How can auctioneers use the advantage of SMS marketing?
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How can auctioneers use the advantage of SMS marketing?

Updated: Oct 18, 2023


How Can Auctioneers Use the Advantage of SMS Marketing?
How Can Auctioneers Use the Advantage of SMS Marketing?

Auctioneers have a challenging job. They need to find customers and excite them about the items during the auctions. However, there is one thing that auctioneers can do before the hot sale to motivate bidders to bid: SMS Marketing!


Auctioneers can use the power of SMS marketing to improve their customer relations and boost their sales. This article explains how it works and shares five tricks for auctioneers to succeed in SMS marketing! 🌈


Table of Contents



Why SMS Marketing for Auctioneers?

Let’s start with these questions: How do you contact customers about your auctions? Email marketing, social media, website info, or old-school brochures? Of course, you can use these methods to reach bidders, but how efficient are they for your audience?

Can you get as many customers as whenever you need to?


The answer would be “Yes, I reach many customers whenever I need it” if you would use the SMS marketing channel because the SMS opening rate is 98%, and most of them are opened in 3 minutes. It is understandable when we consider that Americans check their mobiles 47 times a day. So, you should use SMS marketing to reach your customers, but how? We will explain it in the next part.


What Should Auctioneers Use SMS Marketing For?

Auctioneers can use the SMS marketing channel for a wide range of purposes, such as:

  1. To Inform

  2. To Verify

  3. To Target

  4. To Learn

The important part is how you adapt your marketing strategy to these usage areas of SMS marketing. For this, we will explain each field of usage in detail. ⬇️


1. To Inform

Auctioneers can use SMS marketing to inform their customers about:

  • Upcoming auctions

  • Updates (time/location, etc.)

  • Cancellations

  • Live catalogs

  • Bidding details

  • Auction alerts

Auction lovers may miss your social media post about these pieces of information, or maybe they don’t have time to look at your website. However, they will undoubtedly see it if you text them because Americans check their mobiles 47 times daily.



2. To Verify

In addition to informational text messages, you need to send verification messages to your customers. For example, if someone purchased an item, you can send a message about whether the payment was successful or not. Also, you can share the shipment details like the delivery time, cargo company, etc. If you send these technical messages, your customers will feel your professionalism. So, your customer engagement will improve thanks to SMS marketing. ✨


3. To Target

You’ve already sent informational and technical bulk SMS. Now, it is time to step further and improve. You can use particular text message campaigns for different target groups. For example, if you have a wide product range, you can ask about their interests while collecting their SMS marketing opt-ins. Then, you can separate your customers according to their answers. This action will improve the user experience.


Also, you can create various keywords for customers to subscribe to the relevant text message list. For example, if you sell antique furniture and dresses in your product list, you can divide your target into two text marketing campaigns. If anyone wants to subscribe to the furniture-related text message list, they can text “FURNITURE” to your specific toll-free phone number. Similarly, if anyone wants to subscribe to the dress-related SMS message list, they can text “FASHION” or “DRESS” to your business phone number.



4. To Learn

Once you segment your customers into groups based on their interests in your product range, you can ask them what possible products they wish to see. Or you can collect their feedback for your auctions and text marketing campaigns. For this, you can send a survey link with your text message.


In this way, you can focus on customers’ wishes in your following auctions. And this will increase customer satisfaction.


5 Suggestions to Succeed in SMS Marketing for Auctioneers

In the previous part, we summarized the usage fields of SMS Marketing for auctioneers. We will share five tricks to succeed in SMS marketing for you! 💪🏼


1. Welcoming

First impressions are pretty crucial in SMS marketing. So, you should welcome your customers when they subscribe to your text marketing message list. You can thank them for being subscribers, and you can excite them about the advantages of this subscription. Or, you can provide a discount for subscribing. These acts will increase your customers’ emotional connection and loyalty to you.


2. Essential Information

Make sure to include these four pieces of information in your text marketing messages:

  1. Date

  2. Time

  3. Location

  4. Register Link

Bidders need to know this information to organize themselves and attend your auction. Also, you can create specific registration links for your text messages, separate from links on your website. Thus, you can measure the number of customers registered via text messages. Then, you can check these numbers to understand whether your text marketing template is effective or not. Also, you can compare the numbers of your different text marketing campaigns to see which one works best for you. This kind of analysis will help you to revise the inefficient campaigns and improve the effectiveness of your text marketing channel.



3. Texting Many Times

If you have an upcoming auction, you should send messages to customers in advance. However, sending an “upcoming auction text message” for once is not enough. To increase their chances of attending, you should keep texting and reminding them. For instance, you can send bulk SMS at this frequency:

  • Two weeks before the auction

  • One week before the auction

  • One night before the auction

Thus, they can start to make their plan for the auction two weeks ago. Also, in this way, you can catch the ones who could not notice the first message with the second or third message.


While you decide the frequency of text messages, your customers can be your guide. For this, you can ask about their preference on the frequency of receiving your texting messages in an online survey that we mentioned in the “To Learn” section. Maybe, some of your customers prefer to receive notifications starting one month before due to their heavy schedule. Try it, and let us know how it went for you! 🤔


4. Exciting Bidders

As mentioned initially, auctioneers need to excite bidders during the hot sale. However, auctioneers don’t have to wait until the auction to excite customers. Getting them excited before the auctions is possible thanks to SMS marketing. For example, you can include the “item list link” in your bulk SMS messages. This link can incorporate some images of your items. Or, you can enclose some juicy information about any item’s value/history/charm in your text marketing message. So they can start to think about items days before the auction.


Successful bulk SMS examples to get exciting bidders:

  1. Tomorrow, the live catalog starts at 9:00 AM (PST), but bidding is open now! Don’t be late! #website name - reply STOP to opt-out.

  2. Jewelry Auction Today! 11:00 am (PST) 💎✨ #website name -reply STOP to opt-out.

  3. Valentine’s Jewelry auction today! 💘 750+ lots to choose from. 💍 🎁 reply STOP to opt-out.

5. Call to Action

Receiving text messages motivates customers to attend your auctions. However, sometimes texting can be insufficient to prompt them. In these cases, you should improve your SMS messages with a good call to action (CTA). For example, if you have a link in your text message, you can add the following call-to-action phrases:

  • Link To Specifics ⬇️

  • For registration ⬇️

  • Register via link

  • Discover more

  • Click for details

  • Learn more about

How to Try Text Marketing For Free?

You learned the importance, usage areas, and tricks of SMS marketing. Now, you can start to use it and register and get 100 bonus text message credits by clicking the following link:

Sign up for Free Text Messages


You can also examine our affordable texting prices:


Reward your hard work by promoting your business with SMS marketing. Don’t forget to use the mentioned tricks. Let us know if you have any questions; happy to help. Also, you can check our SMS Marketing Handbook to learn more about bulk SMS marketing.


Good luck with your business! 🧡


 

Happy Messaging!

Pony Express HQ Team



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