Why Use SMS Marketing

Benefits of SMS Marketing

Companies who have used this communication method are well aware of the benefits of text marketing. By using this widely accepted tool, businesses have a direct and immediate channel to prospects and customers. SMS marketing is a simple, cost effective way to nurture a personal relationship with customers and is easily integrated with other marketing channels to increase overall engagement.

One of the main advantages of SMS marketing is that it is permission-based. Prospects and customers must opt-in or give your organization permission to send text messages to their cell phones. While people have trained themselves to better ignore advertisements that bombard the senses throughout the day, many pay more attention to marketing messages they have requested.

Why Use SMS Marketing? (Video)

Benefits of text message marketing include taking advantage of people’s rapt attention to their phones, having multiple opportunities to connect with customers unobtrusively, and being woven into a prospect or client’s day.

Direct, Immediate Channel

One reason why SMS marketing is so effective is that it provides a direct, immediate channel to your prospects and customers. Whether you have an important announcement or product release to share or a limited time offer to broadcast, text messages give you a fast and easy way to get your message out.

Roughly two-thirds of all Americans check their phones 160 times each day. Being visible and present during some of those moments is one of the key benefits of bulk SMS marketing. In addition, the ability to be able to receive return responses or inquiries immediately illustrates that this direct channel works both ways.

Simplicity

A second benefit of text marketing is it’s simplicity. You have only 160 characters to communicate so you need to pull together a clear, concise message quickly. The channel forces you to stay on point, communicating only the most important thing in the next text message.

No need to worry about lengthy content production, design coordination or production of any kind. Simply say what you need to say and hit send, immediately reaching your entire target audience list. Changes and updates are just as simple with SMS marketing.

Personal Relationship with Customers

Although many people feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that they encounter each day between advertising on websites, email promotions, commercials on television, phone solicitations, and billboards, there is a desire for consumers to connect with their favorite companies and brands.

According to Sprout Social, 64% of consumers want brands to reach out and connect with them. It’s clear that the more personal the message, the more likely customers will engage. Why SMS marketing works so well revolves around the fact that companies can extend targeted coupons, offers and specials to a subset of customers or take special care of loyal members.

Integrations with Other Channels

Another benefit of SMS marketing is that it can easily handle integrations with other channels. By connecting your text marketing tools to your customer relationship management (CRM) system, you can pull subsets of customers for targeted marketing efforts. Printed campaigns can invite prospects to opt-in to receive text marketing messages or special new customer promotions.

In addition, you can collect responses to polls or other outreach in a database, which can then be analyzed in order to make better business decisions moving forward. Having such a direct link to your customers can help you further personalize your products, services, and communication methods to meet their growing and changing needs and preferences.

Cost Effective

Sending a text message is one of the most cost effective ways to reach your target audience. Sign up for a web-based SMS service like DialMyCalls, which facilitates quick and easy creation of both comprehensive customer lists and an unlimited number of sublists. Build your SMS marketing program, and you’re ready to start sending targeted messages to specific clients and prospects immediately.

You don’t incur printing, production or streaming costs. You simply take advantage of a popular and widely accepted channel for customer communication.

Increased Engagement

Increased customer and prospect engagement is possibly why SMS marketing is growing in popularity today. It is harder and harder to break through the clutter of noise in today’s information-saturated world.

One of the biggest benefits of text message marketing is being able to connect and engage with your most important customers and most interested prospects. The permission-based nature of SMS marketing means that text message recipients have requested to see your messages, promotions, and alerts. That alone will result in increased engagement, making it more likely they will not only open your text but engage with your business.

With the world’s eyes now accustomed to reading the small screen of their smartphone, it was only a matter of time before a way was discovered to advertise through them. SMS text alerts as a marketing tool have proven to be highly successful in a number of different applications, and are ideal for businesses both big and small, so long as you know how to properly take advantage of it.

The best thing about SMS marketing campaigns is that they are inexpensive in comparison to other methods of advertising your service, business or product. Plus, there is no real technical knowledge needed beyond being able to come up with compelling messages. This is especially true of bulk messaging, or what some refer to as text blasting.

How Does Bulk Messaging Work?

Bulk messaging follows the same concept as a group email, except the recipients receive their message right on their phone. Since most providers of this type of service have an address book for you to store your contact numbers, the process for creating and sending the message is simple and should take just a few minutes.

The Pitfall of Bulk Messaging

The creation of your contact list is extremely important, as there are laws which disallow for unsolicited text messages for marketing purposes. You need to encourage your customer base to opt in to this service by sending a special  keyword to a pre-selected SMS short code. Text message marketing providers such as DialMyCalls can assist you in setting up your first bulk SMS campaign.

You can also increase your contact list by offering incentives to your existing customers if they are able to get friends to sign on as well. So long as you have their permission to use their phone number, you have the ability to increase your businesses exposure.

Once you have started to create a database of customers who are interested in receiving text message alerts about your business, you need to think about when to send them and what they should consist of. For example, nightclubs and bars have found success in using this type of campaign by sending out messages around 6 p.m. offering no cover charge for a limited time – just when their customers are starting to make plans for the weekend on Friday night.

If your messages center around special sales and discounts on merchandise, consider that the typical payday is either Wednesday or Friday, so plan your messages to hit your customers right around the same time that their pay is clearing in their accounts. Service providers like carpet cleaners and car washes should focus on the weekends, when people are off and have the time to take care of those tasks.

SMS Marketing Stats

Taking a closer look at SMS marketing stats can help us appreciate the power of this marketing channel and appreciate the true benefits of bulk SMS marketing.

• Individuals who live in the United States check their phones 96 times each day on average.
• Nearly all text messages, or 98%, are opened by recipients with 95% doing so within three minutes.
• Seventy-nine percent of consumers say they use their smartphones to make buying decisions based on opt-in messages.
• Roughly two-thirds of consumers say they would like to receive text messages from businesses but less than one-fourth of companies send them.
• Roughly 70% of individuals view SMS texts as a positive way to get their attention.

Are you ready to get started? Sign up for a free DialMyCalls account and start a trial today. As soon as you have your contact list ready, it will be a matter of minutes before your company is communicating with your most valuable prospects and customers.