SMS Marketing 101: What It Is And How To Leverage Its Benefits

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Until now, SMS or short message service remains an effective communication medium for many mobile phone users worldwide.

Because of this, marketers from different industries and sectors continue to use them as one of the most effective marketing strategies of all time. If you don’t want to lose any business opportunity, it’s time to consider implementing SMS marketing if you haven’t yet.  

There are many advantages to using SMS marketing. They come with high deliverability, improve brand retention, grow your loyal customers, and the list goes on.

Needless to say, when implemented right and by using the most reliable text marketing software and ringless voicemail drop, there’s no doubt how your business can scale up in no time. With that, it’s time to understand more about this marketing concept and how to leverage its benefits.  

What Is SMS Marketing? 

Basically, everyone checks their SMS inbox more frequently than their email inbox. And because of this habit, SMS marketing opens great opportunities for marketers to send out personalized messages as promotion, announcement, or notification tools.

Traditionally, SMS messages are text-only messages of up to 160 characters, but today most people refer to all texts as SMS. Businesses use SMS marketing to engage customers and generate sales.

By coming up with gimmicks, tactics, and the right words to use, SMS marketing is competitive among the more expensive marketing strategies out there. Permission-based text message marketing involves sending advertising or promotional messages to consumers using SMS.  

The ‘opt-in’ process for SMS marketing differs from other digital marketing channels. Getting permission from customers to send them messages is the first step towards using this marketing method to have the power to influence them. Using SMS marketing, you can connect with your customers on a personal level.

How To Leverage Its Benefits  

Unfortunately, some other companies fail to see the efficacy of this old but gold marketing strategy. Many businesses have overlooked this strategy, thinking it’s already an outdated approach. But the truth is every company can benefit from SMS Marketing, and the ways below can teach you how to leverage them:

1. Grow Your Contact List  

Before creating your SMS content, your contact list is the first tool you should prepare. It’s the customer leads you to want to send your SMS with. However, sending texts to people without their explicit consent is illegal in some countries.

Thus, getting their approval or permission before you can send out SMS regularly is crucial. When creating a contact list, ensure your recipients are okay with receiving messages.

Remove them from your list if you cannot verify their permission status. There are some tools and software that you can use when dealing with your SMS contact list. It allows you to segregate which ones have opted in or out of your SMS program.     

2. Deliver Your Messages Fast  

In terms of speed and efficiency, SMS is an excellent marketing tool. Messages are delivered in real-time, and because phones can be notified immediately, readers can see your messages in real-time too.

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You can deliver your marketing message in seconds, so your target audience will instantly see it. Most messages are read within three minutes of receiving them, so you will see results immediately.   

Using SMS marketing, you can reach a large audience simultaneously. Because you can take advantage of text marketing software with automation features, you can send out one message to thousands of people all at once.   

Text messaging allows you to reach the right audience instantly, as you wish. Whatever your business goals are, this increases your chances of closing sales and growing leads. Customers always have mobile phones, so communicating with them is easy through SMS.  

3. Improve Communication   

Any relationship that will last a long time must be built on communication and trust. While email is a great communication medium, SMS is also a proven tool for building closer client relationships.

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You send an SMS message to your audience as a personal message. No matter what message you want to deliver, you can do so with SMS.

You can use this medium to deliver any message you want, and as long as your customers don’t have any issues receiving your messages, you’re all good. With that, communication with your customers is easy, fast, and reliable with SMS marketing.   

4. Be Able To Track Its Efficacy And Progress  

You can track the effectiveness of SMS marketing campaigns with some features on SMS service tools or software. It’s one feature that you should take advantage of.

Some marketing tactics are immeasurable, and you won’t know their efficacy until you’ve already spent a lot of money on them. It’s different from SMS marketing. Reports on SMS campaigns include instant delivery receipts, messages received, response rates, and much more.

There will be a detailed report on the number of SMS messages sent and the delivery duration. Using coupon codes, you can measure the success of your SMS campaign. It allows you to see whether recipients have read or used up the coupon codes you sent.  

By incorporating a link in your SMS, you’ll get to track the number of people who click on it. Check how many sales you generated if you created a special discount code exclusive to your SMS campaign.

All these figures and numbers allow you to monitor the progress and efficacy of your SMS marketing strategy. You can modify and make changes accordingly, whether the percentage is high or low.  

5. Talk About Your Promotional Deals  

Businesses need to launch promotional deals to entice and attract customers to avail of their products and services. The best way is to send out discounts and coupon codes.    

If you want them to act now, your customers should always feel an urgency by specifying a time limit on these offers. Limiting the promotion increases its value and makes your customers think to avail of the opportunity as soon as possible.  

The relevant terms and conditions must be included in your promotional SMS or linked to a landing page that contains them. It promotes impulse purchases and is an effective way to increase sales.   

6. Personalize Your Messages  

Customers can be engaged through SMS marketing based on their known data and preferences, such as how often they would like to hear from you. Customers will have a more positive experience with your brand when your communications are tailored to their wishes.  

