Essential SMS Marketing Practices for your Business
Important dates for your SMS campaigns
September 23, 2021
SMS Best Practices for your business
Why SMS is business critical
If you are a marketer or indeed a business owner, you have likley read about the benefits of SMS marketing from a million different sources. In what is also referred to as ‘text marketing’, reaching out to your customers via SMS is currently kept in high regard due to its incredibly high open rate and how receptive audiences are to these communications.
Speaking of the high open rate, over 90% of SMS messages are opened by recipients with a large majority also opening these messages within 5 minutes of delivery. With SMS being integrated into almost every mobile across the globe that contains a SIM card, it is referred to as a permanent fixture and therefore something that can always be utilized. With mobile devices becoming more and more integrated into everyone lives, there has never been a better time to fully dive into the power of SMS marketing.
Whether you are still trying to understand how the world of SMS marketing works or are seeking how best to utilize your current subscriber list with better targeted communications, we will guide you through some of the key processes contained within the world of SMS Marketing.
Your Kickstart to SMS
SMS messaging continues to boast greater attention and immediacy than any other marketing method or strategy.
The benefits of SMS marketing are quite stunning with opening rates reaching close to 98%! One may consider using push notifications to capture their customers attention but only a small minority of users will actually follow through with these notifications due to the saturation of this method of attention grabbing. We are aware that no single marketing strategy can be deemed as a catch all method, but SMS marketing remains as one of the most trusted and secure forms.
Essential SMS Considerations
1. Be Clear with your call to action
It is essential to be clever and engaging with your customers after they have granted you permission to send them marketing communications i.e. It is important not to overextend this privilege. Try to ensure that the offer/communication that you are sending has some scarcity attached to it or else it will not have the desired effect. No one is interested in saving 20% on a single bottle of coke… If you do not send valuable content which has a strong degree of novelty attached to it, you run the risk of opt-outs and therefore shrinking your precious contact list that you worked so hard to build.2. Make sure you have Permission
To send an SMS communication to a contact, you must ensure that permission has been granted for you to do so or else you will be breaking numerous data protection laws. This is also known as permission-based marketing, and it is critical in making text marketing campaigns successful. To entice users to opt-in to receive text messages containing special offers and new product offers alike, you can supply an online form, host contests that require sign-up or even produce e-books and white papers that require sign up to gain access. There are many ways in which you can get your users to opt-in to your SMS communications, just make sure that this is clear and obvious to the user.3. Pair the right keywords with your business type
Using wording and phrasing that are more aligned with your business and the market segment in which it finds itself will help you to better connect with your users. A straightforward example of this would be a school uniform shop mentioning back to school offers and school shoes. You would be surprised at how many companies will fail in mentioning anything that is directly linked to their business. Users enjoy word associations and it has the added effect of boosting the trust that they have with your product/service.4. Be Context Driven & Market Smart
Carrying on from the example used in the last section on keywords, your company should also be aware of the key events that occur in the calendar year and to plan your SMS communications around these. For example, your local school uniform shop should be aware of key dates in the school calendar such as back to school, when holidays are on and even the time period in which most school clothing goes missing! If you can plan your communications around some of these events, you will be surprised at how effective your SMS communications can become.5. Measure what works & re-iterate
Another key benefit of using SMS marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy is how easy it is to track and measure from one campaign to the next. SMS marketing allows you to easily determine which messages and promotions are working and which one’s aren’t which enables you the chance to continuously refine your wording and timing of these communications.Phonovation as Your Trusted Messaging Partner
As SMS continues to grow and maintain it’s title as one of the most reliable ways for both large and smaller organisations to connect with their audience. It is vital to use a platform which is secure and can be trusted.
Phonovation’s InteractSMS platform provides a range of bulk text solutions which enables your business to take full advantage of the cost efficiencies associated with both bulk text and other mobile technologies. Our market leading bulk text features include CRM data segmentation, a mobile website builder, voucher services, geo-locations and automatic scheduling.
With our cloud-based messaging service, you can send and receive SMS securely and with speed.
Your Message. Securely Delivered.
To find out more, contact us: HERE
