SMS marketing has been around for quite some time, but while many may say that its time has gone, that is far from reality. Nearly 98% of all text messages are read before the day ends, practically guaranteeing that your message will be read.
Additionally, an average person sends about 32 text messages every day. Therefore, it is a solid method of reaching your target audience as the probability of them reading your SMS increases even further.
There are over 4.68 billion mobile phone users in the world and, while you can reach a massive audience through digital marketing methods, SMS gives you access even to those who don’t use the internet. This is why SMS marketing is such a crucial marketing method and can help your business grow. Here’s how you can optimize your marketing strategy using SMS marketing.
1. Mobile-Friendly
More than 50% of the world’s population uses mobile phones. While it’s necessary to create mobile-friendly websites to reach your target audience that uses mobiles, it’s important to know that not everyone uses the internet. Through SMS marketing, it is possible to reach each and every one of them.
SMS is pretty much compatible with every mobile device, and that’s how you reach the maximum amount of possible users. No other form of marketing can help you reach such a massive audience, so it is in this way that SMS marketing can easily help you improve your marketing strategy.
2. Drives Multi-Channel Engagement
SMS marketing can be combined with other modes of marketing to enhance your engagement. You can combine it with email, social media, and content marketing to get better, more reliable results. Here’s how:
a. SMS+Email
Email marketing is an excellent way of reaching your target audience. When you use it in tandem with SMS marketing, there are even greater possibilities to drive consumer engagement. You can use email marketing to identify your most loyal customers and then target them through SMS marketing, a form of market automation.
Doing this can help you reduce your spending and even gets you further in touch with your most active users. You can send out special offers to these users through SMS marketing software and drive even more engagement.
b. SMS+Social Media
Owing to the high open rate of SMS messages, you can use it in conjunction with social media marketing. Through SMS, you can get people to engage with your social media through means of liking posts and following accounts. By sending SMS that gives your audience an incentive to visit or follow your social media profiles, you can further optimize your social media marketing.
c. SMS+Content Marketing
Just the way you can drive traffic to your social media accounts through SMS marketing, you can encourage people to browse your website too. By writing a solid SMS copy, you can push them to click on the link in the message and visit your website. Furthermore, branded links are 39% more likely to be clicked than generic links as they are important for customer security and assurance. Additionally, a well-written post on your website can help you convert them into returning visitors. The added page views will also help in improving your SEO and ensure more traffic in the future.
If mobile users don’t have internet access, it’ll still help in spreading your brand awareness. This can give a significant boost to your overall marketing strategy.
3. Highly Personalized Communication
SMS marketing is a very personalized mode of communication. The simple reason for this being that the SMS is delivered directly to the user’s phone, which is always within their reach. This opens up loads of opportunities for you to customize your message, based on the profile of the specific consumer group. When the communication with them is more personalized, you’ll find it easier to grab their attention.
Additionally, the SMS that you send is delivered almost immediately. This means that your target audience will receive it at the exact instant that you want them to. In a situation where you want them to take a particular action at a given time, this form of marketing comes in helpful. Moreover, nearly 97% of the messages sent are read within 3 minutes of receipt, ensuring that most of the users will end up seeing these messages.
4. Highly-Targeted
SMS marketing campaigns are highly targeted as you must have the phone numbers of your audience before you can send them an SMS. While the collection process of phone numbers may seem arduous, it does pay off in the end.
You can collect the phone numbers from other channels such as social media, surveys and emails and add them to your database. When someone provides you their phone number, they do it out of choice, showing respect to their right to privacy. This makes them more likely to open your SMS or be receptive to your offers. Additionally, unlike other modes of marketing, you get to control the deliverability of SMS. On the other hand, modes such as Facebook Ads will show your ads to those who might have shown interest in similar products or services. In SMS marketing, the message you send will most definitely be to someone who’s already shown interest.
Moreover, every time that they receive a message from a brand they are familiar with, they will be more likely to open it. The buzzing sound of the phone upon receiving the text only heightens their interest in checking it out.
The highly targeted SMS marketing campaigns can provide a huge boost to your ROI and even your overall marketing strategy.
5. Tracking
SMS marketing opens up a plethora of options for tracking the success of your campaign. You can use SMS marketing platforms to check the open rates, CTRs, and positive responses to your text marketing campaigns. Based on quarterly or even monthly analytics, you can further optimize your campaigns and improve your marketing results further.
Additionally, you can send follow-up messages based on the actions that are taken by the recipients. This can help you guide them through your sales funnel.
Final Thoughts
SMS marketing is a crucial ingredient of every marketing strategy. It can be combined with other forms of marketing to give you the best of both worlds. Additionally, its highly personalized and instantaneous delivery ensure that it is unique in comparison to other marketing strategies. You also get to control who receives the messages, which makes it highly-targeted.
Also, you can only send messages when someone has opted to provide their phone number to you. This increases the chances of them opening your message or reacting to it as you have understood and respected their right to data privacy. Meanwhile, through advanced tracking tools, you can guide them to take your desired action.
What are the other ways through which SMS can help in optimizing your marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments.
