SMS Marketing: Here’s how to Use it
Do you know that customers are becoming more and more comfortable interacting with businesses and brands vis SMS Marketing?
Better get on an SMS marketing train today, then tomorrow right?
If you are more interested to get to a wide range of target audiences, then you can try using SMS marketing.
How?
Keep on reading.
1.
SMS Marketing and Customer Service
Well! Today most businesses or brands are using a number of marketing channels, then just using single-channel marketing. Marketers today have access to a number of contact points across various channels, and customers expect businesses to use all of them to offer the best services.
SMS marketing can be an effective complement to your social marketing strategies. How?
Let’s find out.
SMS marketing allows you to reach not only your customers but your potential customers, in real-time with targeted and effective messaging.
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SMS Marketing
SMA marketing is the practice of sending marketing messages via text.
Moreover, it is a form of opt-in marketing that needs contacts to subscribe.
This makes it different from social marketing, where the marketers post public content that people can choose to like or follow.
Some of the common types of SMS marketing examples are:
- personalized promotions
- offers or discounts
- remarketing
- surveys
Surprisingly, many consumers today are comfortable interacting with the business and brands on their mobiles.
In most cases, they expect to be able to reach businesses by messaging or text.
It is no surprise that even back in January 2020, before the pandemic, there was a upended in the ways businesses interacted with customers.
Furthermore, more than half of the U.S retailers planned to increase their digital marketing investment in messaging and investment. Have you heard about word of mouth marketing?
However, by June 202, that number increased to 56%, thus, outranking any area for potential investment.
SMS Customer Service
This is a practice of serving customers through SMS messages, allowing them to “talk” to customer service agents via text.
According to research by Juniper, global mobile business messaging increased by 10% in 2020, reaching about 2.7 trillion messages.
Moreover, SMS accounted for 99% of that messaging traffic, and the retail sector accounted for 408 billion of those messages.
Juniper found that retailers used messaging primarily for:
- order confirmation
- dispatch notifications
- tracking information
- delivery updates
All of these functions fall under the larger umbrella of SMS customer service.
Another important thing to note is that Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of customer service organizations will be using SMS and messaging, rather than native apps.
Furthermore, customers perceive these SMS Messages to be the most valuable ones that any business sends.
Appointment reminders, delivery updates, and booking confirmation all rank above product or service discounts in terms of perceived value.
Therefore, if you are planning to incorporate test message marketing, it is a good idea to include SMS Customer service.
Customers are more likely to subscribe to SMS messages when they see real value in the messages you send them.
Of course, SMS customer services are not just about automated confirmations or reminders.
It also allows your customers to chat directly with customer service reps using one-to-one test messaging.
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2.
SMS Marketing: Benefits
If you are of the view, that SMS marketing is outdated, then consider the following facts: About 71% of the people check their phones within 10 minutes of getting out of bed. Moreover, an average person checks their phone about 344 times a day. Do you still think it’s outdated?
The point here is that people keep their phones handy and are always ready to use them to find information or check social medial posts.
Keep on reading to learn more about the benefits of SMS marketing.
Mobile advertisements work, however, only if your message makes it to the inbox of your customer and only if your ad is mobile optimized.
It is the only way to steer clear of the noise and get a positive ROI, i.e. return on investment.
If you think that you can use Instagram Ads to create a good engagement number, then wait until you see what SMS marketing can do for you.
The following are the many benefits of SMS Marketing:
1# Best Engagement Rate
Emails often sit in the inbox for days and people do not read them. Phone calls can go unanswered, however, text messages are always read immediately after they are sent.
You already know that comparatively dismissal open rates for email.
The average CTR for PPC ads is even worse which is at 2%.
The point here is that SMS marketing is underrated and underappreciated. However, nothing great comes without a catch
Moreover, it is neither ethical nor legal to send unsolicited messages with text-message marketing. You need a written opt-in.
Luckily, customers have an easy way to opt themselves in, or out, straight from their mobile phones with those text-marketing services.
With the help of Attentive’s patent-pending “two-tap” technology, customers can opt-in to a brand’s text messaging subscriber list from their mobile website, social media, or other digital channels.
With one tap, a message will populate in the message box, simply press sends on the pre-populated text message to opt-in and receives a welcome message.
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2# SMS Marketing is Trackable
There a countless text messaging advertising platforms that you can use. These allow you to manage your campaign all from your desktop.
Find a solution that will give you access to detailed analytics and lets you track each step in the conversion process. starting with the initial delivery and opening.
