Surprisingly, many business owners don’t think they need to invest in marketing. Without it, no one would know about your services or products. And that could be one of the reasons why most startups and small businesses fail during the first few months of operation.
The first important thing you want to secure when you launch a company is a customer base. Customers bring revenues to your enterprise. If they’re pleased, your brand’s popularity will explode as word-of-mouth spreads.
Without effective marketing strategies, you won’t get far with your business. Marketing is the most practical way to connect with clients. And one of the best advertising methods for any company is SMS marketing.
An Overview Of SMS Marketing
To start, SMS stands for short message services. SMS marketing is sending adverts or promotional messages to customers through text messaging. This marketing technique is also known as text message advertising.
SMS marketing is older than you think, dating back to the early 1990s. The first text message was a ‘Merry Christmas’ wish sent on December 3, 1992. Since then, people have used text messages as a way of communication. Today, not only do people use text messages, but businesses also utilize them to engage their customers.
Businesses use SMS marketing in a number of different ways. These include appointment reminders, internal alerts, urgent updates about business events or customer orders, and short-term promotions, just to mention a few.
Benefits Of SMS Marketing
The undeniable benefits of SMS marketing make it an excellent choice for any business owner looking to connect with customers more efficiently. Here are several ways text message advertising can help improve your game.
High Open Rates
If you invest in marketing to provide clients with information about your business, ensure your efforts will bring results. However, all your hard work will likely go down the drain if the target customers don’t open or read your promotional messages. Hence, investing in a marketing strategy with high open rates is a good option.
SMS marketing tops other promotional methods when it comes to open rates. As such, more and more people will come to know about your products or services. And that can increase your chances of generating more leads.
On the other hand, it’s best not to disturb customers with repetitive promotional messages. If that happens, they’ll become irritated and barely open them. Alternatively, you can integrate modern technology like ringless voicemail drops into your marketing strategy to promote your brand effectively.
This technology allows you to deliver your adverts effectively. Users can open your messages at the time most convenient to them. As a result, you’ll notice higher open rates than when working without this technology.
Cost-Effectiveness
Any business is looking for ways to reduce expenses. With low costs, you can maximize your profits and increase your savings for future business expansion purposes. SMS marketing provides a cost-effective way to connect with customers. You can partner with SMS marketing service providers to send bulk messages to target audiences.
SMS marketing is more budget-friendly than other promotional methods like billboards, tv commercials, or newspaper ads. You can start with zero investment. For example, you can get started by using your personal number to send promotional messages to customers.
Greater Audience Reach
Connecting with more people is necessary if you want your business to grow quickly. Reaching a broad audience increases the chances of generating more customers, which may translate to increased revenues. And one of the best ways to achieve that is through SMS marketing.
Currently, there are more than 6.6 billion active smartphone users, which makes text messaging a great option to reach more people. Significantly, going in this direction allows you to connect with more than half of the world’s population.
Another important thing you need to know is that SMS marketing doesn’t require an internet connection. Just a working phone or any other mobile device is enough to help you connect with clients.
Can Integrate With Other Platforms
All platforms need to work together in your marketing mix to help streamline your advertising efforts. SMS is a great tool since it can integrate with most other marketing channels, including emails and social media.
Short message services can also be used to enhance or support other marketing platforms. For instance, you can send a simple message to remind consumers to read your emails or visit your social media profile or website.
SMS Is Customizable
Customized messaging is a great way to improve your marketing strategy. You can learn more about your target market by adding a personal touch. It can also help improve customer experience and satisfaction. In turn, they’ll likely remain engaged with you.
Unlike other promotional methods, SMS marketing is so versatile. You’ll be able to adjust your messages to address the specific needs of your market. You can also mix and match text messages to accommodate different things. For example, you can give a temporary discount, reward loyal customers or announce a sale while promoting your new product.
SMS Marketing Best Practices
There are several benefits of investing in SMS marketing for your business. However, it helps to practice SMS marketing the right way. You can consider these best practices to get your marketing campaigns on the right track:
Get Permission
To remain on good terms with your target customers, it’s crucial to seek permission before you start sending messages to them. Digital etiquette dictates that you can send promotional text messages to someone who has permitted you to do so. Therefore, give all clients a clear option to either accept or reject receiving your messages.
One easier way to get permission from clients is to ask them to put their phone numbers on the subscription forms. Ensure you highlight that permission. It’s also a good idea to disclose to customers the type of messages they’ll expect from you.
