SMS messages are not just for businesses looking to contact customers; rugby league club Manly are adopting this innovative mode of communication, too.In another innovative example of how bulk SMS can be used by organisations, it has been reported this week that Manly coach Des Hasler has sent group SMS to 11,000 club members in a bid to increase turnout for a crucial match.Sky News Australia reported that the text message was sent with the aim of increasing the number of fans turning out for the Sea Eagle’s grand final qualifier against Brisbane at the SFS tonight.The text message read ‘Friday night Sea Eagles v Broncos the SFS. Get behind our boys as they fight for their spot in the NRL GF.’Something that was undoubtedly of great interest to fans was the fact that the ‘from’ field read ‘Des Hasler’. Although open-rate data is not available as yet, we suspect that the vast majority of Sea Eagle supporters would have opened an SMS message sent to them by the head coach of their favourite rugby league team and initial press reports suggest that the text message has inspired many fans to turn out for the game.The Benefits of Group SMSAustralian businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the power of SMS to communicate with their target audience.The personal nature of SMS messages, such as the group SMS sent by Des Hasler, combined with the fact that text messages have close to a near 100 per cent open rate, make them ideal for sending advertising messages, confirmations and reminders to large groups of people.Along side these major benefits is the ease of set-up and management that SMS offers. No doubt as the Sea Eagles found this week, sending a simple SMS message to a large database of supporters can be done in a matter of minutes.
