8 Key Reasons SMS Marketing is So Effective
With so many different channels available to contact your customers on, you might be feeling overwhelmed by the choice and unsure if certain channels are suitable for you and your audience. SMS marketing has been used to great success by many businesses for years. You might not have run an SMS marketing campaign yourself, but you are likely to have received some form of SMS communication from a business. Whether that’s a commercial brand running a competition or a healthcare provider, such as your GP or dental practice, sending you an appointment reminder. If you have run an SMS marketing campaign before, you’re likely to already be aware of the effectiveness of the platform for communicating with customers, but might need help justifying your use of SMS messaging to other people or departments in your business. Below, we’ve listed out the key reasons SMS marketing is so effective.
Adaptable across markets
One of the reasons SMS marketing is so effective is that it’s suited to B2C and B2B audiences. It can be used by commercial brands, for internal communications by businesses, and it is also appropriate for third-sector and public-sector companies. SMS marketing is also versatile across industries, from retail to healthcare, and can be used for a range of communications. The adaptability of SMS marketing also means that if you’re looking to move into a new market or a new sector with your brand, you already have a developed channel you can use to target your customers.
Efficient at reaching people
60% of people across the world own a mobile phone, which means your marketing is almost guaranteed to reach people within your target market. This also means your communications can carry across the globe, regardless of the international markets you’re trying to reach.
Results
The statistics about SMS marketing are incredible and really highlight the full opportunity the channel represents when reaching and communicating with customers. Research suggests that 98% of SMS messages are opened, making it even more successful than email marketing. Most people send and receive text messages every day and have been doing so for a number of years, so opening and responding to your message should come as almost second nature to the people you’re sending your communications to. The average click-through rate for SMS messaging is 19% and as most people have set their phones to alert them once a message is received, you can feel optimistic about the speed in which your message is opened, and hopefully clicked.
Time efficient
Another huge advantage of using SMS marketing is that it can be almost instantaneous to draw up and send out a campaign. You don’t have to spend time designing and amending an SMS messaging campaign, once you’ve worked out your message and the people you want to send it to, you simply need to construct the text – which takes the same amount of time it would to type a text out on your own phone. You can use SMS messaging to react almost instantaneously to company information as it breaks, offering customers information about deals and discounts as soon as they’re agreed. Another amazing fact about SMS messages is that 90% of them are read within 3 minutes of the text message being sent, making its click-through and engagement levels more effective than most other channels.
Due to the time-efficient nature of creating an SMS messaging campaign, it also means the campaign is extremely cost effective. The time and manpower needed to design, amend and edit an email or printed direct mail campaign mean in-production costs of your communications are high before you’ve even sent them out. Thanks to the speed and ease in which SMS marketing campaigns can be built and sent, you will save hours in time and money, meaning any response to your campaign will increase your ROI on your communications, even if the response from your customers is low.
Eco-friendly
Another way SMS marketing is effective is that it leaves no carbon footprint, and as a result is eco-friendly. Unlike direct mail or offline press, it requires no printed paper, and unlike meetings and events, there is no travel required when sending out your campaign.
It’s direct
One of the most effective aspects of SMS messaging is that it arrives directly in the recipient’s inbox, and often will remain as an alert on the person’s phone until it is opened; they don’t need to login or open an app as they would with email. With an overwhelming amount of content created each day, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to reach the people you wish to target the most, but SMS overcomes this challenge by dropping directly into a person’s phone.
It’s measurable
Your campaign is also trackable as you are able to monitor and measure the delivery and click rate of each of your SMS messages, using analytics software. This means that you’re able to quickly review the ROI of your campaign, using the data about the messages you’ve already sent to decide whether you continue to send out the campaign, or stop after the first batch of text messages has been sent.
Boost your multi-channel campaign
SMS messaging is also effective when used as part of a multi-channel campaign to bolster other marketing activity. For example, if you’re a retail business looking to promote an upcoming sale, you could send an email out to customers a week before the sale goes live, then send an SMS message to customers the day before your sale opens offering them an exclusive discount. On the day of the sale, you can send another reminder text out about the sale, which you can then tie into your social media activity, throughout the sale period.
If you’re looking to build your first SMS marketing campaign and want to ensure you get the maximum ROI for your efforts, contact FastSMS today, and we will connect you will an expert in your sector.
Related Articles
Advantages & Disadvantages of SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is very different to most other more traditional marketing tools, specifically because of its short-form, text only nature. This certainly shouldn't put you off though. We have put together our guide to both the best things about SMS marketing and some of the potential problems, and how to work around them.
How Text Messages Help Small Shop Owners Build Business
If you are the owner-manager of a UK retail business, then you will know that it’s vital to use every weapon you have available to battle with the big guns on the high street and online. That must include embracing all the advantages modern technology provides, including a communications campaign based on the Short Message Service (SMS) – better known as text messages. Not sure what SMS is about and how it will work for your shop? Then read on, because you are missing a golden opportunity to give your small shop a much bigger presence and outreach.
Referral Marketing Through SMS Messaging
What is one almost guaranteed way of getting new customers? Ask for them. Really. Studies show that 83% of satisfied customers are willing to recommend a company, product or service to their family and friends. Here's how you can use SMS to simplify and improve your referral marketing.
7 SMS Marketing Ideas for the May Bank Holiday
How an SMS Customer Survey can Take Your Business to the Next Level
When it comes to small to medium sized businesses, however, a lot of companies believe that they don't have the time or resources to truly find out who their customers are. This often results in confused messaging, emails with low open rates and low conversion levels on their website. There is, however, a way that businesses can collect precious data from their customers which will not only help them engage with their customer base on a personal level but also result in data which can help power future marketing campaigns as well as improve aspects of the company.
Why SMS Marketing is Perfect for the Automotive Industry
Most car dealerships and garages already have almost everything in place to start an effective SMS marketing campaign. When customers go into a car garage to have a service or a MOT done, they almost always give the dealership their mobile phone number. The reason for this is simple: if a customer is bringing their car in to get checked and they don't want to wait around for any work to be carried out, they'll simply head into town or run a few errands, until the garage gives them a call on their mobile to let them know the work has been done. That means most garages will have a healthy amount of mobile numbers already in their database, but quite often a garage will overlook the potential that their database of contacts presents.
How to Increase Retail Foot Traffic with SMS Marketing
Here's a great real life example of how a retailer used text messaging to offer out a discount voucher to customers who had visited their store. Their approach is simple and intelligent and very focused on one segment of their customer base, those who had recently visited a store.
SMS Marketing for Jewellers and Jewellery Makers
3 Best Types of CTA for SMS Marketing
One mistake some marketers make is assuming people will know what to do when they read an SMS message. After all, they’re short and to the point right? How confusing could they be? On the other hand, when writing every other form of marketing they know that calls to action need to be clear. So, just because you don't have much room, it doesn’t mean you get to leave out your call to action! Saving space and being brief is important though, so take a look at three of the best SMS marketing CTAs you can use.
SMS Marketing For The Equestrian Sector
The British Equestrian Trade Association’s findings from their National Equestrian Survey 2015 put the economic value of the equestrian sector at £4.3 billion of consumer spending across a wide range of goods and services, with the average spend per horse during the same year at £3600. It is an incredibly varied industry encompassing all types of businesses from sole traders making a living in remote areas to multinational companies. Their customer base typically tends to be busy people who lead largely outdoor lifestyles so the obvious and most effective means of communicating with them is by mobile phone, yet very few equestrian businesses appear to be utilising SMS text messaging marketing. So how could businesses in this sector benefit from this method of marketing?