An SMS text is nothing more than a text message sent to your phone but without any legal precedent as to what is allowable. You know how your email is not supposed to receive spam messages or those spammers can be sued? Well with SMS marketing there are no rules or laws preventing spammers from spamming you. This does not mean they cannot be sued but it does open a door to some issues. The good news is that is is much more expensive to message a phone than to message an email box.

The decision process on if you should use SMS marketing is whether or not your business is local. If you own a local business you generally have a few hundred feet on the street customers with cell phones walking into your store daily. Every one of those customers that subscribes to your SMS list is now giving you a direct path to send them coupons and offers that they will likely read immediately. Through SMS you have the best possible way to achieve fast results for getting your customers in your door more frequently and to buy more stuff.

The main thing to do when sending out your first few text messages to your customer base it to put in there the option to opt out of future text messages by texting STOP. With any list some people will opt in to it without really understanding what they are doing. For instance, you may opt in to getting coupons for barbecue sandwiches at your favorite BBQ place but later you may hate getting those messages. Even though you hate text messages you still love BBQ and the sooner you allow that fan to opt out the happier he will be.

Local restaurants can truly make a difference in their ROI with SMS email marketing but at the same time you will piss off some customers that did not understand what standard SMS data and texting rates will apply. Just make sure you offer an easy way to opt out in every message such as saying, “text STOP’ to opt out. By being educational regarding how to use SMS to your customers they will continue to love you and your business.

In summary there is a great reason to use SMS messaging to market to your customers and it is simply because it works. People read some of their emails but people always read all of their text messages. By simply sending a text message to loyal fans about a special event or promotion you are handing them a coupon or event invitations directly into their hand or pocket. You better believe there will be people walking in your door from this.

SMS Email marketing is new for most small businesses but has amazing results when done right and when value is given. To read more about this topic please visit these additional sites: Telecommunications Services