SMS marketing is an effective way to connect with customers. One survey of more than 6,000 consumers found that 85% wanted to get text messages from brands. Whether you can meet your SMS subscribers’ expectations is a question. Sixty-five percent have unsubscribed for various reasons, such as not being interested or receiving too many unsolicited texts in one go. Generate revenue through advertising within the content itself instead.
Though it is the best way to do digital marketing, you could be wasting your time and money if you need to use it correctly. So it is better to hire professionals for help. Reach out to WESFED digital solutions today and get your social media engagement doubled through our email marketing services. We provide safe and secured data transfers to your customers and engage them from time to time. Automate your business and double the revenue.
What Is SMS Marketing?
Marketing is quite a vast concept that refers to the various activities and strategies in promoting products or services. In many marketing practices, Sms marketing is the growing trend in 2022.
SMS marketing, or short message service marketing, is a form of digital marketing that uses text messages to communicate directly with customers. This type of marketing has several key benefits, including its immediacy and convenience. Because SMS messages can be read in real-time and typically do not contain graphics or other large files, they can be delivered very quickly.
In addition, as most customers carry their phones with them at all times, SMS messages are highly accessible. Furthermore, SMS marketing is designed to be personalized for each customer, which helps to increase engagement levels and improve response rates.
Overall, it’s clear that SMS marketing offers many valuable benefits for businesses looking to reach their target audience effectively.
Benefits Of SMS Marketing
Sms marketing has several benefits which help your business grow. Some are as follows:
It’s A Direct Channel
SMS marketing offers a direct and immediate marketing channel for communicating with customers. Unlike other forms of marketing, such as email or social media, SMS messages can be delivered and responded to instantly, cutting out the time lag that can sometimes occur with other platforms. As a result, SMS marketing is a great way to get in touch with customers directly and quickly respond to their needs and requests.
Short Codes Could Be Used To Simplify Responses
Short codes are another critical benefit of SMS marketing, as they make it simple for customers to respond to your messages. By using concise, easy-to-remember sequences of numbers, you can make it easier for customers to take action on your SMS marketing campaign simply by sending a text message in response. This ability to streamline responses means that you can engage customers more effectively and drive practical outcomes.
It Supports Integrate With Other Channels
Integrating SMS marketing with other channels like email or social media can also help you gather valuable customer data and insights. By tracking interactions across multiple platforms and identifying opportunities for further communication, you can use data-driven strategies to connect more effectively with your target audience and ultimately drive better outcomes through your marketing efforts.
It’s A Source To Learn More About Customers
One of the essential benefits of SMS marketing is learning more about your customers’ preferences, needs, and behaviors through real-time data collection. Using analytics tools or feedback surveys, you can better know how the customers interact with your brand and what drives them to take action – giving you valuable insights that you can use to refine your messaging strategy for an even more significant impact in the future.
Increase Of Customer Engagement
SMS marketing can be used to enhance how your brand engages with customers across the entire customer lifecycle. Businesses can respond quickly and effectively to customer queries and requests by using SMS to communicate with customers in real-time. You can increase engagement in these ways,
- Offer personalized promotions or discounts
- Use SMS to confirm appointments or reservations
- Send appointment reminders
- Implement mobile loyalty programs
- Send out surveys or polls to gather customer feedback and insights
Response Data Enables You To Monitor, Track, And Improve
Maintaining a strong response data strategy can help identify customers engaging with your brand through text messages. This insight will give marketers more accurate information on where they need to focus their efforts to generate meaningful ROI from this medium while also ensuring that the delivery rates for messages sent out via SMS aren’t being wasted because no one has any idea what “you” actually mean when using it.
SMS Marketing Best Practices
Business owners can improve their marketing efforts by sending SMS messages to their target audience.
Consistency With The Send Text Number
Marketing through SMS is a powerful tool for businesses, but it’s important to remember to send messages consistently to keep customers engaged. Please do so to keep customers from losing interest and unsubscribing from your messages. In addition, by sending regular SMS updates, you can keep customers informed about your latest offers, products, and services and keep them coming back for more.
Adding An Element Of Exclusivity
Before deciding the kind of texts to send to the customers, you must be careful who your subscribers are and what they want to see. If you need help with what to send, consider sending a customer survey to get feedback on what they’d like to know from you, or send out marketing content that is relevant and interesting to them.
Whatever you do, ensure that the content is high quality and provides value for your customers – otherwise, they may unsubscribe from your messages.
Ensure Your Responsiveness
This means that you need to be responsive to customer inquiries and requests promptly. Please do so to avoid customers becoming disgruntled with your brand and unsubscribing from your messages.
At WESFED, the team of professionals is available 24/7 for services or to clear your queries anytime, anywhere.
