How to Dominate the Digital Age: All you Need to Know about SMS Marketing

In today’s digitally-driven era, sending an SMS to communicate is quite uncommon, which is why SMS marketing has nearly vanished. However, with time, marketers are realizing the potential of this faded marketing niche and bringing it back. As the name suggests, SMS marketing uses text messages to engage with users and spread brand awareness. This will allow you to continually grow your brand and attract new customers.

Here is everything you need to know about SMS marketing and use it to your maximum advantage.

Benefits of SMS Marketing

Many digital marketers still consider SMS marketing a traditional practice. However, when put to proper use, SMS marketing can generate revenue and attract more customers.

Here are a few benefits of using this said traditional marketing strategy in this modern era:

•       SMSs are quick and accessible. You can reach a massive audience within a few seconds, giving you the power to control the date, time, and receiver numbers at once.
•       Promotional text messages are primarily sent only to those receivers who opt-in for your promotional campaigns, newsletters, and messages. This lets you target only those customers who are genuinely interested in your brand, thereby generating a positive response and sales.
•       Since SMSs are trackable, you can easily learn more about the promos and texts that work and are effective. This, in turn, lets you improve your campaigns and float more effective strategies in the future.
•       You can keep your customers in the loop and urge them to forward your text messages to their loved ones, thereby helping you gain more customers.

Designing your SMS Marketing Campaign

Even though SMS marketing seems simple, you must consider certain aspects when designing a campaign. Some of these include –

Send Automated Messages

If your customers have been subscribed to your newsletter or brand for a prolonged period, you can send them automated text messages that are already typed out and sent to them at once.

Send Exclusive Offers

Use promotional message styles to send offers and discounts to your customers. Your SMS must be convincing and compel your customers to take advantage of the opportunity. For this to work, your SMS must be crafted in a convincing tone. Hire a professional copywriter to urge your customers to take action. At the same time, add a call-to-action button or feature at the end of your SMS like a website link or a ‘reply to this text’ prompt. By adding a similar feature, you can compel your customers to take action instantly instead of keeping them waiting for the next step.

Attach it with Other Marketing Campaigns

To make SMS marketing more effective, attach it to other marketing campaigns such as social media and email marketing to double your reach and engagement. Relying solely on SMS marketing is an unwise step, especially when you have a massive audience to cater to. Make it a part of a multi-channel marketing campaign for it to work effectively. You must ensure that your campaigns are uniform throughout and use a common tone. If you fail to display a common style across your campaigns, your audience will not be able to relate to it.

Best Practices

When taking up SMS marketing, you must consider these practices for quick success –

1.     Timing is Important

As soon as you send an SMS, most customers will instantly receive and open it, which is why timing is important. You cannot send an SMS in the middle of the night and expect the receiver to respond. Consider timings when your customer is open to engagement. To decide these periods, you must first experiment by sending messages at different times throughout the day. For instance, send an SMS at 10 in the morning, one at 2 pm, followed by the last batch at 4 pm. Click-through rates and similar statistics can be used to determine the ideal timing and engagement rate of your customers. Several service providers can help you determine these rates. When you look at their website, you can also sign up for services that let you connect to customers across the world. In turn, this helps you increase your global reach.

2.     Ensure your Customers’ Active Participation

Most customers receive tons of text messages from brands. It is highly likely that your customers will overlook your messages and promotional offers. Before you send an SMS, make sure to get your customers’ consent as failing to do will be considered spamming. Unsolicited text messages are frowned upon, which can lead to the failure of your marketing campaign. In extreme cases, certain customers may even decide to disassociate with your brand due to such mere annoyances. Unless your customers have opted in and agreed to receive your text messages, avoid sending them.

3.     Keep your Message Signature Concise

When sending an SMS, keep your brand signature short and concise. However, make sure that your customer recognizes the sender. Since SMSs have a 160-character limit, a major part of your text message should be used to convey important data and not covered with your signature. You cannot use the same signature that your brand uses at the end of each marketing strategy. Instead of writing your brand’s name, slogan, and contact details, resort to your brand’s identity tag, which is also used as your social media handle or something that your customers relate to.

Even though SMS marketing is an effective ploy to generate more sales, it is necessary to use it the right way. It is gaining traction for the right reasons. Whether you are a small brand or an established business, SMS marketing can help increase sales and customer engagement.