Text Messaging Featured Article

Text messaging is both efficient and personal, and has many benefits that set it apart from calls and email. Unlike a phone call, it can be answered whenever the phone’s owner has a free second. And unlike email, studies have shown that text messaging is read almost as quickly as it arrives, very similar to a call, while emails can sometimes get buried in an inbox.

That mix—something akin to a mix between chat and call—is pretty seductive, which is why text messaging is perhaps currently one of the best ways to market to customers.

Carcode SMS, a startup based in Ann Arbor, Mich., recognizes the inherent potential of text messaging as a marketing vehicle. While societal standards and laws have begun to recognize that texting and driving do not mix, texting still can make sense for the automotive industry when people are not behind the wheel.

Carcode SMS has developed a website plugin that allows consumers to send text messages to automotive dealership staff and inquire about a specific car, according to the company. How it works is by assigning local cell phone numbers to dealerships so mobile shoppers can write them easily.

The company provides dealerships with an app that let staff respond and manage conversations with customers in a compliant fashion.

And by compliant I mean a non-pressure situation, which perhaps is the best part of the Carcode solution.

Image via Shutterstock

Carcode SMS has a feature enabling consumers to end a conversation whenever he or she wants and not have to worry about follow-ups from salesmen. This makes talking with dealerships pain-free for the most part: If a consumer has a question, they can quickly shoot of a text to a dealership. But as soon as they get the info they want, or feel pressured, they can disengage with the full confidence that they’ve not unleashed a pestering salesman on their life.

The Carcode solution highlights the potential of text messaging and the fact that there’s still a lot of room for innovation with the relatively simple text messaging technology. While text messages might not be as sexy as Facebook (News - Alert) or Twitter, they are highly effective. And with bulk text messaging solutions such as those offered by TSG Global out there, there’s lots of marketing opportunity for text messaging.

While email marketing has a relatively low view rate, and telemarketing has come under increasing scrutiny, in most cases consumers actually want deals through text.

This is a big opportunity for businesses that seize it, serving as both an effective marketing vehicle today and as a platform for innovation for firms such as Carcode.