Marketing and consumer research studies show that when the economy takes a downturn, consumers of all types start looking around for alternatives. Just turn on the radio, and you will hear people talking about how they are cutting their monthly budgets, giving up “frivolous” spending and even forgoing some of their previous indispensable expenses in order to keep their spending and their debt under control. For many business owners, this signals a catastrophe. However, in reality, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.

If you own a business and you are losing customers, then the time has not come to shut the doors. In fact, this is the best time possible to reach out. During tough times (or times that are perceived as potentially tough) you will always lose some people simply because they do not feel that they can afford to continue with you. There are several ways to combat this. Of course, you can work to provide services in a new and different way that would help your loyal customers to stay with you. This is a wise move and will likely pay good dividends now and later. However, if you really want to grow your business instead of just hanging on by the skin of your teeth, then this is the time to reach out in an innovative and memorable manner.

One of the best ways to reach out to new customers and clients is to provide a service to them long before they ever hire you. This shows them that you have their comfort and satisfaction in mind even though they have not yet started using your services. Of course, it could get expensive to provide your full array of services for free, and that would not be practical or beneficial to your business. However, you can do something similar (regardless of your business arena) that will help that potential client remember you and your business every time they make use of your gift.

By giving clients promotional merchandise (items branded with your company logo, contact information, website or some combination thereof) you accomplish several things at once:

• You keep advertising long after you and the potential client have parted physical company.

• You prove that service is important by providing an item that will be of service regardless of that client’s ultimate decision regarding your partnership.

• You develop a rapport with that client - even though you may not have any more direct contact with them - because they will think of you each time they use the item. This can be great because when they do need your type of services, your business will feel like a trusted friend already.

In any good text messaging campaign, how you communicate your call to action, is very important. You only have 150-160 characters, so use them wisely.

With email marketing it is important to have a good subject line so people will open your email. In text messaging, there is a near 100% open rate so it is less critical to have people “open” your text. It is more critical that they read it and act on it.

1. Avoid text “speak.” Unless you are targeting a really young audience, keep the text abbreviations to a minimum. Same goes for misspellings and bad grammar.
2. Have a clearly defined goal. Do you want them to get a coupon? Join your vip club? Sign up for your teleseminar? Buy your book? If you know what you want them to do, clearly communicate it.
3. Don’t try to sell with every text. People hate to be sold. Give out free information within the paid services you offer. Internet marketers do this really well, they start with a free report, then ask for paid content, etc.
4. Understand text marketing is NOT microblogging. Keep your tweets on Twitter, use text marketing to position yourself and sell your products.
5. Practice makes perfect. Social networking sites like Twitter, can be a good source of examples of effective “short message” communication. Since Twitter is only 140 characters, how do people get you to call, click, etc.?
6. Remember that not all phones are smart. According the ‘Mobile Market View’ study published by The Kelsey Group, no less than 18.9% of mobile consumers in the United States are now strutting the streets sporting smartphones, with 49.2% set to grab themselves a piece of smartphone action within the next two years. So if you only use messages with URL’s that you expect them to click through on their mobile phone, you may be missing 50% of your audience.
7. If you are using URLs try and resist the temptation to do a complicated or “tiny” URL. The reason is, as I mentioned in #6 if your target client does not have a smartphone, they will go back to their computer and type it in. If it is long, complicated or too difficult for them to type in, you could lose that client.
8. Use split testing. Most text vendors allow you to set up or segment groups within their respective platforms, use this to test your messages.
9. Use the “forward” call to action. Remind people to forward this to a friend, it is pretty easy on most mobile phones to forward a text. Other calls to action: call now (make sure you include the number), reply y/n.
10. Make sure you at all times adhere to the Mobile Marketing Best Practices, giving people the opportunity to opt out, even if it eats up precious characters.