially weeded out those landlords/ladies that are not willing to move with the times and so what you find now is that are open to new marketing ideas and they offer lots of promotions on a very frequent basis.

This includes live music at the weekends, food being offered at the premises, and other events such as partys, BBQ's, Quiz nights etc. A lot of rural pubs use their restaurants as the main draw to get people out there to them.

These places are usually quieter in the day and the landlords are normally around so I'm just going to walk into these places and start talking. The only thing I'm unsure about is the actual pricing of my service and how much I can get away with charging whilst keeping their campaigns profitable. This is undoubtedly the key to this being successful. If they can't get a positive ROI then it aint gonna last!

So I've decided to approach my local pub and just sit down and ask him to reveal his operating figures and try and work out what is going to work. Once I have a few places up and running successfully I think it will be an easy sell after that.

The other niche is salons and this is going to be a different approach. I am going to use the appointment reminder service as the main benefit, and then add in the fact that they can also market to this list as well. There are reminder services operating here in the UK but they seem to be for dentists and doctors surgeries only. I think this is because they integrate with the medical/booking software via an API and this appeals to them immensely even if it is at a much higher price.

There are plenty of other places such as hairdressing salons, chiropractors, nail bars, physiotherapists etc that make lots of appointments but don't seem to use text reminders. These are my target and I think they will be an even easier sell if you work through the figures on how much they can save on missed appointments. It would go a bit like this:

OK Mrs business owner, how many appointments go to waste every month due to people forgetting? And how much is an appointment worth to you? Multiply those two figures together and that's how much you lose per month. Now if that figure is more than the £50 I'm going to charge you to fix this then it looks like my service could save you money! Plus you are building a subscriber list and can market to them whenever you want.

The problem with these places though are that you can't just walk in an expect the decision maker to be able to talk. They are usually cutting hair and can't just drop things to chat. So I've decided to use a direct mail piece to start things off. Here it is.

Basic theory I have followed.

Keep it short - no more than one page
Headline to catch attention - borrowed from Jason Fladlien
Get the pain on the table - try to identify the problems they may have
Offer the solution
Call to action

This will be sent in a standard white envelope with handwritten address. I don't have names of the owners so just going to address it to the business name.

I intend to follow up with a call to see if they got it and what they think and try to book an appointment.

So there's my business plan to date. Please feel free to tear it to shreds and give constructive criticism. Can't wait to hear your replies! Hopefully I'll come back and give you an update on my progress. Wish me luck!

sitefurnace

Des the lack of answers mean its perfect!?

Eddie Spangler

I think that its just a lot to read and comes across as a ramble and hard to follow, trust me I have tried.

You want to offer sms services to pubs and salons. Good luck with the salons, is it worth it for them?, maybe to probable.Will they pay for appt reminders-doubt it.

spainops

Hi,

I am in a very similar situation to yourself so I can't offer advice. Must admit I'm encouraged by what you say ie little sms marketing in UK.

I think your plan sounds good - there must be a massive market for sms.

Pricing is crucial (as you said) - hoping some warriors who have sms services could come forward with their plans.

I am in the UK (now) if you want to pm me we could have a chat on skype if you want to have a chat

Si

David Miller

You probably won't like anything I have to say in this post, and that's quite alright. I perused your business plan and I agree with Eddie Spangler above.

I will only say this about what you've written, it's not a business plan, it's a sales plan.

I decided a while ago that although it was always interesting to read these ideas people have for selling, I would never bother to give my opionion again.

Writing takes time and thought and has value as does the advice that usually comes with it - I assume that's why people ask for it in threads such as these.

However, in just about every case when time is taken to review these often naive attempts at a sales model, the op will double down on their efforts to defend their plan. It then becomes an often bitter dispute, often ending with someone saying, "let us know how it works".

So I'm just going to wish you luck. Let us know if it works.

MattSchoenherr

Sitefurnace,
A few things:

1. Your approach seems decent. No big "crash and burns" here.

2. Be prepared for the rebuttal "I hate getting unsolicited texts," because it's likely to come up. (i.e. "Oh, your customers OPT INTO your list," etc...)

3. I would start with salons, if I were you. They tend to be a little more "cutting edge" (heh.. pun intended..) and may see the vision you paint more clearly.

4. Always get the owner's name first!! If I'm a business owner and I get a form letter like what you're proposing, I'll pitch it into the trash and likely forget about you within 10 seconds. If you actually ~DO~ show up--and if I actually REMEMBER you--I'll see you as the lout sending the form letter.

