The Pros and Cons of SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing Pros and Cons

Our guide is here to make sense of SMS marketing for you. We’ll start by explaining this marketing platform and then dive into the pros and cons of texting your customers. We also provide:

• SMS marketing best practices
• Some examples of SMS marketing campaigns
• Advice on tracking your results

What is SMS Marketing?

To better understand the pros and cons of texting your customers, it helps to start at the beginning. So, what is SMS marketing? SMS marketing, or text marketing, refers to a marketing strategy in which you send promotional text messages to your customers’ mobile phones.

So, how does it work? First, you must receive your customers’ consent before texting their marketing material. According to SMS marketing regulations, customers must opt-in or subscribe to your marketing program. Once you receive their permission, you can send them promotional text messages associated with your business.

Text marketing lets you send your customers marketing information relevant to your business. For instance, you can send them texts with details about a sale you’re hosting, an invitation to your event, reminders about an upcoming appointment, or even links to your latest blog entry or contest.

Pros of SMS Marketing

What are the pros of SMS marketing? SMS marketing has many pros, as this strategy features high open rates and quick response times, lets you create personalized messages, and provides a cost-effective marketing solution.

High Open Rates

One of the most significant benefits of text message marketing is its 98% engagement rate. That means that nearly 100% of your messages will get opened and read, making SMS marketing one of the most effective marketing channels. Text marketing sees engagement rates that are six to eight times higher than email marketing. Therefore, when you send your customers' marketing material via text, there's a high chance they will see and interact with it.

Quick Response Time

Another benefit of text message marketing is that these messages typically get opened within 90 seconds of delivery. This allows you to interact with your customers in a quick and effective way. Within minutes, you could encourage your customers to fill out your survey, use a special promo code, or visit your blog. It also means you can resolve customer service questions and concerns over text in record time.

Personalized Messages

One advantage of texting your customers is that you can personalize your communication. For example, you can customize your messages with your customers' names or suggest a specific product based on past purchases. You can also send them birthday greetings, appointment reminders, or information regarding their loyalty rewards. The SMS marketing benefit of these tailored texts is that they can help your customers feel important to your business, not just another face in a crowd.

Cost-Effective Communication

Compared to traditional marketing strategies, text marketing is a highly cost-effective method. With an SMS marketing platform, you can easily send mass texts to your customers without costing you an arm and a leg. This, paired with the high engagement rates and quick response times, makes it a low-cost tool that gets you results. And because this SMS marketing strategy can help increase sales, reduce churn, and enhance customer loyalty, you will likely see a favorable SMS marketing ROI.

Cons of SMS Marketing

Now, what are the cons of SMS marketing? A few cons associated with SMS messaging include the character limit, the potential for spam, and the opt-in requirements.

Character Limit

Regarding cons, it isn't the worst but can be limiting. When crafting an SMS message, you can only include up to 160 characters, meaning you must keep your content short and sweet. That said, as long as you're mindful of this and keep your text within the character limits, you should have no trouble getting your message across to your customers.

Spam

What is the disadvantage of text messaging your customers? As with many marketing platforms, SMS marketing is susceptible to spam. However, as long as you're aware and use reputable SMS marketing software like EZ Texting, you won't need to worry about spamming your customers.

Opt-In Requirements

Although it's sometimes considered a con, the SMS marketing opt-in requirements are not that big of an issue. Several other forms of marketing legally require customers to provide written consent, too, such as email marketing and telemarketing. Therefore, as long as you provide an opt-in and opt-out option, it's easy to comply with SMS marketing laws designed to protect your customers.

Best Practices for SMS Marketing

Now, what are some best practices for SMS marketing? Some of the best SMS marketing practices include receiving opt-in consent, keeping your messages short and concise, personalizing your messages, using a reputable SMS marketing platform, and tracking your results.

Receive Opt-In Consent

Regarding SMS marketing compliance, you must receive written consent from your customers before texting them. To do so, encourage your customers to send a keyword to your short code or fill out a subscription form so they can opt-in to your marketing program. You'll also need an SMS marketing unsubscribe option, allowing them to remove themselves from your text list anytime.

