People tend to ask whether SMS marketing is relevant now? Being one of the most ancient models of marketing, whether it has the same value in the time of social media and instant messengers like WhatsApp? However, the fact is that Short Message Service and text messages are still valid as the most fundamental and valuable mode of marketing communication. To use SMS as a mode of marketing, the content needed to be carefully planned and communicated effectively to the audience.
However, nowadays, SMS Marketing is more permission-based than being a spontaneous reach-to-all platform. So, each customer who had permitted you to contact them with marketing messages can be counted as your prospective customers, and you should honor their loyalty while planning for SMS campaigns. There are various modes of collecting the customer’s phone numbers and get them to subscribe to your SMS messages.
A successful approach to SMS Marketing
An ideal SMS Marketing campaign aims at sending concise messages with a clear call-to-action. There are options now to personalize the text by including the customer’s first name also to make it more attractive. The call to action can be an e-mail ID, coupon code to be redeemed at the website, link to a landing page for a special offer, etc. To measure the success of a typical SMS campaign, you can track the responses to your call to action. The online SMS platforms will also offer you a detailed delivery report for each SMS campaign you initiated.
While planning for SMS marketing campaigns, an ideal approach is to segment the customers based on their preferences. This will ensure that you send only relevant messages based on their tastes and interests. This will help build a long-term healthy relationship with them. Studies have shown that purpose-specific SMS marketing is more likely to reap more results. Many countries have also mandated SMS marketing to have opt-out options too in the sent SMS. This can be done effectively in various ways like including a keyword or giving directions to customers for an opt-out link.
Even though mail marketing is a successful and longstanding mode of marketing, it falls behind SMS marketing in terms of click-through rates and readability stats. Considering all these, SMS marketing has a lot to offer to business marketers when compared to other advanced modes of marketing. Further, we will discuss some key reasons why SMS marketing is preferred over email marketing by many established online marketers.
1) Immediate impact
One primary benefit of bulk SMS marketing campaigns is that it will reach the customer’s inbox instantly. Unlike emails, which the users only access a few times a day, SMS create an immediate impact. As people carry their mobile phones always with them, they tend to access them as soon as they hear the message alert. The experts at SimpleTexting also point out the fact that the results of SMS marketing messages are almost instantaneous than email marketing.
2) More convenient and authentic
We can see that almost 70% of the marketing e-mails are counted as spasm and end up in the corresponding folder, but the case of SMS is different. Text messages, limited to 160 characters can be made very crisp and focused to the point, which has the scope of directly lending to the inbox of the receiver. A well-written SMS which is concise and crisp may not be a hassle for the recipient to go through in a few seconds and respond if needed. SMS marketing can be done at times convenient to the users as compared to email marketing.
3) Better target the audience
You can gather customer preferences and divide your audience into various categories to plan for focused SMS marketing campaigns. Targeted marketing seemed to have better results compared to bulk mailing or bulk SMS campaigns. Targeted marketing will also help save your advertising costs also.
4) Offers more marketing flexibility
SMS marketing also offers better flexibility to the marketers to handle their operations as the changes can be applied anytime. As the information is delivered instantly, you can also plan for time-critical marketing campaigns too through SMS. For example, if you are planning to give a special dinner offer to your loyal customers, you can send an SMS with a coupon code or an invitation in the late afternoon to drag in more people on a lean weekday to your restaurant.
5) Brand recognition
Consumers need to hear your name consistently to recognize your brand instantly when they come across it with a need in hand. SMS marketing can be effectively used for brand recognition. Then needed to be constantly updated about your latest products, special offers, discounts, etc. It is a proven fact that your brand can be easily recognized through SMS compared to email marketing where people may tend to ignore an announcement. Also, short 160-character count restriction in SMS will also prompt the recipients to read through it even if they are not in need.
6) Two-way channel for communication
Marketing communication is only fulfilled when there is a scope for two-way communication than being just one-sided. Such an approach encourages feedback of the customers with shortcodes through SMS or replying to a specific survey through SMS. A well-designed SMS marketing campaign will surely get your customer engaged with your message, which can be further converted to engagement with your products and services.
If we have to enumerate more, their hundreds of reasons why SMS marketing is preferable over email marketing for many of the expert marketers across the globe. However, even though just 160 characters to make, SMS marketing content needs to be prepared creatively and innovatively to make it engaging and ensure customer engagement.
If you are a special offer to your loyal subscribers or to declare and end-of-season sales with huge discounts, no doubt that SMS marketing is the best option to consider, if you have to share some information at short notice or to put forth a limited time offer coupon code, then also SMS can be the ideal mode. Going, a step ahead, you may also use SMS marketing as a model of customer support too.
