Breathe Life Into Your SMS Marketing – It Still Works!

In this post:

• Let’s redefine SMS marketing
• SMS marketing – still more effective than email
• SMS marketing will boost your business
• Using SMS marketing to help customers 
• Achieving SMS personalization
• Bonus: A free guide to SMS and IVR automation (eBook)

Let’s redefine SMS marketing

First, let’s get back to the basics for a moment... 

SMS marketing uses the always-open SMS channel to deliver marketing messages. 

SMS messages (texts) generally have a link to an offer running on your company website. They’ll typically feature a catchy message that hooks your audience into engaging and finding out more…  

Tip: SMS is also useful in customer service. Find out how in ‘Why SMS is the using hero of Call Center Technology.’

SMS marketing – still more effective than email

Here me out… let’s look at the facts first:

• The response rate of 45% for SMS is way better than email’s 6%
• The open rate for SMS is a staggering 98%! (That compares with just 20% for email)
• The average response time for SMS is 90 seconds (For email it’s 90 minutes)

Source

One app to conquer them all

Considering the stats above, SMS clearly blows email out of the water. However, email is hardly cutting-edge tech either. How then does SMS fare against other modern messaging solutions? 

It’s the same song throughout. SMS is still the preferred option over Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and even WhatsApp. 

No wonder it has survived for 20+ years! These newer apps have had nowhere near as much time to ‘set roots’ as marketing tools. They also tend to evolve too often for business to stick with them the way they have with SMS.

SMS marketing will boost your business 

The outcomes are easy to track

One of the main difficulties with any marketing channel is measuring effectiveness.

SMS means easy engagement – clicking the link to your website. Even if they don’t go forward with it, you can clearly see the outcome. 

SMS messages are easy to compose and send

The most effective SMS marketing messages are short. Shortness is a defining feature of SMS (Short Messaging Service). This brief nature means SMS messages are seldom long-winded…

By now you get the idea… it’s so easy you don't need a floor filled with creative teams to produce a text message. Then there’s the part about sending them through to your target. For this, you only need an SMS platform or an API integration. 

Once you’re set up, pushing out a million messages is no harder than sending just one.

Tip: SMS offers are also perfect for maintaining loyalty. Here’s more about that: ‘How to create your own customer retention automation!’)

SMS messages work!

SMS marketing has accumulated a good record for success – does anything else matter?

Somehow, people just can’t resist opening text messages. Honestly, I have no idea why (even I can’t leave a new SMS notification unchecked either.)

People open them and they read them... and people respond to them. 

Using SMS marketing to genuinely help customers 

Marketing offers are highly accessible

Effective marketing campaigns always aim to give customers something of genuine value. 

We’re going to assume that that's the case with your campaigns. Since you’re providing something your customers are interested in, you should make your offer accessible. 

Fortunately, around 92% of the US market has access to SMS – more than any other channel commands (apart from voice.) This fact ticks the accessibility checkbox for you.

Text messages are easy to personalize

A strategic SMS marketing campaign doesn't just bombard customers with noise – it targets specific people based on their observed behaviours.

For instance – showing interest in a product could lead to a discount campaign activating on them, while high-value customers might get your best offers. 

However you arrange it, the important thing is that you’re sending customers an offer that’s tailored to their needs. 

SMS marketing is broadly trusted

Have you noticed how people generally trust text messages over emails… even from total strangers. Maybe it’s because they’ve been with us for so long, or because phone companies have some visible amount of anti-scam legislation in place. 

It’s also pretty easy to connect your text messages with your brand – this way your messages are just as trustworthy as you are!

Achieving SMS personalization

By now we know to send specific messages only to chosen customers… the question now becomes, how do we categorize them in the first place?

We gave a hint on how API integration can solve this. In a nutshell, an API is a way for separate systems or modules of software to ‘talk’ to one another. 

Consider your CRM system, which stores your customer’s information. Integrating that (using APIs) with the system that sends messages lays the groundwork for a marketing campaign. 

But you could go even further… 

If you’ve been collecting it correctly, there’s always some data in your CRM that could influence which messages go to which customers. 

You can personalize with data like:

• Demographic modelling and customer profiles
• Customer Lifetime Value
• Wishlists and incomplete purchases
• Feedback and survey data
• Purchase history

Essentially, you should use (almost) any information you’ve got. 

Why not *every* bit of information? 

In one Accenture research, shoppers expressed how ‘creepy’ it was when businesses sent them notifications based on their physical proximity to a shop. And yes, fair enough – that is really creepy. 

However, the same survey found that 91% of customers are more likely to buy from brands that send relevant offers based on what they’ve learnt about them. 

The buck stops at transparency – consumers are happy for you to use data which they’ve given knowingly and willingly. 

Another key ingredient is automation. Ideally, you’ll want that customer data to inform the messages (and messaging) you send without a lot of manual intervention. 

Take my advice, No-Code automation is the simplest option for sales, marketing, and customer service teams who need to create new automated processes fast.

You can read all about how to get it done in ‘Your (free) Guide to Contact Center Automation.’