Each of the marketing tools has its advantages, but not all advertising campaigns are equally effective. The success of advertising and business in general often depends on the specialization of the company. Many entrepreneurs successfully use SMS-mailing, which also has its own features and shortcomings.
SMS mailing is an advertising tool used by more and more companies. It offers the ability to quickly connect with a selected group of recipients with an advertising message and encourage them to take action – most often to purchase a promoted product or service. The growing popularity of SMS marketing is very easy to explain. This is an effective and inexpensive tool with which you can better promote your brand.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is an advertising tool based on sending short text messages to mobile numbers stored in the company’s database. Before starting an SMS marketing campaign, every entrepreneur should make sure to get the phone numbers of customers or other people interested in his services and collect them in his database.
Customer data collected in a single file can then be used to send messages. However, please note that in order to be able to send promotional SMS messages, each recipient must agree to receive them by sending a text to a SMS short code. What are the most important benefits of using SMS marketing?
Why use SMS?
Of course, today there are more modern marketing tools, but sending SMS over the years has proven its effectiveness. Any entrepreneur who works with the end user will confirm that business text marketing is 20-25% more efficient than other communication channels and allows you to maintain a fairly high level of customer loyalty to the company.
The advantages of SMS-mailings are obvious:
- Ability to promptly inform a wide range of customers;
- Full coverage of the target audience;
- Increasing the percentage of sales and visits;
- Maintain communication with each client directly;
- Low price compared to other types of advertising.
With the help of short text messages you can not only increase sales, but also remind customers about yourself, tell about interesting offers, promotions, new events and company expansions. You can apply filters to each number database to more accurately respond to your audience’s queries.
Take your time and don’t give up SMS messaging
An important advantage of SMS distribution is that the start of the campaign can be programmed for a specific time. In addition, mailing can always be stopped when the offer or product becomes irrelevant. When sending a short text message, we do not limit the number of users, as any phone is able to receive SMS, but not everyone has, for example, access to the mobile Internet.
A short message can be much more eloquent than a long text that many may simply not read due to lack of time. For example, basic information about a 30% discount on a specific product or service will be more accessible than a long piece of text per page.
SMS marketing allows you to reach customers quickly and directly. The most important advantage of SMS mailing is the possibility of direct contact with all people interested in your services. According to statistics, 98% of people read a received text message as soon as it is delivered to a mobile phone. The high efficiency of SMS advertising campaigns is also guaranteed by the widespread use of mobile phones and smartphones.
The advantage of communicating with customers via SMS is also the speed of message delivery. Solutions for mass sending of text messages allow you to send even thousands of SMS, which reach the recipients’ phones in just a few minutes.
SMS marketing allows you to personalize the content of the message. The fact is that text messages are short.
However, this can also be an advantage. Clear and concise advertising messages reach recipients much better than long messages used, for example, in e-mail campaigns. In order for the message you send to evoke positive associations in the recipient, it must be properly personalized. Personalization of the message allows you to effectively reduce the distance between sender and recipient, establishing a positive relationship.
SMS marketing is not just for informing about promotions, brands often send texts through SMS short code or long code to inform customers about advertising campaigns, sales and new products. But, the advantage of SMS-mailings is also their versatility. Customers will be sure to appreciate SMS messages informing them about the current status of the order, shipment of goods and other important actions related to the order.
A fly in the ointment
At the same time, such a channel of communication SMS messaging has its drawbacks, the main of which is the inability to gain new customers. Another disadvantage is that the customer base is actually formed by the users themselves. However, taking into account all the advantages and disadvantages of properly organized SMS-mailing, we can consider such a marketing tool quite effective and convenient for both users and entrepreneurs.
Bonus: How not to become an SMS spammer?
- Always explain why customers subscribe to receive SMS. For example, they will be aware of the hottest offers or will be able to save money on sales;
- Ensure data privacy. Customers need to be sure that you will NEVER pass on their numbers to third parties or spam them;
- Therefore, each company must give the user the opportunity to unsubscribe from the SMS-mailing.
In order for SMS to be productive, you need to understand what audience you are dealing with. It is best when these people are interested in your work. Then you can use the message as an additional way of informing (about sales, discounts, news). There is no spam here, so you can count on working with potential customers. It is clear that you mean that you have your own developed base.
SMS mailing should be as short, specific and useful as possible. It should be thought out to the smallest detail. Ideally, the text should not exceed 160 characters. As with other methods, you should not abuse people’s weight, because it causes a backlash. It is believed that the optimal frequency of mailings – not earlier than one SMS per two weeks. It is very important to consider the time of sending, unlike other tools, because the customer will not want to buy from you if you wake him up with your SMS at night or at 5 am.
Remember, SMS marketing can be used in various areas of business. Treat it responsibly and professionally, for all its simplicity, this tool is tuned to the smallest detail, solving not only urgent tasks, but also builds long-term relationships with your customers.
