Living far away from families and friends might have been tough back before the 1970s when there were no mobile phones. Nowadays technology and the world of smartphones have made communication and access to everything way easier. SMS, also known as ‘Short Message Service’ or ‘text messaging’ is a service that allows the sending and receiving of text messages within seconds, irrespective of your location on the map and just with the click on the button or screen of your mobile. Approximately 8 trillion SMS were sent globally in 2014, and with the tremendous marketing of mobile phones, this number has increased big-time within the last five years. Moving on to what exactly the term SMS Business means. SMS Business are effective channels of two-way communication between businesses and customers as well as potential prospects. These businesses create brand awareness, brand promotions, customer loyalty and act as a medium of delivering content timely, thus keeping it secure.
Getting Started with Business SMS
The power of text messaging is extremely strong; keeping your relationship with clients strong and helps your subscribers grow faster. Starting an SMS business is not a piece of cake, but it is not as hard as nails. You should do your research, and have a little bit of know-how on the way it works. Some important tips and elements are to be followed to make your SMS campaign effective
Step 1: The first and foremost step is to collect the mobile numbers of interested individuals and your customers so conduct research on your audience. You need to attract their attention by telling them that these SMS will provide them information regarding exclusive offers which they would not be able to know about through social media and emails. You can also take their numbers by asking them to fill out your survey forms with their phone numbers and other details. Like I mentioned above, customer consent is also a really important factor so you should provide an unsubscribe option along with the SMS.
Step 2: Set up an account with an SMS provider, and decide whether to use a long code or a shortcode. Your SMS provider may provide only one or both of these options. SMS platforms will allow you to send mass texts, enhance your texts with added features and track the performance of your campaign.
Step 3: Upload your contact list and send out texts or schedule them for later! Take advantage of the features provided to you by the platform. A good SMS platform should have the following features: short links, two-way communication, shortcodes, integration with other apps, scheduled messages, web widgets and graphed reports.
Shortcode, Longcode & Keywords
A shortcode is an abbreviated four to six digit mobile number which is easy to remember. They are mainly used for alerts, appointment reminders, market promotions, and coupons. The dedicated shortcodes keep your database secure, give you the control of viewing your campaigns and are recognized by customers. On the other hand, long codes are regular, 10 digit mobile numbers used for two way communication. The benefit here is that you get to make calls and continue with the SMS process as well, which allows easy access to customer feedback. Use keywords that grab the attention of individuals and they become curious to find out more. Send them offers that they cannot refuse. Think of how you run to get ‘DOMINOS SPECIAL DEAL’ every weekend since you’re getting a free pizza with every one pizza that you buy.
Tips
- Send messages that are to the point.
- Make sure to mention the brand name and the important stuff first.
- Keep it simple, but make the first few lines so compelling that even if the audience was not interested previously, they keep on reading.
- Use the call-to-action strategy. Using clear words such as sign up, click here, purchase now, visit us, shop now, submit here, etc. leave no chances of ambiguity. This way the sender is able to convey and the customer gets to understand your message.
- Create a sense of urgency. Making the offer limited or exclusive will make your customer, react to the offer timely.
If you haven’t conducted an SMS Campaign yet and plan to, try to set aside a good amount of money. While texts themselves are extremely cheap, investing in start-up capital can help boost your SMS Campaign. You will need to hire a whole team including programmers, developers, writers, designers and managers who are well trained in the field. You will also need someone to manage your SMS gateway account. Moreover, with so much competition in the business industry, you should set up customer service available to your customers 24 hours so that they can reach you whenever. Make sure you provide consistent and good services because that’s what will make your business profitable in the long run.
Pros of SMS for Business purposes
Open Rate
SMS is used as an advertising channel that companies use to get the recognition they want for their businesses. It’s a hidden gem for companies who want to advertise and bring their company at the top of the industry. Although it’s an old-time master plan but is still in vogue and one of the most effective ones. Now, what is the point of marketing if the customer does not even give a look at it? Brochures are thrown away, emails move to the junk or spam folders and digital promotions are scrolled down, while SMS has the highest open rate of 98% when received by customers. Without a doubt, texts do not get ignored as almost all recipients open and read what they are about.
