Did you know… that over 77% of the world’s population own a mobile phone and of this 12% are smartphones which accounts for over 65% of mobile traffic? Well, now you do! With this in mind, has your brand considered SMS marketing? No? Maybe it should! Here’s why…
First things first, what is SMS Marketing?
- SMS = short message service
- MMS = multimedia messaging service (i.e. texts that include images, gifs, or videos)
You may already have a content strategy which includes email marketing. However, SMS is different as mobile messages tend to be very short and to the point (160 characters). They’re designed for a fast read to get your brand’s message across: SMS has the fastest read rate at 90% in 15 minutes and a 97% final open rate.
Why is SMS Marketing effective?
People are using their phone during every part of their buying process – searching for products, reviews and ratings, or price comparisons. SMS marketing is perfect for…
- Customer acquisition and retention – 80% of sales happen after the 4th follow-up. With SMS marketing, you can set up automated follow-ups
- Customer engagement – this includes a two-way digital dialogue
- Advertising products, services, and promotions
- Generating more sales – sending texts gets you immediate responses which is ideal if you are sending sales-related offers such as vouchers, discounts, or promotions
- Customer support – you may already be using social media for customer support or are receiving complaints online. By setting up SMS services, you can take things offline, making things less public, by dealing with issues 1:1.
Can SMS Marketing integrate with other aspects of your brand’s marketing plan?
Short answer – yes.
Use SMS to support your other marketing mediums such as social media, email, and surveys. This can be done in several ways such as reminder and follow-up texts to previously sent emails. For example, a simple follow up “have you read our email?” text can help increase email open rates by 20%–30%.
For surveys, SMS is a great way to increase your response rate as on average 31% of consumers will respond to a survey via SMS with the average response time for users being just over 5 minutes. It can also be used as a poll – set-up a simple text that asks a question and requests a ‘Y’ or ‘N’ response if you want quick feedback on a certain product.
How do I get started?
When considering your SMS Marketing Strategy, you need to keep in mind:
- Make sure you have their permission
- Include easy opt-out options
- Be clear and concise
- Don’t text shorthand (“How RU today?”) or slang that not everyone will know!
- Include a call to action (CTA)