How SMS marketing works:

Step 1 – A mobile phone user sees something that directs them to text a keyword to a shortcode or longcode (phone number).
In this example (we are using a shortcode as seen in the image) let’s use a burger restaurant.
The instructions could say “Text burger to 83733 for 50% off any regular burger!”
These instructions could be placed outside the restaurant, read aloud in a radio ad, printed on the side of a bus, anywhere.
Note: we dont use short codes because of the expense involved, so the only difference from this example is your longcode (your free phone number that you will choose inside your account) will be substituted for the short code shown in this example.

Step 2 – The user composes and sends a new text message on their phone. The “to” address will be 83733(or in your case, your longcode number} and the message body will be “burger.”

Step 3 – That message is received by our SMS marketing software that stores the user’s phone number and immediately sends back your pre-written response, something like “Show this message to the cashier to get 50% off any regular burger”

Step 4 – At some point in the future the burger shop owner can log in to their Textafied account and send a text message out to everyone who has opted-in by sending their keyword-"burger". They could do this to announce sales, events, specials or promote anything at the restaurant.

Of course this system can be applied to almost any industry, its not only for restaurants, it also works very well in retail, real estate, auto dealerships, medical/dental practices, and on and on.

Similar to email marketing the goal of SMS marketing is to build a database of subscribers and then message them in the future with specials, promotions, news, etc. The software used to run our text message marketing campaigns is web-based (accessed with only a browser or even on your cell phone) and very similar to email marketing software, except SMS marketing has a 98% open rate which is roughly 10 times higher than email.