The days of single-channel advertising are long gone. Instead, marketing professionals now have access to a multitude of contact points across various platforms. Customers expect business owners to use all of them to provide the best experience possible.
SMS marketing can be a valuable supplement to social marketing because it allows you to reach potential customers—in real-time with focused and efficient messaging.
According to a survey conducted by SellCell, 46% of the 2,000 smartphone users spend 5-6 hours per day on their mobile phones in their spare time.
As a result, businesses must engage in mobile-friendly marketing. SMS messages, fortunately, make this simple because they are structured to be read on mobile screens.
Understanding SMS marketing
Text message marketing is the continuous method of communicating business news, promotional offers, sales, or other relevant data to your customers via SMS or Short Message Service on their smartphones. It is one of the various types of SMS marketing that assists in developing brand awareness on a more personal level. Before you can start sending texts to customers, they must first opt-in.
You can send bulk messages to a set of consumers or audience segments, or you can further personalize the experience by sending personalized messages. This SMS marketing strategy allows marketing professionals to bypass other marketing noise, such as email marketing campaigns social media ads, and go straight to consumers’ phones.
Tips for Winning Marketing Strategies
Consumers are becoming more at ease interacting with businesses via mobile devices. In many instances, they anticipate contacting companies via messaging or text.
So, it’s no surprise that, even before COVID-19 upended the way businesses engaged with clients in January 2020, more than half of U.S. business owners planned to boost their digital advertising investment in SMS and messaging.
According to a survey conducted by eMarketer, that figure had risen to 56%, outpacing any other area for possible investment.
If you’re already using SMS marketing, the following are some best SMS marketing strategies to help you succeed.
- Rebates and sale text promotions
Who doesn’t appreciate a good deal? The most common way to integrate texts into your marketing plan is to invite site visitors to subscribe to your SMS list to be the first to know about your promotions.
Because your loyal customers are likely to want to be kept up to date, enticing them to sign up for a “first look” at your upcoming deals in exchange for their mobile number is an efficient way to gather SMS signups.
Are you holding a flash sale? Do you have a special offer on your latest collection? Send an SMS to your subscribers notifying them of the sale’s start date, the products or collections included, and the sale’s end date.
- Exclusive Content
A marketer’s life is extremely hectic. It’s reasonable that they might not have the time to create a unique message for each channel through which they communicate with the customers and make SMS effective at promoting action. Nevertheless, when talking about successful SMS marketing, message exclusivity is critical.
Send your subscribers exclusive offers and deals. Include text indicating that the offer you’re sending is only for VIP SMS customers. This type of communication will make them feel valued, allowing you to form a stronger bond with your audience and, as a result, reduce opt-outs while increasing conversions.
Spend some time strategizing, particularly for SMS marketing. Create sales, promotions, and deals unique to this platform and make sure users are aware of them. When you ask them to opt-in, clearly state that they will receive exceptional and one-of-a-kind benefits from using your SMS marketing channel.
- Event promotions subscription
Texts are an excellent way to promote in-person events such as trade shows or, more recently, virtual events such as webinars. You can seamlessly direct subscribers to signup, and you can even use SMS to remind registrants of your special events on the day of the event.
Customer segmentation is also useful for identifying those who live nearby and ensuring that only relevant information is sent to your subscribers. You can also use location-based segmentation to communicate notifications to specific customers based on the time zone of the virtual events.
- Image Inclusion
It is common knowledge that including visuals in your communications has a direct and significant effect on click-through rates. A study found out that messages with images had a 52 percent higher CTR than those without visuals.
People are highly visual and respond favorably to images. As a result, it’s always a good idea to include photos, as long as it’s relevant to the message and your business. If you’re in the healthcare CRM software industry, include an image of the listing the subscriber is interested in; if you own a restaurant, include photos of the dishes you serve; and if you have an e-commerce site, include images of the articles the person liked!
Keep in mind that the goal is to make the message as personalized as possible. Including a visual will make the communication more relatable because the first thing users will see when they open it will be something they like.
- Integrate SMS with Other Forms of Advertising
One of the best SMS marketing campaigns is combining multiple types and forms of media. Including content about opting into SMS in your paper and electronic advertisements and on social networking sites can help you expand your viewers with whom you can interact via text. On the other hand, you can include links in your SMS that direct your audience to the latest videos, articles, or other content you’ve published. This can aid in the development of your credibility and brand loyalty.
- Follow Up eCommerce Sales with SMS
Building relationships with customers is more than just what happens before the sale. More of it must occur after the purchase to develop loyal customers, generate repeat sales, and generate new revenue from referrals. Companies that follow clients after the sale are few and far between. SMS is an excellent medium for communicating your post-sale message.
SMS can be used in a variety of ways for sales follow-up. One of the SMS marketing ideas is to notify them when their order will be shipped and provide the shipper’s tracking number.
- Use QR codes
QR codes are another great way to use SMS marketing because they allow others to share your information on social media or their webpage. For example, if your company provides a wide array of goods and services, it may be difficult for customers to locate you; that’s why QR codes are beneficial. This is because you will be able to instantly share all of your promotional content via social networking sites or other websites that also use QR codes.
The likelihood of anyone sharing your SMS on their social networking sites without buying anything from you is relatively low. This strategy will promote better ROI and overall revenue figures in the future by giving customers access to relevant data that they are interested in.
Choose the best SMS strategy for you
When launching SMS, you have the option of choosing from several strategies. Consider the various aspects of your business, such as your event schedule, promotional deals and offers, and upcoming product launches, to determine the best place to start.
Whatever strategy you employ, the essential to a winning SMS marketing campaign is to keep your communication personalized and valuable to your audience—and their particular interests. You will build a beneficial and long-lasting relationship with customers as a result.
