Marketing

Build Your Business Through SMS Marketing

SMS MarketingText message marketing is anything but fringe when it comes to driving business. In fact, Mshopper notes that successful SMS campaigns have huge potential, with engagement rates reaching eight times the level of typical email campaigns. A number of retailers, meanwhile, have managed conversion rates as high as 23 percent. Given the brevity and immediate delivery of SMS marketing, the campaign strategy can be very economical and useful to businesses looking to build their client base. But SMS campaigns also deliver marketing materials to a rather personal virtual space: The consumer’s text inbox. As a result, it’s important to respect this access while making the best use of your SMS opportunities. Run a successful campaign:

1. Let Consumers Know When They’re Opting In

To get consumers into an SMS messaging campaign, let them know when they are enrolling themselves. This is known as opting in, and it can be done in a variety of ways, such as by checking a box during online registration or sending a text message as a way of entering a sweepstakes. Gather SMS campaign numbers ethically to keep your relationship with customers strong. As long as you’ve provided them the opportunity to opt in with their permission, you can always point back to that moment in time. And if customers are still unhappy with the texts they’re receiving, you can help them opt out with ease.

2. Choosing Your Marketing Content

With a campaign in place, consider how you will best utilize SMS messages with substantial mobile security. Promo codes have long been a popular method of promotion — consumers can receive these codes and enter them online to enjoy savings or even freebies offered by your business. Similarly, you can include short hyperlinks to websites — since many SMS subscribers will own smartphones capable of visiting a web page, this can quickly drive mobile phone traffic to a marketing-optimized landing page, according to JA.TXT.

You can even use SMS messages to drive Facebook likes and promote downloads of your mobile app. And don’t forget the simplicity of just using text messages to deliver information, whether it’s an upcoming retail catalog or an ongoing sale.

3. Analyzing SMS Performance

Like any other digital campaign, SMS presents the opportunity for in-depth mobile analysis. Analytics tools can help you identify what’s working and what isn’t, and often to a degree much greater than simply eyeballing the stats. You can plug performance data from your SMS campaigns into a mobile device management solution, where mobile data can be analyzed to offer guidance on how you might improve your current efforts.

4. Always Provide an Option to Opt-Out

Just as it’s important to let consumers know when they’re opting in to an SMS campaign, it’s wise to provide a convenient path to unsubscribe. A common tactic is for businesses to attach onto the end of each message a line to the effect of “To stop receiving these messages, reply ‘STOP.'” It might be tempting to make things a little tougher in hopes of curbing lost subscribers, but in the end you’ll only build up bad will among your consumer base, possibly even gaining a reputation as a spammer.

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Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

2 Comments

  • Amelia Max

    I believe that SMS marketing is rather outdated and annoying. I hate it when I receive messages with some info about a sale going on or a newly launched taxi service. I view them as spam. I think that such advertising tactics show a company’s lack of respect towards its customers. In most cases, they subscribe you to their SMS services without your permission. Against your will, I would say. And they have no right to do so. Here it is stated that, according to law, they must have my permission to send me SMS https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/direct-marketing
    I have even heard that SMS marketing is illegal http://www.decisionmarketing.co.uk/news/sms-marketing-illegal-in-the-us Isn’t that true?
    Today we all own smartphones – so why not to take advantage of new technologies? I think that developing a mobile application is far more efficient than SMS marketing.
    Mobile apps have all the advantages of SMS marketing, at the same time being much more appealing. And they have a better functionality. I totally agree with Forbes – they say that a mobile app is like a blank billboard sign (http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2014/11/17/heres-why-your-business-needs-its-own-mobile-app/#6249d1125c76).
    As a customer, I really enjoy using such apps.I may find all the info about sales and promotions going on whenever I like. Or I can just open the app and immediately order all the products I need. I just can’t understand, why SMS marketing still exists – there are so many better opportunities nowadays.

    • Paul Tomaszewski

      Thank you for your lengthy comment! I agree with most of your points, though you’d have to keep in mind that this article was written back in 2013… Still as far as I know SMS marketing is not illegal in the US as long as it’s voluntary and there’s a way to opt-out without charge. These two requirements are actually described in headings #1 and #4.

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