A marketing technique that has become very popular in the last decade is text message campaigns. This is a technique used by businesses to send promotional text messages to potential or already existing customers so as to increase brand awareness as well as sales. However, sending out text messages to users is not as simple as it sounds. Text message marketing is a permission-based marketing technique that requires companies to seek the permission of customers to send them promotional texts by allowing them to opt into the text messaging service. This ensures that any messages that users receive are sent with their consent. That is why users can also choose to opt out of the service if they feel that they no longer require it. The process of seeking permission from users to opt into a text messaging service is called text to join.
Text message campaigns require companies to sign up with an account on an SMS marketing platform. These platforms allow businesses to send mass scale texts and track response rates, along with additional features. Each business is provided with shared short code and a keyword that is relevant to their business. A good example would be ‘Send SUB to 55998’ for a marketing campaign for Subway. Shortcodes are 5 digit numbers as they are easy to memorize for the user, in case they read it on a billboard or other platforms. Each business can customize keywords and it can only be used by one user at a time so that subscribers do not get confused when opting into a texting campaign.
Businesses can also send a text blast directly to customers once they have built an opted-in subscriber list. It is the ethical and a legal obligation of every business to seek the permission of users before they send messages or else they risk getting sued. Moreover, users will consider text messages from unauthentic senders to be spam, thus reducing the credibility of a business in the eyes of customers. The option of giving users the chance to opt in and opt out of service can make them feel at ease and hence trust the business more. It also reduces the chances of customers being ‘annoyed’ or ‘irritated’ by receiving frequent messages as they will know that they have the option of opting out. This inevitably reflects on the business positively.
The reasons above serve as evidence that text message campaigns, timely as it may be, proves to be effective in the long run. Statistics show that by 2020, 48.7 million consumers will opt-in to receive business SMS. Fortunately for businesses, SMS marketing is quite affordable. As researched by Mobile Ex Co., 24% of marketers planned to add messaging apps to their marketing strategy in just one year. Moreover, SMS marketing is more effective than any other form of mobile marketing because other applications require downloading and a consistent internet connection to function. This is why 47% of customers prefer SMS over any other messaging application. These statistics prove that every business can benefit from SMS marketing and text message campaigns.