Before going into full details of what SMS for Marketing is, what it is used for, or the importance, we have to first define the necessary terms in this article, which are SMS and Marketing. SMS is the acronym for Short Message Service. It is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols to enable mobile devices to exchange short text messages. According to research, SMS was the most widely used data application at the end of 2010, with an estimated 3.5 billion active users, or about 80% of all mobile subscribers. SMS is a type of direct marketing. The second important term is Marketing. It can be defined as the activities undertaken by a company to promote the buying or selling of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses.
What is it?
SMS for Marketing is a technique that uses permission-based text messaging to send promotional messages. There are other marketing techniques like Social media marketing, Email marketing, etc. However, SMS is one of the most popular and effective techniques for marketing. To receive text message specials, new product updates or more information from brands, customers are usually required to opt into a list by texting a keyword into a shortcode. When the 5-digit code is texted, that user’s details are then stored by the SMS marketing software you decide to use. A confirmation response is usually sent as receipt for opting in, with an opt-out code included for potential future unsubscribing. It is important for businesses to include an option to
What is SMS for marketing used for?
SMS for marketing can be used by businesses and companies for many purposes. Whatever way a company or business chooses to utilize the functions of SMS for marketing, their primary objective is that SMS helps them to boost the sales of their products and increase clientele. Some of the uses are stated below.
Promotions for retail or e-commerce businesses
Coupons and promotions are an excellent way to drive more people to your store or website. If you are conducting a limited-time sale or promotion, you obviously want as many people to hear about it as fast as possible. SMS is a great channel to communicate these offers, especially if you want to let customers know while they are on the move. That way you can be sure that they don’t miss out because they didn’t get the message in time. Also if you have a new product in stock you can send a quick message to notify customers. If there is a discount it can be included.
Urgent updates about upcoming events
There are a lot of moving parts that go into planning and executing an event. The more people you have attending the event, the more challenging it becomes to communicate the necessary information to everyone. With SMS, you can easily communicate any changes, cancellations, general information, or updates with better real-time engagement than email or other channels.
Appointment reminders
If your business runs on scheduled appointment times, for example, a clinic, then you know the frustration of having to remind clients about their appointments via phone calls. Some don’t pick on time and it is more expensive. Also, after reminding clients through phone calls, some still forget their appointment times and show up late. It becomes worse when clients fail to show up at all. Not only does this throw off your schedule, but it also wastes your time. It means that you may have turned down other appointments because that appointment slot was taken. Sending reminder text messages is a fantastic way of making sure that people don’t forget their appointments and show up at the right time.
Notifying employees
If you have a large number of employees, it can be a difficult task to communicate urgent messages like office closures, emergency updates, etc. to everyone all at once. You can send them emails, but they may not see it. Most people don’t check their work emails after they close from work. SMS is a great way to guarantee that everyone receives important messages on time. SMS is very fast so it would be very useful when it comes to sending time-sensitive messages to your employees.
Why Choose SMS for Marketing?
There are various reasons why you can choose SMS for Marketing over other marketing techniques to boost the sales of your goods and services as well as to increase and maintain customer loyalty. Some of the reasons to choose SMS are?
It is very fast
SMS is very fast, there is no need to hire anyone to design flyers or wait for days to print posters in order to market products. With SMS you just decide what type of message you want to send. Sending a bulk SMS to your customers takes no longer than sending a text on your own mobile device. So, not only will you free up some precious time, your message gets to your customers in real-time. According to a recent study, 98% of the text messages sent are opened and read within 3 minutes of being sent to the recipient. This makes it a very fast marketing technique.
Compatible with other marketing methods
SMS marketing does not have to be the only marketing method a business can employ. Businesses can use it alongside all other marketing techniques like email marketing, social media marketing etc. It can be a quick and easy way for customers to connect to your website or social media pages. Businesses can send the link to their social media pages through SMS. It can be used to get more customers interested in your social media. Businesses can also offer discounts to anyone wanting to buy through their online website.
