The Surprisingly Simple Reality of Using SMS Marketing

What is SMS Marketing?

Let’s start with the basics. What is SMS marketing? SMS marketing, or text message marketing, is a form of direct marketing in which you send text messages to your customers’ mobile phones. For instance, you can text them appointment reminders, event invitations, product announcements, and more. And because this strategy offers two-way communication, you can respond and interact with your customers in real time, encouraging your customers to engage with your business.

How Does SMS Marketing Work?

Mobile marketing is a permission-based marketing tactic, meaning your customers must opt-in to your marketing program and agree to receive your marketing material before you can text them anything.

Once you have a list of subscribers, SMS marketing allows you to send them marketing material via text. Using an SMS marketing platform like EZ Texting, you can segment your audience, draft messages, create templates, send mass texts, and track your results, making it easier than ever to build a marketing campaign.

Benefits of SMS Marketing

What are some benefits of SMS marketing? SMS marketing has many benefits, including the fact that it offers high-open rates, quick delivery times, personalization options, and a cost-effective tactic.

High Open Rates

High open rates are the most significant benefit of using SMS text marketing. You see, text messages have a 98% open rate, meaning there’s a high chance that your customers will open, read, and engage with your marketing texts.

Now, if we compare that to email, which only has an 18% open rate, you can see how impressive this marketing tactic is, as it allows you to get more eyes on your content. It also helps encourage higher click-through rates, as your customers are likely more engaged with your messages.

Quick Delivery Times

Because your SMS texts arrive almost instantly in your customers’ text inboxes, you can get your message across ASAP. Customers typically read their texts within 90 seconds of receiving them, which is especially important if you’re sending timely or urgent messages.

For example, if your sale ends today, you might want to send your customers a last-minute text, reminding them to take advantage of the promotion before it’s too late. Or, if your customer has an appointment with you tomorrow, you could text them with a reminder, helping to ensure they show up on time.

Personalized Messages Options

Another perk of using text SMS marketing is that you can personalize your message. This is an important feature because personalization is what helps increase customer engagement. Using your text marketing platform, you can add your customers’ names to your texts or include information that aligns with their purchasing behavior.

For instance, you could suggest a new product for them to try based on their past purchases or tell them about a sale on recently purchased products.

This helps show your customers that you recognize them and that they’re essential to your business.

A Cost-Effective Strategy

SMS texting is celebrated as a cost-effective marketing strategy because it lets you send mass texts to your customers without costing a fortune. Especially when compared to other marketing tactics, like billboards or TV ads that can cost a pretty penny, SMS marketing is a low-cost alternative that offers higher engagement rates than other marketing methods. Because of this, you can expect a high ROI when implementing a text marketing strategy.

Challenges of SMS Marketing

While there are many advantages to using mobile marketing, there are some aspects you ought to be aware of when using this marketing tactic. So, what are some challenges of SMS marketing? Some challenges of SMS marketing include character limits, spam filters, and opt-in requirements.

Character Limits

SMS texts have character limits, so you can’t send entire essays to your customers. Instead, you have just 160 characters to get your message across. While this may seem limiting, it can benefit you as it helps you keep your messages concise. The easier you make it for your customers to consume your message, the more likely they will interact with it.

Spam Filters

Spam filters are great for helping keep out unwanted, unsolicited messages, but they’re not so great when they accidentally flag your text messages. If a spam filter flags your message, it will block it and prevent your customers from seeing it.

Because of this, it’s important to ensure you’re not creating potentially spammy messages and using a platform like EZ Texting that follows anti-spam policies.

Opt-In Requirements

Opt-in requirements may seem like a roadblock when it comes to reaching your audience, but these rules are in place to protect your customers. After all, you don’t want to bother your customers with unwanted messaging, which could turn them away from your business.

Fortunately, these opt-in requirements are easy to implement if you follow texting legislation. To start, provide your customers with an opt-in option that lets them subscribe to your marketing program. Then, always offer an opt-out option, allowing them to remove themselves from your marketing list anytime.

How to Get Started With SMS Marketing

Now, it’s time to find out how easy it is to implement your SMS marketing tactics. So, you’re probably wondering, how do I get started with SMS marketing? To begin with SMS marketing, start by choosing a platform, creating a list of subscribers, writing your messages, scheduling your messages, and tracking your results.

Choose an SMS Marketing Platform

The first step involves selecting a reputable SMS marketing platform. This is the software you will use to send your messages. Do some research to determine the kinds of available platforms and then explore their different features and prices until you find one that suits your needs and preferences.

Create a List of Subscribers

Once you’ve selected your platform, it’s time to begin list building, which involves rounding up customers to subscribe or opt-in to your marketing program. You can go about this in several ways, but one of the easiest ways is to provide them with a keyword to text to your short code. You can even reward them with promo codes or free samples to entice them to subscribe.

Write Your SMS Messages

Now for the fun part: Crafting your messages! Consider your marketing goals and develop a copy that aligns with those goals.

For instance, if you want to promote your new product line, one SMS text marketing idea is to send your customers a link to a video describing your new products or a unique promo code to use on those specific products.

Or, if your goal is to get more customers into your store, another SMS text marketing idea is to host an in-store event and send your customers invitations via text.

Schedule Your SMS Messages

With your messages crafted, it’s time to schedule them. Depending on the urgency of your message, you can send it right away or wait for a specific time or day. Your SMS platform lets you decide exactly when you want to fire off your messages, helping to get the most engagement.

Track Your Results

And finally, be sure to track the performance of your campaigns! Using the analytics dashboard on your texting platform, you can monitor everything from click-through rates to conversion rates. It lets you see your open and engagement rates and how you’re doing in the lead generation department. With this information, you can experiment with your campaigns until you get the results that best align with your marketing goals.

Implementing an SMS marketing strategy is much easier than you initially thought. To see how simple it truly is, try our free 14-day trial today!