An effective SMS marketing strategy is widely considered to be one of the best ways to boost your business. Online SMS texting has many fantastic applications for every kind of business and can provide significant returns on your investment. There are many different ways to use SMS to improve your marketing strategy, and identifying and executing them in the right way can have huge benefits. To help you incorporate SMS into your business’s marketing plan, this article is a guide to the best SMS marketing strategies and how to execute them.
1. Use SMS to Send Your Customers Promotions, Special Deals, and Information
The reason that SMS has so much potential as a marketing tool is that it is by far the most used method of communication around the world. More people use text messages than anything else and so your target audience is enormous. Additionally, SMS has by far the highest open rate out of every kind of messaging. Studies have shown that 90% of SMS messages are opened and 45% are responded to. SMS inboxes do not flag up marketing texts as spam in the same way that email inboxes do so you can be sure that your target audience will receive your text messages. Every phone on the market already has text messaging capability and every phone user in the world is already SMS literate so your target audience does not need to download any additional app or learn any new skill to receive your marketing messages. SMS marketing can be used to offer customers special promotions, give customers useful information, and get customer feedback on products or services.
2. Use SMS to Protect Your Customers
Another great way to use SMS is through SMS authentication. This is when a customer tries to log in to a website and is sent a text message as a second line of security. This is important because if a hacker gets your customer’s login details, they can log in as your customer and steal their data or card numbers. When a login is attempted your customer will receive an SMS authentication message that usually has a code that they then have to input on the website. After typing the code into the website, the customer will be able to access the site. As it is very unlikely that a hacker would also have been able to steal your customer’s phone it makes their account more secure and so they will be confident using your website.
3. Use SMS to Supplement Other Forms of Marketing
Whilst SMS marketing is a great strategy to use on its own to reach out and engage with customers, it can also be used as a fantastic supplement to other forms of marketing. When people receive a marketing email, they may not notice it or may dismiss it as spam offhand and not open it. Because SMS marketing has such a high open rate compared to emails, SMS messages can be used to alert customers that you have sent them an email.
The added weight of receiving both an SMS and an email will make the customer more likely to read the email. The SMS that you send to the customer need only inform them that they should check their email inbox and then you can provide far more information in the email. Likewise, SMS messages can be used to supplement Social Media marketing. When you have uploaded a new post on your business’s social media page, send an SMS to your customers or clients alerting them of the new post.
4. Use SMS to Offer Exclusivity
There are some people who still carry a negative opinion of SMS marketing because it was so overused previously. In the 2000s, phone users were bombarded with unwanted promotional texts all day. That is not possible anymore though, as SMS marketing is now highly regulated. It is illegal to send any SMS marketing texts to anyone who has not opted in to receive them. If these rules are broken, there are some seriously hefty fines given to companies. Because of this, SMS marketing has a feeling of exclusivity to it.
Customers feel that whenever they receive a text message, it has been sent to them personally because they know that companies are not permitted to just send them out indiscriminately. Email marketing has no real enforceable regulation which is why so many people just think that everything they receive in their email inbox is either spam or some kind of scam and so won’t even open it.
There are so many great SMS marketing strategies that can seriously boost your business. SMS marketing can enable you to engage with customers, promote your products, and keep your customers safe. If you are considering integrating SMS strategies into your marketing plan, keep this article in mind as you do your homework and find the best strategies for you.
