SlickText is a leading marketing and communication platform.
Bobby Angilella is the co-founder and Vice PResident of Business Development at SlickText. Bobby plays an imperative role in the business for which tasks include product development, future vision, marketing, SEO, sales, support, customer education and on-boarding, management, and running day to day operations. He is also the face of SlickText with a YouTube channel dedicated to educating users on compliance, strategy and product.
Introduction
Describe your tech in 1 sentence. Your job title and day-day role in the company, how long been there, Size of team, key responsibilities.SlickText is a mobile marketing and mass text messaging service with products and features built to connect humans directly with the brands they love.
○ Robert Angilella, Co-Founder / VP
○ I play an imperative, forward-thinking role in the SlickText business for which tasks include product development, on-boarding, marketing, sales, customer support and education as well as internal management and day-to-day operations.
Market problem
Introduce the market problem that your company / technology solves.
○ Lack of engagement across other marketing channels such as email
○ Previous inability to reach all customers anytime, anywhere
○ Ease of use for consumer as well (easier to opt in, opt out, respond etc. by sending one text vs. responding via email)
Data showing market problem
Showcase some data or explain what data reaffirms this market problem.
○ Data points found here including:
■ 85% of customers prefer receiving text messages over a phone call or email.
■ More people send text messages than own personal computers or landline telephones.
Introduce your technology
What is your technology name, how have you positioned the company to solve the market problem?
○ The goal with SlickText has always been to remove complexity while still providing an amazing user experience, and enterprise level functionality and scalability. From rock-solid hardware and infrastructure, to best-in-class messaging quality and high-quality usability, we’re the SMS market leader.
Describe the history of the tech / company
What is the background of the company, how old, how many employees, journey, number of customers, valuation, type of ownership public / private?
○ Company History
○ Highlight messaging around what Matt saw was wrong with other SMS solutions that led to SlickText’s inception
Who do you best serve (your customers)?
Who is best suited to use your tech, examples of current clients?
○ Today, over 10,000 total customers across North America, including ESPN, American Cancer Society and FedEx, use SlickText’s award-winning software influence decisions using permission-based SMS marketing automation.
○ Nearly any industry and business can utilize SMS to enhance marketing, sales, customer service and internal processes. However, because of texting’s immediate, notification-based system and the familiarity consumers have with the channel, retail, B2C and consumer-facing organizations deploy it to help grow their business, reward loyal customers and increase offer redemption. Some of our most popular verticals include:
■ Retail stores, eCommerce websites
■ SMBs, nonprofit organizations, churches, schools
■ Restaurants, grocery shops, bars, coffee shops
■ Movie theaters, golf courses, gyms, spas
How do you solve the market problem?
How specifically do you solve the market problem?
○ The problem: Lack of engagement across other marketing channels such as email
■ The solution: Engagement rates of text
○ The problem: Previous inability to reach all customers anytime, anywhere
■ The solution: Companies can now reach all consumers in the palm of their hand
○ The problem: Ease of use for consumer as well (easier to opt in, opt out, respond etc. by sending one text vs. responding via email)
■ The solution: Text is just as easy for consumers to engage with as it is for companies to send
What is your unique selling point (USP)?
What is different from your tech to others (specifically) is its algorithm, CX, what gives you the edge over competitors?
○ SlickText sets itself apart from competitors with its ease of use — other SMS service providers are difficult to use while, with SlickText, users can be up and running within minutes.
○ It’s also easy to set up automated SMS touchpoints and buyer journeys. Long, complex campaigns, with SlickText, can be implemented quickly and users can incorporate personalized, triggered-based communication. Now, the recipient can control their own customized journey. No other competitor can match SlickText’s workflow capabilities.
○ Many retailers use SlickText for loyalty program features. SlickText’s loyalty program software makes it easy to launch a rewards program and manage everything with zero headaches. It’s easy to manage, very affordable, and allows you to grow SMS marketing lists to re-engage your customers and drive future sales. Features include:
■ Loyalty program analytics and reporting
■ Easy customer check-ins and can send SMS alerts
■ Managing customer points and rewards
Examples of customers helped
Any examples of before and after, what was the challenge, what were results?
○ Example: Freshly Picked Michigan Apples
○ The Challenge:
Freshly Picked Michigan Apples previously texted customers twice per year: Once to remind them to place an order and again when their order was ready. When Richert, the owner, started his business, a rudimentary strategy worked fine, but as he grew it became hard to scale:
■ Richert’s staff sent these texts individually — with a list of nearly 1,000 customer Richert estimated it consumed between 40 to 60 hours of staff time.
■ If a customer placed an order via text, Richert and his team manually wrote it down. Not only was this time consuming, but as the business grew it proved increasingly harder to keep track of orders.
■ Staff were required to verify and update contact information manually when customers received their orders. This took a lot of time but the biggest risk was that staff would transcribe the wrong information, making it impossible to follow up with that same customer the next year.
○ The Results:
Freshly Picked Michigan Apples transitioned to SlickText at the end of July 2020, at which point Richert added a link on the company’s website for customers to opt-in to company texts.
■ In three weeks, they gained 150 subscribers, an increase of nearly 20%.
■ The first campaign Richert set up reminded customers to order, which resulted in $15,000 in sales in just five days. Previously, it took three months of collecting handwritten orders one at a time to make comparable sales.
■ In the first month of using SlickText sales grew to 95% of the prior year’s total. This translates to about a 60-70% improvement to engagement from the prior year. The only significant change was the incorporation of SMS texts vs email and social media communications. Freshly Picked Michigan Apples finished their season growing total sales by 50% and credited improved messaging engagement as a main factor.
What was the before and after (the impact)?
A normal customer, what impact would they see if they signed up straight away?
○ A ‘normal’ customer would be implementing a service that’s incredibly easy to use and a channel that increases overall marketing engagement and one that drives business results. Text messages are read within the first 5 minutes 95% of the time and the average American looks at their cell phone 150 times per day. Businesses immediately would be able to connect with consumers in the channel they use to communicate the most, guaranteeing engagement and brand interaction.
Where does your tech sit in the MarTech stack?
○ SMS and SlickText fit well into any marketing mix and multichannel marketing operations. It’s easy to incorporate with other channels, like email, to create a variety of campaigns: lead nurturing and engagement campaigns, intelligent abandoned cart sequencing, drip campaigns, subscriber data collection sequences and much more.
Pricing, onboarding, timeline of adoption
What is your pricing model, how long does it take to onboard, key stakeholders involved?
○ Pricing
○ Length of onboarding: Minutes