SMS marketing has slowly been dominating other marketing channels for a while now. Yet, some people are skeptical about the effectiveness of an SMS marketing strategy.
This skepticism isn’t surprising, seeing the number of marketing messages people ignore daily. However, SMS marketing is the easiest way to reach mobile devices. All you have to do is pay attention to your writing and offering in the message. After all, why would people ignore a well-crafted message that speaks to their needs and preferences?
While that might seem difficult, it is attainable. You just need the right strategies to ensure your SMS campaigns bring the desired return on investment (ROI).
So, let’s explore SMS marketing from its definition and benefits to strategies and best practices!
The “What” and “Why” of SMS Marketing
There’s a huge difference between business and regular texts, even though both reach receivers through the same app. Failing to grasp this concept is probably why many SMS marketing campaigns fail. To understand this, let’s define SMS marketing.
SMS marketing is a form of mobile marketing where businesses send promotional messages to customers via text messages. It’s a direct and immediate way to reach your target audience with time-sensitive offers, updates, or alerts.
There’s little need to pay attention to grammar and punctuation when texting friends and family. You can write the words on the spot without overthinking. However, that’s not the case with SMS marketing.
Businesses have to be careful about how they craft their messages. Their tone, language, and offer should be so convincing that the receivers can’t help but react. This effort is worth your time because, as mentioned, SMS marketing reaches your customers directly. There’s no prerequisite of having an Internet connection or visiting your venue.
Moreover, bulk SMS is cost-effective, especially if you choose the right SMS marketing platform. If your campaigns are interesting enough, you can recover the money you invested in sending the messages.
Besides, channels like email marketing don’t have the open rates that SMS marketing has to offer. Statistics reveal that most people open and respond to their messages within three minutes of receiving them.
High open rates also translate to a high conversion rate, provided you’ve paid proper attention. Why wouldn’t a person take action if what you’re offering is something they need?
Additionally, you’ll have to gain explicit consent from SMS subscribers to text them. Getting this permission means they’re genuinely interested in what you have to say. This means they’ll show more engagement when you text them.
Difference Between an Email and SMS Marketing Strategy
Email and SMS marketing have the fiercest competition in marketing communications. Being highly personalizable, marketers often prefer one over the other. That’s understandable, but only when you use these channels interchangeably.
In simpler terms, email and texting both have their use cases. To ensure effective use, choose the one that fits your needs. With that said, let’s discuss the difference between an email and SMS marketing strategy to guide your choice.
Starting with the format, you can send more detailed content with images, links, and calls to action (CTAs) through emails. On the other hand, SMS only allows you 160 characters to convey your message. So, only choose email when you want to go more in-depth with your content.
However, if you want the highest open rates, email might not be your best choice. After all, it only provides 21% open rates compared to 82% of text marketing.
Moreover, you can’t send emails when the matter is time-sensitive. Most people keep their email notifications off, which isn’t the case with SMS. So, use SMS to deliver daily updates and reminders. On the other hand, email is a better choice to send monthly updates and newsletters.
Another thing to note is that SMS might have different reporting capabilities than email. You can learn a lot about your customers by tracking your email campaign’s success. That might not be the case with SMS marketing if you don’t choose the right tool.
That said, you must remember that your channel choice will also depend on your customers’ preferences. If they engage more with your email campaigns, wasting money on SMS and vice versa doesn’t make sense.
How To Create an Effective Bulk SMS Marketing Strategy
Creating an effective bulk SMS marketing strategy isn’t a one-day venture where you develop campaigns on the spot. Even when you’ve made the strategy, you must revise it and keep changing it to meet new customer demands. With that said, let’s discuss the process you need to follow:
- Set your goals: Creating an SMS marketing strategy starts by knowing what you want to obtain. Do you need more sales or engagement? Answering such questions will help you create campaigns toward your overall goal.
- Study your competition: You must know what your competitor is doing to build an effective strategy. See what they’re focusing on and what they’re missing. This way, you can set yourself apart from the competition.
- Understand your customers: Coming up with a unique selling point also depends on what your customers need. So, learn as much about them as you can.
- Choose a platform: Once you’ve studied your competition and target audience, research platforms. Look for the one that fulfills your specific needs.
- Build your list and segment it: The next step is gathering contacts. Offer incentives like discounts, free resources, and exclusive access after providing phone numbers. Then, segment the list based on multiple parameters like demographics, behavior, etc. The platform will help you with this.
- Craft compelling content: Content is one of the most essential parts of a marketing strategy. You’ll have to use the correct language and tone for your campaigns. This involves following some best practices that we’ll discuss later.
- Test and improve: Creating a strategy is an ongoing process. So, test some campaigns and see how they perform. Make the appropriate changes until you get your desired results.
3 Best SMS Marketing Strategies To Boost Conversions
Now that you know how to create a strategy, let’s look at some use cases to help you use it. But first, let’s discuss the difference between a strategy and a campaign. A strategy is something you’ll come up with before crafting the campaigns.
Campaigns, on the other hand, are the messages that you craft while keeping your strategy in mind. This means the strategy is a map where campaigns are multiple stops. With that said, let’s look at the three best SMS marketing strategies to boost conversions.
1. Share Updates About Your Products
Launching a new product without promoting it won’t get you many sales. Since SMS marketing has immediate reach, it’s one of the best ways to promote newly launched products.
It can generate excitement and encourage customers to take immediate action. For example, you could say, “Check out our latest obsession.”
