No other marketing platform can offer you a 98% open rate
Easily connect with your customers using SMS marketing
Instant attention with ... MASS COMMUNICATION...
Connect98 is a simple SMS marketing platform for all retailers, restaurants, the leisure & hospitality industry and charities. Our platform enables the sending and receiving of SMS messages for marketing directly to your customers.
What makes our service different from the rest?
We offer a complete end-to-end service that includes data capture. After all, if you do not have your customer’s mobile number, you can’t send them a text message!
Compare our open rates
98% of text messages are read, compared to 22% of emails, 29% of tweets and 12% of Facebook posts.*
* Frost & Sullivan, Slick Text
Connect98 — A 98% open rate
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Businesses we can help:
HOSPITALITY
RETAIL
LEISURE & ENTERTAINMENT
HEALTH & BEAUTY
No matter the size of your company, whether you are an independent restaurant, a retailer, or a large multinational, if you need to communicate with your customers quickly and efficiently, with the best possible response rates, we have the solution for you.
Don’t see your industry here, but like the sound of text marketing?
We provide data capture
Customers choose to sign up for your SMS text marketing using our simple devices, branded with your company logo.
Their number is then stored in your business owner’s database within the Connect98 platform, enabling you to build a database of loyal customers that want to hear from you.
Create your own messages. Choose when to send them
Use your Connect98 account to tell the most important people all about your business. Connect98 can help get your customers back through the door.
Exclusive rewards only available through SMS
Special offers and deals
Discount codes
Last-minute offers & availability
Announcements & confirmations
Run competitions
New lines added
New branches opening
Complete in-house Text Marketing Tool
It does not matter what social media platform your customers use, or whether they have iOS or Android handsets, every mobile handset irrespective of make or model will receive an SMS.
Connect98 provides you with a dynamic and versatile marketing tool that will allow you to communicate with as many, or as few of your customers quickly and effectively.
DATA CAPTURE
Located at the point of sale, or handed out by staff, invite your customers to enter their mobile number into your unique Connect98 kiosk, to receive promotions and special offers, or to join your loyalty program.
Use Connect98 supplied QR codes printed on posters, leaflets, menus and even beer mats for additional ways to capture those numbers.
UPLOAD EXISTING DATA
Using existing data you have collected over time, upload this into groups by event, dates, or buying habits. Take advantage of mail merge capabilities by adding names to your uploads to personalise your messages. GDPR compliant.
YOUR OWN DIGITAL LOYALTY SCHEME
Customers are asked to ‘check in’ by entering their mobile number into your Connect98 kiosk. All you do is decide how many visits they make before they are sent a reward text, created by you.
SMS KEYWORDS
Use SMS Keywords so customers can easily interact with your business. You can also use these to run competitions helping you to capture more data.
An SMS keyword is a word or abbreviation that people text to an SMS short code number using their mobile phone. SMS keywords are used to interact with your business using our 5-digit short code (60163).
For example, you may have a pub called The Rose & Crown, so you could have the Keyword ‘Rose’. Then via your website, social media, printed items etc. you ask people to text Rose to 60163, perhaps motivating them with a discount offer.
Connect98 will capture the number, add it to the database with a date and time stamp, as well as sending an automated response, which could include a voucher code enabling the customer to take advantage of your offer.
N.B. Text messages incorporating Connect98 SMS Keywords are charged at standard SMS rates.
AT A GLANCE REPORTING
Quick view reports, showing visitors by day, date and time. Frequency of visits and campaign redemption. Reporting also shows number of messages sent and delivered and more.
“We have been customers of Connect98 across the group for several years now and consider them to be a valued business partner. Their service allows us to create a very valuable database of customers mobile numbers.
A short message with a little incentive always generates more business. Text marketing also helped us enormously when we came out of lockdown. It was the quickest and easiest way to let our customers know we were open again.”
Vinay Bhudia, General Manager,
Tiger Bay International
“One of the most useful features of the Connect98 system is that we can send messages out from Head Office to all our customers, or just locally from any location. We also run competitions using different keywords and always get a great response from that.
Because the response to text is almost immediate, we can send out announcements relating to real-time weather conditions, eg ‘Come and bowl when it is too hot, too cold, too wet...’”
Ana Pinto, Head of Marketing,
Namco Funscape (10-pin bowling)
“Vaping manufacturers are continually adding new products and different, updated vaping devices to their range. Rather than waiting for customers to come into any of our shops to see what is new and available, we often send a text message. We can include in this a link to our website where they can explore the entire range.
I would recommend Connect98 to any retailer that wants to encourage repeat business. It is a great way to stay in touch.”
David Carmichael, Owner,
Carmichaels Vaping
“We started using Connect98 a few months before lockdown and thank goodness we did. Coming out of lockdown it seemed like the whole country needed a haircut and every hairdresser was trying to greet them. We got in first, sent a message out as soon as Boris made his announcement and within 24 hours nearly 20% of our database had made appointments. It is all about getting there first. You know what they say, ‘if you snooze – you lose’.”
Lisa Harris, Owner,
Colour By Lisa
“The course was flooded a few years back and we had to let all our members know that it was unplayable. There was no point in sending an email as that may not be read for days. We ended up phoning all our most likely effected members. Following that incident, we decided to look at SMS as a medium for communicating quickly, mainly because of its instant impact and high open-rate.
The Connect98 platform suited all our requirements and even allowed us to capture the numbers of our ‘Pay & Play’ visitors. We now use it on a regular basis to advise of spare Tee times and Clubhouse events. We are very happy with the service they provide.”
Andrew Killing, General Manager,
Thorney Park Golf Club
“Connect98 has been extremely useful to us in keeping all my therapists busy throughout the day. We can determine when our advance bookings have dropped, and send out incentives to fill those slots. We also use the loyalty scheme rather than printing and stamping cards.”
Rumana Merali, Owner,
Rumiz Beauty Studio
“At Santa Pod we have been using texting and Connect98 for a long time. We are able to grow the size of our customer database when we interact with them on event days.
Between races we ask visitors to text us using ‘POD’ to 60163, followed by a record they would like to hear, or a Birthday/Anniversary they would like read out. With Connect98’s real-time monitoring our PA announcer is able to see these requests as they come in. We are also able to capture the mobile number and adding it to our database, we then have more people to market to for future events.”
Caroline Holden, Commercial Manager,
Santa Pod Drag Racing