Keep Your Texts Short and to the Point

As you'll recall, SMS messages have a 160-character limit, so you must keep your content short to stay within the character confines. However, that's not the only reason you'll want to keep them short—your customers will quickly scan your texts, so getting your message across in as few words as possible is important.

Personalize Your Messages

Personalizing your messages is one great way to enhance customer engagement. Even just taking the time to include your customer’s name in the message makes the message more eye-catching, appealing, and thoughtful. Other ways to customize your messages include sending tailored reminders for upcoming appointments, special promos based on past purchases, and information that aligns with their preferences.

Use a Reputable SMS Marketing Provider

You want your customers to trust your brand, so it’s crucial to go with a reputable SMS marketing provider that has spam preventive measures in place. This will keep your customers from getting spammy, unwanted messages from your business.

Track Your Results

You won't know your SMS marketing campaigns' success unless you measure your results. One of the best SMS marketing tips we can offer is to begin by setting marketing goals for yourself and implementing campaigns that align with those goals. Once you have goals, you can monitor your analytics dashboard to see how well your campaigns are performing.

Examples of SMS Marketing Campaigns

With a better grasp of the pros and cons of SMS marketing, let’s move on to campaigns. What are some examples of SMS marketing campaigns? Some examples of SMS marketing campaigns include messages associated with birthday greetings, loyalty rewards, appointment reminders, product launches, and discounts and promos.

Birthday Greetings

What better way to make your customers feel appreciated than by sending them a personalized birthday greeting? To further sweeten the message, consider including a special promo birthday code or exclusive access to a free sample.

An example birthday greeting might say, "(Moon Cafe) Happy birthday, Jeff! We're treating you to a free coffee to celebrate your special day! Use the promo code BDAYCAFE at checkout: https://eztxt.net/Xrp59Q"

Loyalty Rewards

Make your customers feel like VIPs when you use SMS marketing campaigns to invite them to join your loyalty program and treat them to rewards.

For instance, you could send an SMS message like, “(Sol Sunnies) Liz, you’ve earned 250 reward points with your recent purchase! You are 100 points away from redeeming a VIP loyalty gift.”

Appointment Reminders

Appointment reminders can help prevent no-shows by putting your appointment on your customer's radar. For this marketing campaign, send out reminders before your customers' appointments and provide them with a way of confirming, canceling, or rescheduling.

As part of your reminder campaigns, you could send a message such as, “(Dr. Den) Mark, your appointment with Dr. Den is scheduled for March 3 at 2 p.m. Reply C to confirm, R to reschedule, or X to cancel.”

Product Launch Announcements

Another effective SMS marketing campaign involves sending out information regarding your upcoming product launch. You could send a sneak peek of your new line, a teaser of your latest products, access to free samples, or promo codes to use on your product launch date.

An SMS marketing example for a product launch might say, “(Coco Boutique) Jess, we’re launching our new summer line of swimsuits on June 1! Use the promo code 20SWIM to receive 20% off your swimsuit purchase: https://eztxt.net/Ckd75W”

Discounts and Promotions

SMS marketing texts provide an excellent avenue for delivering discounts and promo codes. And thanks to the high engagement rates of SMS texts, there’s a good chance your customers will open (and use!) your promotions.

A promotional message could look something like this, “(Kitty Cats) Jack, all of our cat toys are 30% off between now and May 1. Use the promo code TOYS30 to treat your favorite feline to some goodies: https://eztxt.net/Hmw82X”

How to Measure the Success of Your SMS Marketing Campaigns

Last but not least, let’s discuss tracking your campaign performance. If you’re asking yourself, how can I measure the success of my SMS marketing campaign, we suggest monitoring the following areas:

• Open rates: How many of your recipients are opening your messages?
• Click-through rates: How many of your recipients are clicking on the links within your texts?
• Conversion rates: How many recipients complete your call to action?
• Customer feedback: What kind of feedback are you receiving from your customers?

Using your dashboard and analytics tools on your SMS marketing platform, you can get a holistic view of your campaign, and once you see how well your campaigns are performing, you can use this insight to make the appropriate tweaks for even better results.

Now that you know some of the pros and cons of SMS marketing, it’s time to try out this marketing approach for yourself. Start your free 14-day trial today to create your own SMS marketing campaigns for your business!