If you think that SMS marketing is dead, then you are in for a surprise. SMS marketing is alive and kicking, more so than other marketing strategies.
Marketing is all about your consumer; you have to offer them the best value and in a manner that doesn’t annoy or haunt them. Therefore, you have to choose a marketing medium that has a greater chance of your brand message reaching customers and with less noise.
SMS marketing is one avenue that you should go for and achieve a positive return on investment due to myriad reasons we have listed down for you.
Your Exposure to Customers is Higher
Sure, social media, email, search engine, video, and any other form of digital marketing avenues are cardinal as it has become quite convenient and economical to stay online at all times, courtesy of services such as AT&T internet plans.
However, SMS marketing will remain the kingpin of all strategies as consumers may ignore an email or social media ad while scrolling through their feed, but they could never ignore a text as their exposure to them is high.
Around 80% of people check their smartphones upon waking up, and as per research by Asurion, consumers check their smartphone 96 times a day, which is approximately once every 10 minutes. The numbers saw a whopping 20 percent increase since the last survey conducted by Asurion two years ago.
So what’s the probability that you sent a text to your target audience and they read it? Highly likely.
Reach the Unreachable Audience
Your probability increases as out of 5.1 billion mobile owners in the world, only three-fourth of them have internet access. If you ditch SMS marketing, you may miss out on the audience with little to no internet access.
Users don’t have to be online to read their text messages, their phone pings and they check their notifications on autopilot, where they can preview your message.
They Are Quick to Deliver
90% of text messages are read within the first 3 minutes of being received with a final read rate of 98% as per Dynmark’s report, and a response rate of 45%. You can bet that at least half of those respondents will make a purchase from your business.
In contrast, emails sit around for weeks on end before users bother to even answer you back or take notice. Emails have an average open rate of 22%, and purchase rate without discount is a mere 2% as most of the inboxes are cluttered with so many promotional emails that most users don’t bother to open, send it into junk, and some even unsubscribe.
They Are Based on User Permission
You acquire your audience’s consent before messaging them. They can choose to receive messages from your business if they are even remotely interested; your marketing messages are not going to be considered spam.
As a US citizen, your audience can opt-in for do not call registry. However, the registry is for the purpose of thwarting unsolicited telemarketing calls and is irrelevant to SMS marketing, which is based on the principles of permission-based marketing.
There are various ways you can build an SMS list, a technique similar to acquiring an email list such as offering promotions in exchange for numbers.
However, SMS advertising ensures double opt-in after signing up. A customer receives a confirmation text message, which verifies their permission so that spammers are unable to randomly input numbers. If a customer no longer wants to receive messages, they can simply text STOP.
Moreover, the permission-based nature of SMS advertising doesn’t allow marketers to spam their customers with too many messages so make sure they are sent to convey necessary information and promotions, which your customers granted permission for.
Right to the Point
With SMS advertising, customers want you to be straight and upfront. Not beating around the bush with a long and drawn out paragraph, expounding on your company’s values, and how you are delivering the best services, etc. You have other platforms to do that.
In-text messages, you have a 160-character limit, in which you have to put on your best offer with a crisp Call to action (CTA) that gets your customer to act. As prescribed before, you also need to cap on the frequency of sending text messages to avoid inadvertently harassing your customers.
Useful SMS Marketing Platform
EZ texting, SlickText, Simple Texting, Klaviyo, Sendinblue, and Omnisend are such platforms to help you make the best out of your SMS marketing campaign.
Interact Singularly
SMS marketing allows you to interact and engage with your audience in a unique manner. You can conduct surveys, ask them about their preference in exchange for a lucky draw offer or get more creative by conducting quizzes and games, offer promotions and discounted deals in exchange.
So Should We Go for SMS Advertising?
An empathic yes! Online advertising has its place and is a better way to engage with your customers and build a relationship.
However, SMS marketing is essential to drive your audience to take action with those super crisp messages about coupons, promotions, new product launch and a lot more. This channel is full of opportunities, waiting for you to capitalize on it.
Author Bio: When you love what you do, you don’t work, you have fun, which is why even after 8 years in business, I wake up excited every day. A writer by passion and a digital marketer at heart, my sole purpose is to create and help businesses achieve their full potential. When I am not living the dream, you can find me binge-watching a season with my Spectrum Internet. Or I am hanging out with my friends (which I have aplenty)