Kidd Family Auctions Inc. is a family-owned and operated company that was founded in 2015. Dennis Kidd founded the company, which now includes three generations of Kidds as well as hand-picked staff members.
Prior to 2019, the company was entirely focused on in-person events, but it has since shifted its focus to online and mobile events, serving hundreds of customers across Ontario, Canada.
Doing business these days requires activity on many marketing channels including eBlasts, radio ads, print, national TV commercials, social advertising among others. These channels help to reach a broad demographic of buyers. The company recently allocated a portion of its marketing budget to sms marketing with Raange in order to test a new revenue channel, and the following results have been obtained:
- Results are almost instant – you can see an increase in online traffic and sales within 1-2 hours of sending a campaign.
- Because they are constantly on their phones, sms marketing targets a younger demographic of 18-35 year olds.
“There’s no denying that SMS marketing generates traffic and sales for our events. I can see an increase in traffic to my website as soon as I send a text messaging campaign,” explained Lyn Grose, Owner Operator at Kidd Family Auctions Inc. “Now text messaging is part of our monthly marketing mix.”
Challenge
Kidd Family Auctions was looking for a new marketing channel to engage a younger demographic of buyer between the ages of 18 and 34.
They were having success with radio ads, print ads, and a national TV commercial targeting older generations. Finding the right channel for young buyers became more important as they transitioned to mobile and digital events in order to continue growing their business.
The Kidd Family Auctions team was constantly talking to younger buyers to see where they spent the majority of their time and it quickly became clear that they spent a lot of time on their phones.
Kidd Family Auctions needed a way to engage users on their mobile devices and preferred to collaborate with a Canadian company that provided SMS marketing services in Canada.
Solution
People look at their phones 150+ times per day on average. Text messaging became an obvious channel for the company to test.
Despite the fact that SMS is a decades-old technology, text messages are opened (98% open rate) and read in 3-5 mins. This meant that you were able to send a campaign and expect instant results.
Kidd Family Auctions tested Raange, a Canadian SMS marketing platform that safely hosts all customer data in Canada, to try out SMS marketing for their company.
Because digital and mobile auction events can occur at any time, traffic and audience must be engaged quickly and timed just before auction events.
On the same day as their auction, Kidd Family Auctions decided to send a text message campaign. If a sale is planned for 5:00 p.m., an SMS message is scheduled and sent to their marketing list at 2:00 p.m.
Results
Buyers read and respond to text messages in less than 5 minutes, and Kidd Family Auctions saw an increase in traffic to their online auctions immediately after launching their messaging campaign.
“I can monitor the events on my site and see that traffic and bidder registration are at a standstill. So I’ll set up and send a campaign from the Raange Marketing Engagement platform, and almost immediately after the text message is sent, there’s an increase in traffic and sales – exactly what I wanted,” explains Lyn Grose.
Kidd Family Auctions has continued to use SMS marketing on a monthly basis since then.