Incorporate Personalization Into Your Strategy
SMS marketing provides the perfect balance of personalization and convenience. It is a very effective way to connect with your audience and target customers. With the ability to quickly and easily send out messages to large groups of people, SMS marketing makes it easy to reach a large number of customers in a short amount of time. And by personalizing your messages with customer data and insights, you can create more relevant and engaging content (using multimedia messaging service) that drives better outcomes for your business.
Obtain Consent
Text message marketing can be a powerful tool for businesses, but it’s important to remember to obtain express written consent from your customers before you start messaging them. By obtaining consent, you’re ensuring that you comply with the law and that your customers are happy to receive text messages from you. So remember to ask.
Monitor The Text Frequency
While some might advise against texting “too much,” we urge you to avoid texting more than your subscribers expect. Instead, you should send texts regularly, but not so often that customers become overwhelmed or unsubscribe from your messages. By sending the right amount of texts at the right frequency, you can keep customers informed about your latest offers, products, and services while maintaining a healthy relationship.
It is advised to only send 1-2 texts per week. Any more than that can be considered spam and may lead to customers unsubscribing from your messages. You can use SMS marketing software to run better SMS marketing campaigns.
Include Necessary Disclaimers
It’s important to remember to include necessary disclaimers before you start messaging customers. Including disclaimers ensures that you comply with the law and that your customers are aware of the risks associated with receiving text messages from you. So remember to add them to your messages.
Types of disclaimers
- They should be marketing messages, not non-commercial transactional messages.
- Text messaging and data rates may apply.
- You may opt-out by replying “STOP” to this message.
Get Right Timing
Assuming alignment with the subscriber’s expectations, it’s generally best practice to keep your texts within reasonable business hours to avoid annoying anyone. This means you should avoid sending texts during off-hours or late at night, as this can lead to subscribers being woken up or disturbed. By sending your texts during reasonable business hours, you can ensure that they are seen and don’t disturb your subscribers.
Keep In Mind the Language Used
The language that you use with the customers should be understandable and easy. By keeping your texts concise and using language your customers are familiar with, you can ensure that they can understand and engage with your messages.
Prime Focus Should Be Value Addition
Instead of blasting your subscribers with the same vague ad each week, focus on “SMART” marketing. First, ask yourself if each offer or announcement is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely). If it is, then go ahead and send it. If not, brainstorm a better offer or wait until you have something that meets all of the SMART criteria. For instance, instead of sending a generic “20% off all products” message, try “Get 20% off our new line of winter jackets until January 31st.” This offer is specific, has a defined end date (timely), and is relevant to the current season (appropriate).
SMS Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
Whether you are just starting with SMS marketing or are an experienced professional, there are always important considerations to keep in mind. To help you avoid making any common mistakes, here are some key aspects to avoid when using text messaging for your business:
Avoid Sending Unwanted Texts
It is essential to avoid sending unwanted texts to your customers. This can frustrate them and cause them to unsubscribe from your list, negatively impacting your marketing efforts. Always obtain clear and explicit consent before opting customers in to receive your messages to prevent this issue.
Forgetting An Opt-Out In Your SMS
Another common mistake businesses often make forgetting an opt-out option in their SMS. With this crucial feature, customers may feel safe on your list and may ignore future texts out of frustration. You want to ensure that each audience gets the opportunity to opt-out of receiving messages if they choose; it is essential to have a clear and prominent opt-out link or button in all your messages.
Include Business Name
You must include the name of your business clearly and prominently in each text message you send out. With this information, customers may correctly associate your texts with another company or brand and thus ignore or misinterpret their contents entirely. In addition, by clearly indicating the origin of your messages at all times, you can build trust and engagement with your customers and drive better results from your marketing efforts overall.
Avoid Sending Untimely Messages
Only send timely messages that properly align with current events or trends. For example, sending an SMS marketing message too soon can be insensitive or opportunistic if a breaking news story or big event happens in your industry.
Sending SMS Without A Strategy
Another common mistake with SMS marketing is simply sending messages without a clear strategy or goal. Again, identifying the audience is crucial to understanding what messaging will resonate with them. Without doing so, you can waste time and resources on unproductive campaigns that don’t engage your customers or drive results for your business.
Final Thoughts
With the increasing technological advancements and the advent of artificial intelligence, reaching out to customers is easy. One such technique is using SMS marketing. You should follow the best ways to get excellent results from SMS campaigns. First, ensure you have explicit customer permission before adding them to your list. Secondly, keep your messages short. Finally, remember to include a call to action. Follow the steps for successful SMS marketing campaigns.
Are you still trying to figure out where to start? Our team at WESFED can help you create and execute an SMS marketing strategy tailored specifically for your business – reach out today to learn more!