Cost & Speed
Be it a student, a grownup preparing to be an entrepreneur or a business, everyone will want to keep their resources within their budget. Sending out a text to a large group of targeted customers is way cheaper than buying an advert on Instagram or Facebook. The more the affordability, the better it sounds. The minimal costs that mass text message offers lower a lot of the burden on the finance department of a company. Not to mention, as almost everyone has a mobile phone these days, your demographics in terms of business widen. The clientele increases as more people of a particular age and gender find their interest and need related companies. It can also be used along with other marketing procedures to boost the follow-up. It’s always important to get your message and information delivered on time. The information in the text could be a personal safety, emergency, meet-up or a company’s crucial information that needs to reach the desired individual as fast as it can. Smartphones make this job way easier as more than 90% of people read SMS within the first three minutes of receiving them! However, you need to be careful that the network or provider you chose is not a hindrance to the speed of the SMS. One of the best SMS gateways in the US is ExpressText. Its users (which include BMW and McDonalds by the way), report it to be extremely easy to use and fast. It is also one of the cheapest platforms out there so whether you own a large business or a small one, ExpressText is the right choice for you.
Reach
The consistency and frequency of the SMS you send make you a part of your customer’s lives. They know the existence of the particular company and that it is accessible, and not just a home décor store they visit once in a blue moon. SMS can be a continuous reminder to stay involved in your customers’ lives, so you never know when the idea of visiting pops in the mind of an uninterested customer. Thus, make sure you frequently send them catchy offers. A lot of SMS platforms allow you to send text messages internationally as well. Due to increasing globalization, companies want to build their relationships around the globe, and due to the simplicity and flexibility of an SMS, this has become much easier. SMS gives you the leverage to maintain relations throughout the world. Now you know exactly why you should the SMS technique should be adapted.
Challenges of Business SMS
Something you need to know about using SMS is that their cons do not overcome its advantages. In fact, SMS has little to no cons. The short message service only focuses on “text”, and no images or videos can be sent, not even an emoji. Luckily, images and videos are supported by an MMS (Multiple Message Service), but not all mobile phones support MMS and it is also more expensive than an SMS. MMS can be 15% to 20% more engaging than an SMS and is also very widely shared with other people. The graphics make it a little more appealing and relatable, but is it worth the added expense? Moreover, texts cannot be greater than 160 or 320 characters. However, this can be seen as an advantage as shorter texts are more engaging. You just need to strategically create more impact with lesser words. Last but not least, it is a legal requirement to ask for customer consent so make sure you do this so as to avoid any legal repercussions in the future.
Cost
So we talked about how affordable SMS can be, but what exactly does Business SMS cost? The price of each platform will vary, so let’s take ExpressText as an example. ExpressText offers a variety of payment plans. You can choose one depending on the size of your business. You could send up to 100,000 messages with ExpressText in just $1500. Doing the math, one text would only cost you $0.015! However, the prices of texts also become lower as you choose bigger payment plans. You can also choose a Pay as you go option with most platforms, which is convenient for users who have an infrequent usage for mass texting but will cost them a bit more. As we can see the market for SMS has been continuously increasing, and it is being used by small as well as large companies. This revolution is pretty understandable as it is predicted that by 2020, 90% of the world’s population will have a phone. SMS surely brings in a lot of revenue, but the revenue can further be increased by improving services via client feedback. According to the Harvard Business Review, customer retention improved by only 5 % can increase revenues to up to 95%. The more convenience the SMS program provides, the more trusting a customer becomes with a company. The important thing to keep in mind, however, is that businesses must fulfill all the legal formalities so you do not have to face any troubles later. Thus, use SMS for your business effectively to generate maximum revenue and incur the lowest possible costs.