Very accessible
Every mobile device has the ability to send and receive text messages. Making your business mobile-friendly is no longer something to consider later. Mobile is here and it’s not going anywhere. SMS is compatible with pretty much every mobile phone so you won’t need to worry about alienating some users or getting your customers on board with brand new technologies. Everybody has access to mobile devices that has the ability to receive promotional messages from their favorite brands.
Customers love it
SMS is a really simple and accessible way of engaging with each other and with an open rate of 98%, it is heads and shoulders above any other communication method in terms of reading rate. Most people send and receive text messages on a daily basis so we know your customers will like, have access to and know how to use SMS.
Direct
Everyone always goes around with their mobile phones, in fact, it’s probably within arms-reach 24/7. Besides networking with customers face-to-face or calling each customer, SMS is a more direct way to communicate your message whilst ensuring the message is delivered straight into the right hands, at the right time. Once you have the mobile numbers of your customers you are one hundred percent sure that you are sending the promotional texts direct to their mobile phones.
Simple
People are usually caught up in between their daily activities at work or at home. And it can sometimes feel like they are having too much information to take in. Therefore, Emails go unread, adverts ignored and leaflets discarded. SMS is small and simple and thus, gets the message across instantly without any delay. How many text messages do you receive that you don’t read compared to emails?
Trackable
Most service providers like ExpressText will offer simple delivery reporting to check your messages have successfully been sent. If you’re looking for more intelligent tracking, Express Text will not only tell you when your messages have been sent successfully but will also provide you with details on who, what and when links have been clicked ensuring you get the most from your campaigns. This is one of the amazing features you get when you subscribe to a service provider like Express Text, you get to track the progress of your marketing campaigns in order to be able to properly evaluate the success rate of your business’s marketing strategy.
Generate Leads
Keywords are easy to set-up on an SMS shortcode and can be anything from your brand name to a memorable word. Advertise your keyword on your website, printed media or in your store, allowing customers to opt-in to your mailing list. E.g. Text DEMO to 545454 for exciting news and special offers! Not only does this provide you with lots of new contacts to communicate with but it also generates an instant lead with little effort required from you or your customer.
Personalization
Most people’s email and direct mailboxes are swamped with junk mail and spam. Customers will only opt-in to SMS updates from companies they want to interact with, so you know you’re delivering the message to the right person without it getting lost or ignored. If you want to make your customers feel really special, it’s easy to personalize each message and it won’t take any extra time.
Very affordable
Not only is an SMS campaign affordable for budgets of all shapes and sizes, but you’ll also see a healthy return on investment (ROI) from SMS marketing. At just a few cents per messages, you can get started with your marketing campaigns without it breaking the bank. SMS is very affordable for new businesses that don’t have much to spend on marketing.
Express Text
Express Text is one of the leading service providers in the industry that provides the platform for companies, businesses, and other institutions to send promotional messages via SMS. If you are considering using SMS as your marketing strategy. Express Text is the best in the game. It is very affordable and easy to use. Also, they have amazing features that would help to make your marketing campaign a success. Some of the features are listed below.
2 Way Text Messaging
Inboxing / 2-way text messaging allows existing subscribers to reply to your campaigns and send you text messages. It’s a great way to stay connected and answer questions people have. A key business text messaging feature that everyone should be using, especially for business that has to respond to customer complaints.
Text Message Scheduling
Easily schedule text messages to go out on any date and time. You can set up a single message, or take care of several months’ worth of promotions all at once. You can even automate your messages by scheduling them to repeat on a regular basis.
Store Unlimited Contacts
Have as many phone numbers signed up for your text marketing / SMS marketing lists as possible? This is useful for Election campaigns when there are a lot of people subscribed to your election promotional messages. Express Text would never limit your size.
Segment Your Contacts
With the segmenting tool, you can easily create “subgroups” within your text marketing lists based upon subscriber data like area code, city, state, date subscribed and more! It’s extremely powerful and extremely easy to use!
In conclusion, SMS is a powerful marketing tool not to be overlooked, and Express text is the best service provider that can help you achieve a great result from your marketing campaigns.