Moreover, one great option you can opt for is SlickText.
There is an advertising and marketing solution that offers analytics as one of its features.
With the help of this, you can track everything from clicks to abandoned cart revenue.
3# Leverage Interactive COntent with SMS Marketing
Test message advertising makes it possible to get feedback from your recipients quickly through tapping on the “reply” button or clicking on your link.
Moreover, you can deliver quick and simple messages that direct subscribers back to your website.
You can use short and sweet messages, and it gets straight to the point.
Not a big deal, right?
Furthermore, you can get creative with your text-marketing campaigns and take inspiration from others as well.
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4# Immediate Delivery and Adds a Personal Touch
Overall mobile marketing is fast.
Once you press “send” your message goes out immediately.
Moreover, you can set up a text message advertising campaign and have hundreds of clicks within a few minutes.
It is important to note that sending a message through your mobile device gives you an informal opportunity to personalize the message.
For instance, using the words “you” and “I” can help drive engagement.
You can also tap into the local events that are relevant to your recipient.
Thus, you can see that the opportunities that come with SMS marketing are endless.
With this, you can personalize your message, direct users to fun games where they can win coupons, and track every step of the conversion process.
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3.
Strategies and Tools
There is a wide range of tactics for mobile texting.
However, they should be familiar if you already run social promotions and contests. For instance, you can send coupons, drive traffic, or engage people through fun, simple, games.
The following are some strategies and tools you can use for SMS marketing:
SMS Marketing Strategies to Try
Some of the SMS Marketing to try are:
Welcome Texts Just like a welcome Email, try sending a welcome text after a customer signs up for your loyalty program.
You can even offer a special discount for new sign-ups to encourage them to shop again with you.
New Product Arrivals As soon as you add new arrivals to your storefront or website, you can use an SMS campaign to let people know that they can start shopping.
Moreover, this is an excellent way to drive traffic and buzz for new items.
Many businesses recommend that you should do this once a season, otherwise, you may run at the risk of spamming your customers.
Flash Sales These are a great way to reward your customers who sign up for your loyalty program.
Let them know that there is a limited-time sale that only they can access via SMS.
Give them a first look or making a sale exclusive to them is a fantastic way to show that you value your business.
Seasonal Sales When it is time to clear out your inventory, send a text to your customers and let them know about your seasonal sale.
Moreover, with Lightspeed Loyalty, you can segment your sends by specific groups to send more targeted messaging.
Filling out Surveys Surveys are a great way to learn more about what your potential customers expect from you.
Furthermore, to increase your chances of getting a higher response rate, try sending a link vi SMS instead of other marketing channels.
For instance, you can use Google Forms or SurveyMonkey for this purpose.
Cross-promote your Social Media Accounts Growing the social media accounts for your business can be a full-time job.
Leverage your SMS marketing audience by sending a text message encouraging them to follow you on social media as well.
Combining this with social media-based giveaways may help to sweeten the deal.
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SMS Marketing Tools
SMS marketing and SMS customer service need more than a simple messaging app on your mobile.
The following are some of the platforms that can help you incorporate SMS into your marketing and customer service strategies:
Sprakcentral by Hootsuite: This one brings all your customer’s service messaging, from SMS, social media, WhatsApp, and apps into one inbox.
Since customers may reach out to use using multiple platforms, this is a key to making sure that your customer service response is part of a unified customer care approach.
Moreover, this tool allows you to incorporate chatbots as well.
EZ Texting: This tool allows you to send a broadcast SMS Campaign to your opt-in list.
Moreover, SMS marketing campaigns can involve contests, coupons, and promo codes, as well as transactional messages like appointment reminders.
They also offer a built-in web form that helps you to convert email subscribers and website visitors to SMS subscribers.
Omnisend: This one has pre-built SMS templates and workflows for chart abandonment and birthday offers.
Moreover, it also provides order and shipping confirmations and provides SMS opt-in tools like pop-ups and landing pages.
It also supports MMS, so you can send GIFs and images with your text messages.
Attentive: Attentive is an enterprise-level SMS marketing platform that many brands use.
With a focus on compliance, it helps you create personalized, targeted text messages that directly lead to revenue.
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Reach your customers where ever they are
Your potential customers spend a lot of time online and on their mobile services. With the help of SMS marketing, you can easily reach them with short and sweet offers.
If you are looking to start an SMS marketing campaign, you can book an appointment today at Markfiniti, talk to the retail expert about the SMS marketing Dubai campaign, you can use today.