Should You Incorporate an SMS Campaign In Your Marketing Strategy?
In the ever-changing digital landscape, attention is everything. The late 90’s was the golden age of email marketing. Companies enjoyed open rates of over 95%. That’s what you call getting the audience’s attention.
In 2018, an SMS campaign can be as effective as email marketing was back then. With nearly 90% of millennials having their smartphone to hand 24/7, and 80% of them reaching for it as the first thing they do every morning, the attention is firmly placed on smartphones.
With that in mind, businesses are awash with how they can grab the attention of the market. Many worry that emails go unopened, and Facebook is too distracting to be able to grab a users attention for any longer than a few seconds.
That’s why SMS marketing may just be the approach you should be taking in 2018. Time to flip your marketing on its head and get some attention.
How Can an SMS Campaign Improve Your Marketing Strategy
With the worldwide spend on digital marketing expected to hit 306 billion US dollars in 2020, marketing executives are getting creative in developing the best techniques to reach their desired audiences.
Content marketing has become huge in the last few years and continues to be one of the main focuses for marketing departments, but a new and emerging trend of SMS marketing campaigns has been hitting the ground in 2018.
To explore why SMS is becoming so popular for businesses, we’ve compiled seven reasons why you should be including an SMS campaign in your marketing.
Let’s jump in.
1. SMS Messages Reach Your Customers
Text messages have an open rate of 98%. With rates like that, you can see how far an SMS campaign can push you towards reaching your customers. Customers are much more likely to react and act when receiving a message that comes from an SMS message.
With more and more email marketing campaigns clogging up customers inboxes, marketers need to explore new options to reach their desired audiences. SMS messages could be a hidden gold mine.
2. Keep It Short and Sweet with SMS
Most service providers have a limit on SMS to 160 characters. What this means is much like Twitter, if you have something to say, you better keep it short.
This helps to make you get to the point with your message and really drive home a point with your audience.
Make sure to include strong call-to-action in your SMS campaign, consider using a service like Betwext texting to grab your audiences attention fast.
3. Immediate Results and Immediate Action
When you send out an SMS, you are almost guaranteed the majority of your consumers are going to read the message immediately. What that means is if you can create a strong call-to-action you can almost immediately see results.
With most people reading text messages within the first three minutes you’ll find out pretty quickly if your campaign is doing what you want it to do or not.
You could even use the SMS to drive immediate action by inviting customers to a flash sale that finishes at 5 pm that day. Companies like Dominos pizza do this constantly and it’s a very successful way to get immediate results.
4. Off the Charts Customer Satisfaction
One of the most underappreciated parts of the SMS campaign is the level of customer satisfaction it garners. In a world where paper receipts and keeping track of files has become tiresome, companies interacting with their users with text messages has revolutionized customer satisfaction.
You can see businesses from food delivery services to dentists utilizing SMS to keep their customers in the loop and to give great service.
5. SMS Campaigns Are Cost Effective
When company spending becomes a concern many companies turn to the marketing department to make cutbacks. The great news about SMS marketing is it’s a very cost-effective way to reach your audience.
For companies with tight budgets and non-profits who rely on donations, you don’t need to invest in big teams of people to craft your marketing message. An SMS campaign will allow you to send out your message to your audience by only spending a few cents per message.
ROI for SMS campaigns are usually much higher than other marketing messages, so not only do you save money by hiring no marketers, you can make money from doing an SMS blast.
6. Open and Response Rates Are High
You’ll find that many marketing channels incorporate a spray and pray strategy. The beauty of SMS marketing is that regardless of your internet connectivity or the time of day, you have much higher chances of getting your message seen.
With people checking their mobiles constantly throughout the day, text messages have a much higher chance of catching the attention of your audience. When you compare that email marketing open rates sit at on average 27-38% compared to 90%+ for SMS messages, it’s easy to see why so many people are turning to SMS.
You’ll also find that with SMS campaigns your response rates will be better. SMS response rates are far superior to alternatives like mobile advertising. Prompts to download an app, for example, are about 3X more effective via SMS compared to mobile advertising.
7. SMS Is Unobtrusive
One of the greatest strengths of SMS is that it’s unobtrusive. To opt into an SMS campaign requires you to give prior authorization.
What that means is that an SMS campaign will only target people who have a genuine interest in your product or service, making your messages less likely to annoy them.
This makes SMS a great alternative to direct calls from a call center which is widely regarded by many as a nuisance. The great thing about SMS is although many people open them straight away, they don’t demand immediate action.
So if your customer is in the middle of something, they can put it on hold till later.
Time to Make Your First SMS Campaign
With people increasingly becoming aware of businesses using SMS, the time to get started is right now for any businesses wanting to expand their marketing efforts.
For more information on how to get the best out of your businesses marketing strategies, check out our other posts.