Meanwhile, each message should provide a way for customers to opt out. For instance, you can give clients the option to respond with ‘Stop’ if they no longer want to continue receiving your text messages.
Identify Yourself
The recipients of your text messages should immediately know who you are. Otherwise, they won’t read your messages and will likely unsubscribe from your SMS list. Hence, it helps to identify yourself with clients in every message you send. Also, it would be better to mention the name of your business and a short description of what you sell.
Add A Call To Action
The primary goal of any marketing strategy is to boost a company’s profitability. However, that alone isn’t enough to ensure long-term success. Hence, a call-to-action is needed to gently nudge your customers to proceed to the next step.
Ideally, customers should take the desired action after consuming the content, like visiting your online store or buying from you. In simple terms, recipients should know precisely what you want them to do after reading your texts.
Send Messages At The Right Time
Another fantastic way to boost your SMS marketing strategy is to send messages to customers at the right time. As noted earlier, sending texts to clients now and then can irritate them. It even becomes worse when you deliver messages at the wrong time.
Besides disturbing customers, messages sent at the wrong time have low chances of being consumed. So, examine your customers to know which time of the day they’re likely to be active. The idea here is to identify the best time to send messages to them.
Use Common Language
These days, many people globally use and understand text abbreviations. Thus, it might seem fitting to include them in your messages, if you don’t mind. However, this may ruin your marketing strategy. For one, don’t assume that everyone will get what your abbreviations stand for.
Also, depending on your target audiences, you may appear unprofessional if you use too many abbreviations. Therefore, it’s best to use them sparingly.
Provide Value
Customers have permitted you to engage with them through SMS because they want solutions to their problems. Ensure every message you create and send is of value to the recipient. In other words, your content should be helpful to consumers.
But first, you need to understand the issues your target audience faces. You can start by analyzing the data of people who visit your online store. What are the things they’re browsing? What do they input in your search bar? You can learn a great deal of information by looking at these details.
On the other hand, you can subscribe to your competitors’ marketing list to get a clue about the kind of content they send to their clients. These tips can help you provide value to your customers through SMS marketing.
Finding The Right SMS Marketing Platform
As your business grows and attracts more consumers, it might become challenging to use your ordinary personal smartphone to send messages. Hence, investing in an SMS marketing platform is a good option.
An SMS marketing platform refers to software you can use to create and distribute text messages to your contact list. With the right application, you can handle all customer communications with ease.
Here are some effective strategies to help you choose the right SMS marketing platform:
Select A Scalable Solution
Today, your business may have attracted just a handful of customers. So, it might seem okay to purchase any SMS marketing software without considering its scalability. However, it may turn into a disaster when your company starts to connect with more customers.
Before you invest in any SMS marketing software, take a moment to think about how you see your firm in the future. A non-scalable tool won’t accommodate the growth of your company. Thus, ensure you select a platform that’ll allow you to scale up your SMS promotions. In other words, the selected application should be helpful when your company expands.
Select A Suitable Platform
The various SMS marketing platforms aren’t made equal. Some will give a global reach while others a local reach. When choosing the right platform, consider one that will provide you with a wider reach.
Opting for an SMS marketing platform that supports all country codes is wise, even if you only target local customers. It’ll help simplify the process of running your business when you decide to go internationally.
Find Software With Ease Of Use
If you’re investing in an SMS marketing platform to streamline your advertising strategy, there’s no need to find something complex. When you choose a complex tool, it’ll most likely force you to hire experts to educate your staff on how to use it. Not only will it attract extra costs, but it can also lead to wastage of time.
Find an application that requires no expert to set it up and train you. It’s best to find one that you can utilize with the help of a written guide. This way, you can save money and time. In addition, you’ll achieve better productivity and increased revenues.
Put Online Security Into Consideration
Online security is one of the major priorities of any business organization. Regular cyber-attacks can hurt your business in many ways. For instance, it can harm your reputation or cause downtimes in your organization. Hence, it’s necessary to have cybersecurity in mind when shopping for your SMS marketing software.
It would be ideal if the chosen SMS marketing platform had effective online security features. For example, it should have anti-virus protection, automatic updates, and the ability to manage passwords.
Takeaway
If you’re looking for a simple way to grow your company, investing in SMS marketing can help you significantly. It involves sending text messages to customers to educate them about your offerings. And because it enables you to send messages in bulk, SMS marketing provides a cost-effective method to promote your products to a broader audience.
However, remember to implement the best SMS marketing practices. Ensure you select the right software to streamline your operations. Hopefully, the information in this article will help you get started and succeed in your SMS marketing strategy for your business.
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