As SMS is delivered directly to your customer’s mobile phone, it’s very personal. You can maximize this level of personalization. For instance, when sending messages, address them with their name, so they feel appreciated and special.

Due to the accessibility of mobile phones, SMS is landing right in the hands of your customers. If you personalize your communication with clients, they’ll be more likely to pay attention to you. Be careful with your choice of words, and try to make the messages more personalized to give them more time and attention.    

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7. Maximizes Word-Of-Mouth Strategy  

By using SMS, you can engage your existing customers and drive new customers to your business. It’s made possible through word-of-mouth marketing. For instance, if you’ve just sent out a message to one customer who opted-in, they can share the valuable information with the rest of the people they know.  

Your customers will likely tell their friends, colleagues, and family about your offerings if you offer them something of value. Word of mouth is one great advantage that comes with SMS marketing, allowing you to target more prospects without effort.   

8. Comes With Zero-Party Data  

Despite new restrictions on data sharing between applications, consumers’ privacy is a top concern. It’s possible to gather zero-party data via SMS marketing. This kind of data is the information that a customer willingly and directly shares with your company.

It can be used to personalize your encounter with them more effectively. There are many ways to generate this vital data. You can get them through polls, surveys, quizzes, website activities, customer messages, and so on.

However, it’s crucial to be very vigilant in protecting these zero-party data as you may lose their trust if you accidentally leak them.  

9. Allows You To Reach Anyone From Everywhere  

Thousands of people can receive text messages instantly, wherever they are. And considering that almost all generations and target niches know how to read their SMS inbox, you can reach almost everyone through this medium.

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SMS technology is standardized between all mobile operators in the world, meaning text messaging can connect the world on a global scale. It’s a great marketing strategy you should never miss out on, especially if you’re gearing toward global sales and growth.     

10. Send Out SMS Or MMS Coupons  

Customers can take advantage of SMS coupons similarly to promotional deals. In contrast, this deal has a longer expiration date and is usually delivered via MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service.

This message comes with visually engaging images that contain the offer, details, and expiration date. Such coupons effectively boost promotional sales or at least increase website traffic.

11. Broadcast Flash Sales  

Every business leverage sales to get rid of old and outdated stocks. In order to broadcast and advertise that you’re going on sale, SMS is the best tool to announce it to everyone. Reach your entire database with bulk SMS advertising.

Preparing your message and sending it out to all your leads and customers is key. Be clear and concise when sending out flash sale announcements.

Ensure to include important details such as the store location, website URL, discount amount, sale dates, and so on. Customers often make impulse purchases during flash sales. Advertising it just before the sale begins is the most effective way to make it work.  

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12. Grow Your Loyal Customers  

A great way to engage customers and build loyalty is through SMS marketing. It has always worked wonders. Keep your customers informed about your business by offering them promotions, valuable information, and exclusive access to some stuff.

All these allow them to feel valued and appreciated, which results in customer loyalty. They will continue to patronize your brand because you have never forgotten to keep in touch with them.  

13. Gather Feedback Through Surveys  

If you want to measure your products and services performance, as well as listen to your customer’s voices, the best way is to send out survey forms through SMS. Send a message containing a link to a form that they can answer in a few seconds or minutes.

Instead of using other marketing channels, try sending a survey link via SMS to increase your response rate. Create open-ended questions of suggestions and advice to grow your blog.    

14. Launch Loyalty Programs  

Loyalty programs effectively keep your existing customers more loyal to your brand. And SMS is the perfect platform for running loyalty programs.  

It’s important to make your customers feel special and valued, which is why SMS loyalty programs make sense. You can send users an automated welcome message after registering for your loyalty program.

After which, you can devise rewards and other offers that are exclusive and only beneficial for your loyal customers. All these can be sent through SMS effectively.  

15. Maximize On Its Low Competition  

As mentioned earlier, some companies overlook how effective SMS marketing is. You can leverage this fact and use this strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

While text messaging is almost universally used, most brands don’t use the medium to market. Therefore, you will have an easier time standing out and facing less competition for customers’ attention than in an inbox, as it’s much less crowded.   

16. Cost-Efficient Marketing Tool  

Compared to traditional marketing, SMS marketing is a relatively inexpensive communication. Any small or medium businesses can easily afford to participate in this marketing campaign. Every text message is priced fairly cheap, and text message software allows you to automate sending messages at a fraction of the cost.   

Considering how versatile and customizable they are, they can produce much higher returns on investment. You’ll have a better understanding of each campaign’s performance with SMS marketing due to the data you can collect than with TV or streaming ads, where you can’t track what action customers took after viewing the ad.  

Conclusion  

Despite its evolution, SMS remains as effective and practical as it was in its original use. Compared to other marketing strategies, which are usually priced too high, SMS marketing has a lot of advantages.

As mentioned above, they can build customer loyalty, grow brand retention, be cost-effective, and many more. Also, it pays to see how effectively this strategy works for your customers. Hopefully, you can use this guide and devise effective SMS to reach your business goals.Â