You can get the owner's name easily enough. In many places, business registrations are public record and often available online; you just need to know where to look.

Worst case: Call up the salon and simply ask the front desk for their mailing address. You need it in order to mail them a package (if they ask, it's regarding their marketing plan.) Once they give you the mailing address, your question is "Whose attention do I send this to?" which you can follow up with "Are they the owner?" If they're not, simply ask. Most folks will give you that information by this point in the dialog. I definitely would NOT send anything without getting the owner's name. You may as well throw your stamps and envelopes into the trash yourself and save everyone the time and effort.

5. Another technique: Get your hair cut there. (Think of this as a marketing expense.) As you pointed out, the owner is also often working in the business. Call up to make the appointment and when asked who you would like to have cut your hair, simply respond with, "The owner." Then get their name, of course. Show up to your appointment on time and dressed for success. Get a simple trim or whatever is appropriate. Make friendly chit-chat (stylists are artisans at making small talk) and--if the question of what you do for work hasn't come up yet--eventually ask about how business is going. Most small businesses can handle more business and since you're in the business of helping achieve that, you use that as your segue into, "Have you ever thought about text marketing?" Have some case studies and stories to tell. Whatever you do, DON'T pitch them. Your mission is to ask questions and tell stories. If they're interested, they'll say so and it will be a reflection on the value in your dialog; not in a sneaky pitch.

By doing this, you've skipped the cold, cheesy form letter, provided them with a possible future client (yourself) and gotten their undivided attention.

Hope this helps!
M

Matt Schoenherr
Web design, web hosting and SEO.
Need more marketing ideas to further your business? Probably. See Marketing Ideas 101.

sitefurnace

Ok sorry about it being a ramble, I just wanted to try and provide a bit of input rather than just ask for help.

Is it worth it for salons? Well I think they probably could benefit from a better relationship with their customers like any other business. And if they make and rely upon appointments why would they not want a system that mitigates loss of time and profit? I have no idea if it is an issue to them or not - but I'm about to find out!

Si I would love to chat and exchange ideas, don't have Skype but I'll pm you soon with my telephone number.

David Miller - I have read many of your posts and respect your knowledge. I am disappointed that you feel you dont want to comment and i promise that if you do I will not defend my plan but take your advice on board!


Matt - thankyou for your reply. I. Have found your input very useful indeed

I think you are right about getting the owners name. I have often tried to think of a technique to get the name from the business via the phone and I like your idea a lot.

Your last point about getting your hair cut is a good one. I have spoken with my barbers and it is very easy to broach the subject when you just have a conversation about things. Now they always ask me about their website when I go in and it wont be long before they will be asking me to do something for them.

Thanks for the replys!

mcfcok

Don't be fooled into thinking the UK is virgin re text marketing.

Textlocal been established since 2005 over 85000 customers, from a local chippy to blue chip companies like Manchester united etc

They charge 4.9p per text bulk orders from 2.4p. no contracts, no monthly fees pay as you go service. They even run their customers campaigns for free.

Textmarketer similar to above both by far the market leaders, check them out. This company charges 3.7p they offer 250 free credits on sign-up, they are also running radio ads on talksport etc

As above the above companies will manage their customers campaigns for them for free.

sitefurnace

Thanks, yes well aware of Text local. I've basically copied their model/pricing. Its good that there are successful companies as it proves it works. Still think there's loads more mileage left yet though.

mcfcok

What deal did trumpia give you? how much are you buying the credits for? did you have to buy in bulk if so how many?

TrumpiaTim

Glad to hear you're happy with the white label reseller program at Trumpia! Mcfcok, please contact us via my sig for more information on the Trumpia mobile marketing services.

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mjs

We are also a Trumpia reseller in the UK. They offer a nice system however there are limitations for the UK market. The biggest issue we have had is with date formatting (its in american format mm/dd/yy) this makes the appointment reminder system useless for the UK. Just be aware of that if you are doing reminders.

Luckily my business partner is pretty handy with PHP and we have used their API to build a reminder system outside of the main Trumpia system, its a great little tool and allows easy list building for the business using it. We have also set it up as a booking system so our clients can send booking confirmation and then a follow up reminder automatically when they want. Of course they can still login into to the Trumpia front end and use the rest of the features there (coupons, QR codes etc).

We will be looking at taking on UK based agents around the country very soon.