Businesses use SMS to communicate with customers on a personal level, connecting and engaging with them in their preferred channel. Smart segmentation of customer data, such as name and purchase history, enhances messaging with relevance and value.
Encourage opt-ins by making your SMS program easy to sign up for. Share the value of subscribing, such as ordering and shipping updates, promotions, and company news.
SMS Marketing Definition
When used with the right strategy and a robust customer engagement platform, Bulk SMS Services can be a powerful tool that delivers significant impact for businesses of all sizes. In this blog, we’ll explore the unique characteristics of the SMS channel and how to leverage it alongside other channels to achieve maximum results.
SMS is a direct and highly effective communication channel that allows businesses to reach their target audience at the moment. It’s a great choice for ecommerce stores, travel companies and other retail brands that need to convey important and time-sensitive information immediately and reliably.
In order to send promotional or marketing messages via SMS, marketers must first gather a customer’s mobile phone number and obtain their permission with an SMS opt-in message. This process is critical to building trust and respect with customers, as it ensures that they are aware of what kind of messaging they will receive from the brand and are able to easily unsubscribe if they no longer wish to receive such messages.
Once a business has the permission of its targeted audience to communicate with it via SMS, it must then use a unified communication platform that can support both the sending and receiving of SMS messages to manage its program. This includes tools that allow for a smooth integration of the channel alongside other impactful channels like email and in-app messaging. In addition to an easy-to-use interface for creating and scheduling messages, a good unified communication platform will also feature an automated delivery capability that can help ensure that key time-sensitive messages are delivered at the right moments and in the correct format.
As a channel that is often viewed as intrusive, brands must honour the brief nature of the SMS message by keeping content short and to the point. This will ensure that each message is a relevant and valuable piece of communication for your customers.
It’s also best to only use SMS for time-sensitive, relevant and exclusive messages. Suppose a company is using bulk SMS Services to share a special deal on a weekend sale, for example. In that case, it makes more sense to deliver the message via text than in an email because it will increase the likelihood that consumers will notice and act on the offer immediately.
Benefits of SMS Marketing
Unlike email marketing, which often requires the consumer to take action, SMS messaging puts your business’s message in the hands of consumers. This makes it easy for them to interact with your brand in a more timely and convenient way. It’s also a highly effective tool for customer retention and loyalty. It can be used to drive up e-commerce conversion rates.
Using the right message and creativity, you can build a positive brand experience with your customers that will keep them coming back.
The key is to create the right Bulk SMS marketing strategy, and this includes creating clear value for subscribers. To do this, you need to set expectations upfront, clearly explaining the type of communications your business will send and how frequently. For example, some companies include a welcome message upon opt-in that thanks the customer for signing up and provides an overview of the types of messages they can expect to receive. This helps customers to feel in control of their opt-in and is a legal requirement when complying with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
Once you’ve gained permission from your customers to communicate with them via SMS, the most important thing is to keep your messages short and relevant. Use shortened links to avoid filler content that eats up the 160-character limit, and make sure your customers recognize your brand name instantly.
Also, don’t forget to include an unsubscribe option in each message so that consumers can easily stop your text messaging program at any time.
For e-commerce brands, a common SMS marketing strategy involves using automated remarketing messages to re-engage shoppers who have abandoned their cart or didn’t complete their order.
The messaging aims to convince them to finish their purchase and is often accompanied by a discount code that’s exclusive to those who are subscribed to the business’s text message program.
Retailers can also rely on SMS to promote upcoming sales and offers, such as flash sales and event invitations. This is a great way to drive in-store traffic and generate more revenue for the company. In addition, service-based companies can use SMS to remind customers of upcoming appointments, reducing the number of no-shows and improving client satisfaction.
Best Practices for SMS Marketing
When sending bulk SMS messages, it is important to keep in mind the 160-character limit and to be concise. Avoid filler content and long links that may eat up the character limit. Using online link shorteners is a good way to ensure that your message stays within the limit. Keeping your SMS messages relevant to the customer will help increase the chance of them being opened and acted upon.
It is also important to set clear expectations for the type of messages you will send before people subscribe to your SMS program. This can be done in two places: when you advertise your SMS program and in the auto-responder that subscribers receive after texting to join or completing a web form.
Marketers should also remember that SMS is a very personal channel and that they need to get the customers’ permission before sending them anything. Marketing teams that don’t do this risk jarring customers with random out-of-the-blue texts that they may perceive as spam or junk mail.
Aside from getting the customers’ permission, marketers should use a variety of ways to segment their audience list and send them relevant, timely messages. This includes demographic segmentation, which involves categorizing the audience based on age, gender, and location. It also includes behavioural segmentation, which is a more advanced form of targeting that focuses on the customer’s purchase history, engagement levels, and browsing behaviour.
Lastly, marketers should also consider including location-based campaigns in their SMS strategy. These are a great way to engage with consumers at the point of sale and can be used to offer coupons, rewards, or loyalty incentives that can be redeemed in-store. For example, AMC Theaters uses their SMS channel to keep customers up-to-date with their movie tickets, rewards points, and other membership benefits by offering exclusive offers like concession discounts, special event invites, and swag giveaways.
Lastly, it is important to monitor the performance of your SMS campaigns regularly and to make necessary adjustments. This can be done by analyzing delivery rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes to understand what is working and where you need to improve your messaging. By examining these results, marketers can hone their messaging and drive more action from their SMS campaigns in the future.
Final Thoughts
While other marketing channels offer impressive ROIs, SMS is the most effective channel for reaching customers and prospects with immediate, personalized messages. Its simple, cost-effective nature and high open and engagement rates make it a valuable addition to your business’s marketing toolkit.
The quickest way to start growing your customer base and maximizing the reach of your campaigns is by collecting SMS opt-ins on your website. To do this, add a checkbox to your online contact form that allows contacts to consent to receive text messages from your brand. This ensures that you’re collecting SMS consent and meeting compliance standards.
This is a key component of successful SMS marketing and something that businesses often overlook. You need to be transparent about how you’ll use your contacts’ information and provide them with the ability to stop communications at any time. Depending on the use case, this can be done in several ways.
For example, suppose your company plans to use SMS to communicate with employees. In that case, you can include an employee opt-in as part of your onboarding process. This might be in the form of a checkbox on an email sign-up form or even on a paper form that your employees will review during their onboarding session.
Another great way to collect SMS opt-ins is through mobile apps. Most apps allow you to build and manage your list of contacts in a way that is convenient for both you and your audience. They also allow you to quickly send SMS messages to a large number of people at once.
When choosing an SMS app to use for your business, I recommend looking for one that’s affordable and has low-volume requirements so you can get started quickly. Most of the apps I’ve used and reviewed are easy for a regular person to set up and use without needing technical expertise.
While other marketing channels might give you the impression that your message is getting lost in the crowd, SMS offers a direct line to your audience’s mobile phones. This means your messages are more likely to be read and responded to, giving you a stronger return on investment than other channels like social media or paid ads.
