SMS Marketing: What Is It, Why You Need It and How to Get Started Today
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From the constantly evolving competitive landscape to the vast array of marketing platforms available today, getting your customers to notice you and your messaging isn’t an easy task.
Marketers who understand this challenge should be asking:
‘How do I get customers to actually read my message?’
Answering this question requires consistent A/B testing and a willingness to adjust strategy as needed.
One thing is for certain—customers today want their experience to be as unique and as personalized as possible.
SMS marketing has the highest open rate of all forms of direct marketing so it is an option you should be exploring.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS is an acronym for short message service.
When we say SMS marketing, we are referring to both businesses and brands sending out short messages (160 characters or less) to their customers for marketing purposes.
Is SMS marketing effective?
Let’s start with the basics.
People read 95% of all the text messages they receive.
Additionally, promotional text messages have an average open rate of 35% which is significantly higher than all other types of marketing, including email.
This means your customers are very likely to open and engage with your SMS, effectively increasing brand awareness and loyalty.
More good news?
The best part of SMS marketing is that you own it entirely.
There are no third parties influencing how you reach your customers.
How does SMS marketing work?
SMS marketing works a little bit like email marketing, but instead of collecting emails you collect phone numbers - already seems more personal, doesn’t it?
With a 160-character limit, the goal is to be short, sweet, and to the point with your message.
You will often see SMS marketers lead with a discount or a special offer.
That said, there are typically two kinds of SMS’s you will be sending:
Promotional Messages. If you have new offers, products, promotions or deals, send a message to notify your customers.
Transactional Messages. These are important messages to your customer and include topics such as order status, delivery updates, feedback forms, etc.
Critical tips for SMS marketing
Getting excited about SMS marketing?
Here’s what you should know before you go collecting phone numbers.
1. Promote your opt-in everywhere
Leverage your marketing platforms, brick-and-mortar store, and any other place your customer hangs out.
Ask for, but don’t require, your customers to leave their phone numbers at every point of contact.
Some good places for your SMS marketing opt-ins are:
Social Media
Newsletter
Website
Point-of-sale
Live Chats
Pro Tip: Highlight the benefits your customers will receive when opting to share their phone number.
2. Promote time-sensitive offers
You want your customers to be glad they gave you their numbers.
Reward them accordingly by providing special offers and early access to sales or discounts.
From there, all they have to do is either follow a URL you provide in the SMS, apply a code you include, or show the message at the store counter to realize the offer.
3. Word your message carefully
Before you press the send button, ask yourself this question: Would you send this SMS to a friend?
If not, consider starting the message over.
Your primary objective should be to create a meaningful conversation with your customers and the trick to doing that correctly is to understand them inside and out.
If it’s just another discount, you’ll quickly find yourself in the ‘desperate’ bucket so many brands find themselves in.
Pro Tip: We can’t stress this enough: make sure you stay on brand with your messaging.
4. Make it interesting with an MMS
MMS or multimedia messaging service is anything that includes an image, video, emoji or even a URL.
Adding this type of content helps add context to your message, and when done correctly can engage your audience on an entirely different level.
After all, pictures are worth 1,000 words…
5. Personalize your texts
Much like emails, text message threads show a preview of the unopened message.
When you start your text with the customer’s name, you are better positioned to grab their attention, which in turn helps increase the click-through rate as the text message will feel more relatable and less transactional.
Consider building onto that personal connection by signing off with an actual name rather than just your company name.
Pro Tip: Remember, successful branding is the process of humanizing your business and successful marketing is the act of conveying that humanization in a way that drives sales.
6. Inspire action
If your message doesn’t have a call to action, you’ll confuse your customers.
Give them something to do after they read your message.
Some simple, yet effective SMS marketing call to actions are:
Click here
Text to win
Show this message
Buy Now
Text to vote
7. Time your messages
You don’t want to send your messages a week before the offer. Doing so will only result in a message that is buried below a dozen or more new text messages that your customer received or responded to.
When it comes to SMS marketing, last-minute offers are the most effective.
If it’s a flash sale happening at your store on Thursday, plan to send the message no earlier than Wednesday afternoon.
Pro Tip: Be courteous. You should not send messages early in the day or late at night. Plan to send your messages no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and no later than 8:00 p.m.
8. Avoid being spammy
The last thing you want your customers to do after reading your SMS is to send a STOP message to opt-out of your communications.
SMS marketing is a double-edged sword.
While open rates are the highest, subscribers are likely to unsubscribe from your SMS marketing efforts if they find your efforts spammy.
To avoid this, limit your messages to really special times and don’t send them the same message again.
Pro Tip: Always put in an unsubscribe option to your SMS.
9. How to get started using SMS marketing?
Sending an SMS to your friend is as simple as opening your messaging app, typing a message and hitting send, but there are a few more hoops to jump through when it comes to SMS marketing:
Start by collecting phone numbers. Start creating a database of phone numbers the day you get your first customer. Let your customers know you will be sending them promotional and transactional messages. You need their permission first.
Set up an SMS marketing platform. A third-party SMS marketing platform can help you send bulk messages to all customers at once.
Send great messages. The most effective messages are short, offer unique value propositions, are highly personalized, and remain on-brand.
Measure results. As with any other marketing platform, you need to know if you’re strategy is hitting the mark with your customers. Some performance indicators you should be monitoring are click rates, subscriptions, redemption rate, and ROI.
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