Small Business - How to Reach Your Customers Via Mobile Phone

By Andrew Grant

One of the greatest benefits that comes from technology is that the cost of communicating with your customers and prospects keeps getting lower and the number of opportunities to interact with them keeps increasing.

E-mail and websites are an incredibly cheap resource and once you have captured a customer's contact details, you can send them information at any time you like. If it is good information they will actually thank you for it. One area of technology that is growing even faster is mobile phones.

Did you know that at the end of 2006, there were over 2.7 billion mobile phone users in the world? Do you reckon there might be a few prospects for you among them? If you have the type of business that relies on getting timely messages to customers then this has to be an area for you to explore. Here are a few suggestions:

• Appointment reminders for medical checkups, hairdressing, eye tests
• News bulletins in your sector, price fluctuations, opportunity alerts
• Stock availability, special offers, time limited promotions
• Despatch and delivery alerts

Admittedly the cost of delivering SMS text messages is greater than e-mails; typically a few cents per message, but used selectively, SMS is an excellent way to tie your customers even closer to you than ever. Don't worry, you won't have to pay someone to sit and send text messages all day; simply load your list of customers and phone numbers into a spreadsheet, email it to a suitable text processing provider and they'll do the rest.

The great thing about phone messaging is you can contact your audience wherever they are. Most people can only receive your e-mails when they are in front of a computer, but nearly everyone carries their cell-phone wherever they go. Your business can be right there, in their pocket.

For more ideas on how to master the essentials of Small Business Marketing, take a look at the inspirational, self-study course; Small Business Big Ideas at http://www.marketing-is-easy.com where you can also subscribe to my free Marketing Tips Newsletter.