Digital marketing has become the go-to promotional arsenal for brands big or small. Its popularity is understandable enough. It’s cheap and convenient. Sometimes, it can even be free.
Think user-generated content (UGC) on social media. In particular, unboxing videos featuring your products produced by happy customers could be enough for your brand to reach the advertising mileage needed to increase conversion rates.
But even if you don’t rely on UGCs, digital marketing will still prove affordable. If you expertly mix and match strategies including email marketing, SEO marketing, influencer marketing, implementing digital payments and the likes, you’re bound to reap considerable ROI for every promotional penny you spend. The tactic will always be good for business. However, it pays not to limit yourself to digital.
For a well-rounded marketing effort, extend your reach beyond the internet. Consider SMS marketing. Here’s how it can help you boost the brand you built from scratch.
7 Benefits of SMS Marketing
When choosing the best marketing tools to adopt, base your decision on the benefits that each available option can provide to your business. As for SMS marketing, you get the following advantages.
1. High Open Rate
There’s no point in sending marketing messages if they’re not opened in the first place. Thankfully, that’s not an issue for SMS marketing. According to industry experts, 90% of texts are opened within five minutes of receipt. Meanwhile, response rates can reach up to 30%. These numbers show the undeniable efficacy of the tool if your main goal is to be seen and heard.
2. Cost-Effective
For big brands, the sky’s the limit for their marketing resources. For smaller brands, the budget is often limited. That’s why every tool used and each tactic deployed must be cost-efficient.
Here, SMS marketing fits the bill. Compared to other marketing options, such as buying Facebook ad spots, sending a text blast proves more affordable. That’s good news for businesses fresh from the drawing board and without a lot to spend.
3. Immediacy
Most people will forgo checking their emails for days or even weeks on end. That’s one of the challenges encountered by email marketing.
But the same cannot be said for SMS marketing, where there’s always a sense of immediacy. Everyone with a cellphone can probably relate to the idea that ignoring message alerts is easier than it seems. As soon as you hear that beep, you want to see who texted and what it’s about.
For brands requiring instant engagement, that’s an opportunity worth taking. For instance, if you’re soliciting customer feedback, you have a higher chance of hearing from your recipients.
4. Mobile-Friendly
Digital marketing must be designed in a mobile-friendly manner. Otherwise, your target market might get turned off. This is where tactics like mobile responsiveness come in, which will entail investment. You need to hire a designer and developer to make your content flexible, regardless of what gadget they’re viewed on. With SMS marketing, that’s not a problem. It’s mobile as it is. No extra efforts are needed.
5. Extensive Audience Reach
As of late, Facebook has been inundated with boomers and Instagram with millennials. Meanwhile, Gen Z found their home on TikTok. What these generations have in common is they all have a cellphone. The point is that SMS marketing will allow you to reach a wide demographic.
6. Seamless Integration
SMS marketing can be a standalone promotional channel. It can also be integrated into an existing web of marketing mediums. You can use this tool to supplement your social media efforts, for example.
7. Versatility
SMS marketing will allow you to send all sorts of messages, depending on what your brand requires at a given moment. Got fresh inventory? You can send out a text message informing your SMS database about new products displayed in your offline and online stores. Came up with a new reward program? Reach out to your most loyal customers with a short and sweet message.
Tips to Ace SMS Marketing
Kee the following recommendations in mind when coming up with your SMS marketing plan.
- Keep Them Short – You’re up against humanity’s increasingly shortening attention spans. So keep your messages short and sweet, ideally not more than 160 characters. This also spares you from technical issues usually encountered by lengthy texts, such as sliced messages.
- Be Transparent – Your opt-in promotion should detail what’s in store for your customers. Let them know what messages they can expect to receive and how often. Also, provide those who have already opted in the choice to opt out. Ideally, it’s not a complicated process. Otherwise, your customers might feel like you’ve held them captive, and that’s not good for your brand’s image.
- Know Your Customers – Measure the success of your text blasts using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) app. This tool will also show you data points about your target market. Then you can use that data to better tailor your messages to different market segments.
- Be Considerate – You won’t appreciate receiving an inconsequential message in the wee hours of the morning. So do not make the grave mistake of sending out awfully-timed messages. That’s one of the surest ways for your recipients to send STOP.
Wrapping Up
When it comes to marketing, the first order of business is pinpointing the most viable tools to include in your arsenal. In the age of the internet, the most obvious route is to go digital, you can check out this software now and see one great example. And that’s quite a clever path to take.
However, it’s in your best interest to cover all the bases. When your target customers go offline, you still want to reach them. That’s where SMS marketing comes in.
Contrary to popular belief, SMS marketing has not gone out of style. Its effectiveness has never wavered and may be one of the ways to get ahead of your competitors. Because of its reliability, lots of brands have made the smart decision to use it in tandem with other marketing tools such as SEO, email, and social media.
The key to succeeding in SMS marketing is zeroing in on tried and tested strategies for SMS conversion. As with any other marketing tactics at your disposal, if you do it right, rewards will follow.