Similarly, many customers want to make immediate purchases when businesses restock their favorite products. Again, SMS is the best way to provide these updates. A sample message would be, “Your favorite [product] is back in stock!”
Holding events at your venue is a great way to attract new visitors and convert them into customers. Online events like webinars and contests also serve the same purpose. However, it isn’t easy to get people to attend your events.
With email and social media, your ad might not reach your target audience before it’s too late.
But with SMS, they’ll immediately get the message. That’s a significant benefit of SMS marketing. If you make the event sound like something they can gain from, you’ll have earned yourself a visitor!
3. Initiate Proximity Marketing
Proximity marketing involves using the customer’s proximity to your venue to promote your products. SMS marketing is one of the best ways to initiate this type of marketing.
You can either set up free WiFi at your venue or use a Bluetooth beacon to detect nearby devices. If you have the customer’s permission, you can send them push notifications with a discount code. Since they’ll already be near your venue, they won’t hesitate to visit and use the code.
3 B2B SMS Marketing Strategies that Enhance Customer Engagement
Contrary to popular belief, B2B marketing differs slightly from regular SMS marketing. If you own such a business, you’re dealing with businesses like yours. This means you’re targeting decision-makers rather than individual consumers.
Therefore, your language and campaigns must differ slightly from those of other businesses. For example, you must spend more time educating and nurturing your customers.
If you’re unsure what this means, the following sections can help. They’ll discuss three B2B SMS marketing strategies to guide your approach.
1. Remind and Notify
B2B companies often work on monthly subscriptions. With the number of subscriptions the average person has, it’s easy to forget about some. In this case, it’s your responsibility as the business to remind your customers. This is something they’ll be expecting from you.
While email is one way to do this, some reminders are time-sensitive. For example, you might have scheduled meetings or demos. If your customers don’t see your email, they might be unable to attend the meeting. This will result in a headache for both you and your customer.
2. Educate and Nurture
The difficulty of acquiring and retaining a customer doubles when running a B2B company. For example, let’s say you own an email marketing tool. If your target audience already uses a tool for this purpose, it will be hard to bring them to yours.
On the other hand, if a business isn’t using any tool for now, they’ll need education and nurturing. You’ll have to build genuine relationships with these businesses to convey what you have in store for them. Using SMS for this purpose brings more engagement and conversions.
3. Request Feedback
After nurturing and educating customers, you need testimonials to make the conversion. Of course, not all customers rely on testimonials, but most do. So, use SMS marketing to gather customer feedback.
A short, personal message is enough to convince existing customers to leave a review. A sample message would be,
“Did we meet your expectations? Your feedback helps us improve. It would mean the world if you could reply with a simple YES or NO to receive the review link.”
6 SMS Marketing Best Practices To Get the Desired Results
Earlier, we mentioned that crafting compelling texts requires you to follow some SMS marketing best practices. No matter what your campaign is about, some things will remain the same:
- Keep things simple: 160 characters isn’t much when you want to convince someone to buy from you. However, you can achieve this by keeping this simple and concise.
- Focus on the benefits: Since you have limited space, focusing on the benefits instead of features will work best. Make the receiver feel like your product or service is perfect for their specific needs. Nevertheless, focusing on benefits works wonders on every marketing channel.
- Personalize the messages: The purpose of segmenting your subscriber list is to personalize your messages. Your customers should feel like you crafted the message specifically for them. Contrary to popular belief, this goes beyond using the customer’s name.
- Spend time on CTAs: With SMS, you don’t have pretty visuals and infographics to drive customer action. Relying on words alone means crafting your CTAs with extra care. So, make sure you use clear and concise CTAs that drive action.
- Get permission: Texting customers without permission can do more harm than good. There will be legal consequences. Besides, customers who don’t give permission will likely not respond to your messages.
- Give opt-out instructions: Forcing your customers to receive your messages when they don’t want to won’t do you any good. It will only frustrate them. Plus, it’s a part of SMS compliance guidelines to provide clear opt-out options to customers.
Frequently Asked Questions About SMS Marketing
Now that you know the best SMS marketing strategies, let’s answer some frequently asked questions.
Is SMS a marketing strategy?
Yes, SMS is a marketing strategy. It can be effective if you do it the right way. Almost all marketers swear by it due to its lightning-fast delivery times, high open rates, and cost-effectiveness.
Besides, most customers prefer that businesses contact them through SMS. This fact makes SMS an even more desired marketing strategy.
What can I do to make SMS marketing effective?
To make SMS marketing effective, focus on building a strong subscriber list, crafting compelling messages, and following SMS compliance guidelines.
However, the most important thing is data. Learn about your customers to truly understand their needs and preferences. Then, use this understanding to personalize your messages and marketing strategies.
How much does SMS marketing cost?
SMS marketing generally costs around $0.01 to $0.055 per text. However, this is just a general ballpark. Your specific cost will depend on your needs and the software you use to initiate your bulk SMS campaigns.
That said, some platforms let you send a few complimentary messages every month. Alternatively, you can use free trials to get a feel of the tool before committing to the paid plans.
Enhance Your Marketing Suite by Adding SMS to It
An SMS marketing strategy can do wonders as it reinforces your marketing campaigns in a more personal way.
For example, if someone books an appointment through your website, send them a personalized confirmation SMS. It will reach the customer instantly, making them feel like you care.
Starting any new marketing strategy is scary, but SMS can change the face of your business. Beambox’s WiFi platform can help collect numbers through captive portals and automate your campaigns.
Start your trial today and see the benefits of SMS marketing!
