Best Practices of SMS marketing
A look into what SMS marketing is and the benefits that follow with this type of strategy.
By Olivia Knott
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is also referred to as text marketing. According to Dorcas Adisa, a form of mobile marketing that allows businesses to send text messages to customers and prospects. This involves using a short message service (SMS) to send messages like promotional offers, discounts, appointment reminders and shipping notifications.
Why is SMS Marketing effective?
In the Sprout Social article it says 7.3 billion people are estimated to have a smartphone by 2026. This statistic shows the importance of how smartphones are becoming a huge part of our lives, and with this marketing should be aimed to us through our phones. In theory if you think about it, which is more convenient? Opening an email and reading it or opening a text and reading it? Texting is made to reach others quickly and efficiently. Messages that come through text are clear and concise which is appealing to the consumer. People are more likely to engage in marketing through their text messages rather than through their email. Especially because email marketing has turned more into a promotional spam pile where every company tries to reach out through email. SMS marketing is more effective and less likely to be skimmed over.
“One advantage to SMS marketing is a 98% average open rate, which is 5x that of email (20%)… SMS marketing also boasts a 9.18% click-through rate compared to email’s 2.5%””
Types of SMS Marketing Campaigns (and examples)
Promotional
Promotional SMS marketing campaigns are put in place to increase interest in a product or service. Ways they appeal to consumers is through discounts, coupons and other special offers. Incentives for consumers are a good way to spark an interest to them, and there is more of a likelihood of the consumer engaging with the offer.
An example of an promotional campaign for Gopuff. They had offered a good deal on their breakfast products.
Transactional
Transactional SMS marketing messages are sent in response to an event or action initiated by the consumer. They also have the highest open rate because of the information and that may be time sensitive. Examples of this campaign could include appointment reminders, shipping notifications, password resets, or new product release.
This is a transactional message from Chipotle. I got signed out of my Chipotle account and to sign back in, I had to verify it was me. Chipotle then sent me a verification code.
Conversational
Conversational marketing campaigns has a lot of similarities to other campaigns. But the difference is that a conversational campaign involves text responses as prompts. This the creates a two-way interaction that mimics human conversations. This is done through with automated responses between your brand and the customer rather just a single message being sent. This campaign is more complex, but it requires the technology to respond to a customer. These features can include digital chats, combining human agents, and forms of AI.
This is an example of Lululemon’s customer service being done through my SMS messages. They initially had a digital response programmed to engage in the chat. But then a virtual assistant was able to help me.
Benefits of SMS Marketing
It is evident that SMS Marketing is a new channel being utilized more and more. Here are 5 reasons why SMS Marketing is beneficial to an organization...
Get to Customers (Quicker)
If your company constantly shares time sensitive information, SMS texting is the way to go. Sprout Social says that 95% of text messages are opened within three minutes of receipt. With those statistics, I would feel confident in getting the message across to customers quickly.
Response Rate Increase
SMS allows you to get on customer’s radar because you are going right through their phone. According to Sprout Social, a whopping 134% more people are more likely to respond to an SMS than an email. Not only do text messages have a much higher response rate but this also increases customer engagement. This could lead to future opportunities for sustained customers.
SMS can Support other Marketing Channels
While an SMS marketing can be used alone, it can also be used to enhance other channels of marketing. SMS messages can be used promote sales on social media. You could also use SMS to remind customers of an upcoming event to get more attendance.
Build Loyalty
Customers want to feel valued by brands, by sending personalized messages and offers to them does this. Giving consumers the experience that an organization is trying to tailor to them, it might result in a loyalty to the brand.
Revenue Increase
SMS marketing has the likelihood to an increase in revenue. This is done by driving traffic to your store or website. Mobile commerce can be initiated through promotions sent through SMS marketing. This approach takes advantage of texts and being able to seamlessly incorporate it into your brand’s marketing efforts.
Final Thoughts…
SMS Marketing is slowly being introduced as a new marketing strategy. Understanding what SMS Marketing is, the campaigns structure, and the benefits are important to truly understanding if it could fit into your organization’s strategy.