This is a good example of using SMS marketing to try and reactivate dormant customers using a direct response mechanism. It is much more cost effective and easier to sell to past and existing customers than it is to sell to new ones. This is because once they have dealt with you already they have an affinity with you and know what you can do for them. Seeing as the cost to send 1 SMS message can be less than 5cent this makes it a much more cost effective and less wasteful medium, than sending a direct mail packages by post.

The response rate of SMS marketing in Ireland versus traditional media is also impressive. It is not uncommon for response rates to get as high as 40%. It is much harder to ignore a mobile phone beeping in your pocket than it is say a direct mailing piece sitting on your doorstep.

This SMS message was also good as it made some attempt to give a reason for the promotion. People like to know the reason why you are making them an offer and a St Patrick's day offer is as good as any.

Another plus point of this message is the use of a free offer and waiving of the joining fee; this helps to strengthen the offer and makes it easier for people to try out the service. An even better approach might have been "no joining fee and first month free - try us out a no cost"

Using a deadline for the offer is another positive thing about this SMS marketing message, by specifically giving a date and time prospects know that they need to act quickly. This is quite a strong call to action. Perhaps it could have been made even stronger by saying call ?01 8025906 now avail of this offer?.

Having seen this example of the gym using SMS marketing in Ireland perhaps you can see how you could maybe incorporate SMS marketing to promote your Irish business. This type of campaign can be very straightforward to implement. You don't have to use SMS marketing solely for reactivation of old clients; there are many other business promotion uses for it. One example might be to use inbound SMS messaging to make it really easy for your customers to request your sales materials. You could do this by simply including instructions to text your name and email address to a specific free text number.

SMS marketing is particularly suited to time sensitive offers such as notifying customers at a bar that they are running a comedy night or having a special happy hour. Some businesses use it to try and sell excess capacity at the last minute, for example a hairdresser that has some unfilled appointments on a particular day could text all their regular clients offering 20% off a colour and cut for all appointments booked for that evening.