SMS Messaging in the Entertainment Industry

Used across numerous sectors, SMS messaging can be particularly rewarding in the entertainment and hospitality industries. With a combined revenue of over £140 billion, the entertainment and hospitality industries are thriving and their worth is expected to increase substantially in the near future.

However, with many Britons having less disposable income to play with, businesses will be vying for custom more than ever. In order to attract new consumers and retain existing customers, companies will need to develop, enhance and refine their marketing techniques.

With the use of mobile technology already at an all-time high and set to increase, companies who wish to increase their reach and profits need to have an effective mobile marketing strategy in place.

The rise of mobile marketing

Sometimes overlooked in favour of online marketing, SMS messaging can be an extremely effective and valuable method of mobile marketing. With approximately 98% of recipients opening SMS messages, SMS marketing content is more likely to reach people, particularly when compared to email marketing or traditional forms of marketing, such as postal correspondence.

While every industry can benefit from the use of SMS messaging in some way, companies operating in the entertainment or hospitality sectors can benefit considerably. The fiscal success of live entertainment, for example, often relies on people attending an event on a specific date and at a specific time.

If ticket sales or turnout are low, venues can use SMS messaging to contact a large number of people quickly. Whether you want to target a particular demographic or focus on consumers in a particular location, you can increase awareness in seconds. Furthermore, enabling recipients to reply directly to your marketing message could result in immediate sales.

Increasing profits in the hospitality sector

Similarly, the hospitality industry can reduce costs by using SMS messaging services. Currently, companies may suffer losses if patrons don’t arrive and fulfill a reservation. Affecting restaurants, hotels, cafes, guesthouses and even campsites, an ‘empty reservation’ can mean that the business is turning away paying customers due to a reservation which isn’t honoured.

Fortunately, SMS messaging is an ideal way to manage this issue. Rather than merely allowing potential customers to make a reservation and relying on them actually fulfilling it, businesses can contact people who have made reservations and confirm they will still be attending.

Whether you choose to contact customers days in advance or hours before their booking, you can reduce the rate of ‘empty reservations’ and ensure that they won’t cost the business revenue. With many people checking their mobile phone regularly, the ease of responding to an SMS message means that customers are more likely to get in touch via this method.

Increasing customer loyalty

Whilst companies will always focus on attracting new clientele, retaining existing customers is also key to business success. By fostering brand loyalty, you can ensure that one-off consumers become regular customers.

With the option of sub-lists, you can even contact existing customers according to their demographic and spending habits. Entertainment venues, for example, can effectively keep track of which demographic attends certain types of gigs and concerts and focus their marketing activities towards them when a relevant event is taking place.

Often seen as a more personalised form of communication, SMS messaging enables companies to build rapport with customers. Allowing them to reply and opt-in to offers, confirm reservations and provide feedback, encourages a two-way dialogue, rather than allowing the consumer to become merely a passive audience.

Offering reward schemes to loyal customers is an ideal way to retain their business, for example, and SMS messaging can be the perfect delivery tool for such schemes. Want to let people know they’re a valued customer? Need to make people aware that they are eligible for key discounts? SMS messaging can do so quickly and easily, whilst being an extremely cost-effective option for businesses.

Creating a complete mobile campaign

With people able to make calls, send SMS messages and surf the web on a phone or tablet, many people are moving away from traditional computers or laptops. The increased portability of new devices means that consumers tend to be contactable via SMS at any time of the day. In addition to this, companies which opt to send SMS marketing messages avoid the obstacle of online filters and bounce backs.

Of course, rather than focusing solely on SMS messaging, you may want to use this marketing method in conjunction with other tools and activities. Integrating an SMS messaging API into your existing system means that you can use SMS messaging to enhance your existing campaign. Ideal for contact management, message schedule and reporting, the ability to integrate an API can boost the effectiveness of your campaigns and, therefore, increase your revenue.

Once you’ve run one successful campaign, it’s likely you’ll want to replicate your success. In order to measure the success of your marketing activities, it’s essential to analyse the results. By providing access to key data, such as rate of messages sent, number of successful deliveries and responses, businesses can monitor, enhance and replicate their success whenever they want to.

With entertainment companies and hospitality businesses particularly vulnerable to losing money from customers who intend to purchase or intend an event but fail to do so, they need an effective way to contact potential customers quickly and reduce the rate of missed reservations.

SMS messaging provides an efficient way of doing both; reservations can easily be confirmed and unfulfilled bookings can be made available to other customers immediately. In some cases, entertainment and hospitality companies will operate at a loss if they have to. A restaurant will open, even if only four tables are booked, for example. Similarly, a cinema or theatre will continue with a showing or performance, even if only half the seats are taken.

By using SMS messaging, however, businesses can ensure their venues and events are filled to capacity and that costs are reduced accordingly. It’s clear, therefore, that SMS messaging is vital to the on-going success of companies in these industries.

By cutting costs, increasing brand loyalty and encouraging customer engagement, SMS messaging allows businesses to deliver effective marketing solutions. This, in turn, leads to increased customer satisfaction, better returns and an increased market share in thriving, profitable industries.

To find out more about the benefits of SMS messaging and mobile marketing, why not contact us today?