SMS - text messaging - is a fantastically effective form of marketing. It has a distinctly personal feel that is really rare in the advertising industry. People love their mobiles and they’re always to hand, so you know your message is being seen by the vast majority of your recipient list almost straight away - providing a real opportunity to make an immediate impact.

In terms of agency development, the turnaround time on an SMS marketing campaign is incredibly quick, usually in the space of a couple of hours from conception to delivery, and the feedback starts arriving in minutes.

As a platform SMS offers a relatively small space to present your message, which can be a test of a marketing copywriter’s skills. With just 160 characters available to introduce and explain your offering, as well as include a decisive call to action, there’s absolutely no room for anything that’s not immediately relevant. You can’t get the copy flow that you’d find in an email marketing mailout or a website page. However, this strict demand for lean copy can help to produce a succinct and neatly contained message, which many customers and prospects actually prefer and respond best to.

The ideal approach for SMS copy is to see the tight space as a challenge to your powers of communication. Strip it down, get rid of the extraneous and get to your point straight away. If you’ve still got too much to say - then your task shifts to pulling people in to where you can say it all, namely, your website. The potential is open-ended, and when you think in these terms, SMS marketing really isn’t limited at all.

Let Green Media show you how SMS marketing can deliver instant results for your business.

We’re proud to announce the launch of a new client website this week - Made In Nations. The innovative site, which is billed as “your country of origin resource”, lets users actively search a growing database of consumer products and discover where they were created. The system is synced with GoogleMaps, so you can zoom right onto the satellite image of the factory in some cases!

Like the best of the web, Made In Nations has a real community feel about it, and actively encourages user-generated content and contributions. The ethos of the project is so unique and imaginative that we’re sure it’ll grow and grow in the coming months.

Take a look around the site, search for a product that you own - you might be surprised about where it came from! There are thousands of products already on the site but the database is growing every day, so it’s worth checking back regularly to see the site develop - and if you’re really into the issues that Made In Nations covers then why not get involved in the community as a contributor?

The credit crunch has forced a widespread rethink in the way that companies advertise their products and services, and the change in approach is now being experienced across the board. As we’ve said for a while here on Green Notes - the customers are still out there, the marketing just needs to reflect the times to be effective.

The NFL Superbowl final, the American Football showpiece characterised by its incredible viewing figures and therefore marketing potential, is an accurate indicator of the advertising industry as a whole - and Sunday’s US broadcast underlined the marked shift in emphasis. A Hyundai offer of clean slate credit in the event of losing your job during a repayment period perhaps highlighted the new advertising landscape better than most.

Back here in the UK, the examples are numerous, if slightly less stark - a longstanding Virgin Media offer of three months cheap rate services has been hastily repackaged as “brightening the credit crunch”. Sainsburys supermarket has gone from overpromoting its premium “Taste the Difference” and “SO Organic” lines in favour of the budget “Basics” range. These examples, picked from many, again underline the way in which the biggest of corporate names are redirecting their focus.

From a marketing perspective, it’s a new challenge to appeal to customers and prospects with genuinely reduced buying power, but the key point remains the same - the customers are still around, they haven’t disappeared. It’s absolutely essential for advertising to keep pace with the changing demands of these customers to get results now.

We’ve facilitated such a shift with our own clients over the last few months, and found that a strategised change in copy tone and offer presentation really can reap rewards. Some of our email marketing during this period has achieved record responses, and the return on investment has continued to tell its own story.

So if you’re wondering how best to market your products and services during the downturn, get in touch, we’d be happy to show you what we can do for your business.