It’s one thing to snag new customers; it’s a whole different ballgame to keep them coming back. Call it loyalty, call it consistency, but whatever you call it, it means that those folks keep frequenting your business and most likely even bring in new business by word of mouth.

Fortunately, there are resources out there today to help businesses not only retain customer loyalty but actually increase it. Check out these four ways that you can have those customers coming back, time and again, and their friends too! Once you’re done with these, then take a look at some more in the article “3 Ways Your Hotel Can Use SMS Marketing To Increase Loyalty”. The ideas are easily adapted to other businesses.

Win Valuable Cash Prizes! Well, Maybe Win Just Prizes!

Who doesn’t like winning stuff? If your business builds a reputation for holding SMS-driven contests, maybe a trivia question or a “be among the first 100 to respond” deal, people will flock to your site and sign up for SMS messages. Those prizes could be something of real value (provided the contest is hyped to the nth degree), or something as simple as cheap swag. Just the sensation of winning something for nothing is enough to make some people go over the moon.

Foster A Sense Of Exclusiveness

Right up there with the sensation of winning something, people also enjoy feeling like they’re in the inner circle, part of a special members-only club. That’s why it’s important to make sure that people sign up, opt in, call it what you will, for SMS messaging. In fact, you could sweeten the pot by offering a special one-time discount for everyone who signs up. The sign-up could even be couched in terms of an “exclusive club”, anything that makes people feel special and keeps them coming back.

Create Special Alerts

Come up with events that are dedicated to a specific theme, perhaps a sports championship game (or series), or a particular holiday (e.g. St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo), and send out alerts informing your customers about the promotion. If you have some really creative marketing people, you can go crazy with this. Promotions could even revolve around things like Election Day, or some hot trending news item.

Live Chat Potential

One of the most important aspects of fostering customer loyalty is to treat them like human beings, all the while showing them that they are in turn dealing with human beings. Chat is a great way to put that point across, and live SMS chat lets you have real-time instant conversations with your customers. Whether it’s about trouble-shooting a problem or providing feedback on a recent transaction, a live SMS chat exchange makes the customer feel appreciated and shows them that they are being listened to.

No matter which tactics you employ, it’s important that you do establish some sort of SMS texting presence in your marketing efforts. Check out the article “Getting Social With SMS” for more inspiration. SMS texting is an important way of reaching those people who don’t have elaborate smart phones, and therefore making sure that a segment of the population isn’t being left out.