SMS Marketing is a powerful technique that allows you to build genuine relationships with your customers. Once you have a thorough understanding of how it works, you can optimize it and target your most engaged customers.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS refers to “short message service”. It’s used to send transactional or promotional messages for the purpose of marketing to customers using text messages. 

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The messages sent by the brand to the customer generally include time-sensitive offers, alerts and updates. 

Just like email marketing, SMS marketing is an owned channel. Therefore, you have complete control of who receives the message, the kind of content you wish to share and at what time you wish to send it. In addition, you have complete ownership of the experience you create for your customers.

In addition to text messages, you can also send Multimedia messages to your customers. They enable you to send GIFs and images via text.

SMS Marketing is still popular and brands use it to:

• Boost sales: Send discounts, limited-time offers and promotions to increase revenue;
• Engage the audience: Easily share alters, updates and new content via messaging;
• Build long-term relationships: 2-way communication allows you to establish trust. In addition, you can quickly provide customer service;
• Build excitement: Conduct polls and sweepstakes;
• Collect and nurture leads: Encourage potential customers to give consent to receive texts from your brand. Follow-up with them to build a loyal customer base.

The Importance of SMS Marketing

Now that you know what SMS Marketing is, it’s time to take a look at the most important text messaging statistics.

• 20% is the average redemption rate of mobile coupons;
• 22% of messages are forwarded to family and friends;
• An average American looks at their smartphone 150 times every day;
• 70% of Americans like receiving offers from their favourite brand directly to their smartphone;
• 95% of messages are read within the first 5 minutes of delivery.

It’s clear that SMS marketing helps spread awareness and boost sales. Here are a few more reasons why it’s so important in today’s day and age:

• It’s designed for mobile commerce. According to a study, 46% of people spend around 5-6 hours every day on their mobile phones. Therefore, it’s crucial for your brand to invest in mobile-friendly marketing. SMS marketing makes it easy for you to reach your customers;
• Has higher open and engagement rates. People love receiving, reading and engaging with text messages. This means higher customer lifetime value and frequent repeat purchases;
• Connect with customers using the communication method of their choice. When your brand uses messages to keep the customers informed about the latest news, events and offers, it makes them feel valued. In addition, messages can be personalized which further increases the chances of conversion.

10 SMS Marketing Benefits

SMS Marketing benefits vary based on the type of business you have and the industry you’re in. Here are the most common benefits experienced by business owners and marketers who use SMS:

1. Customers feel valued when they’re informed about the latest events, news and offers;
2. It allows you to instantly reach customers;
3. Customers can easily stay updated and in the loop with your brand;
4. It increases the foot traffic to your business;
5. It allows you to establish a strong personal connection with your customers;
6. Customers can easily forward texts to family and friends;
7. It boosts sales and also your customer base;
8. It enables you to create new customers and reward loyal ones;
9. Since SMS marketing is trackable, it allows you to measure which strategies are working and which aren’t; 
10. It’s a mass communication tool that allows you to reach thousands of customers at a single click of a button.

Types of SMS Messaging for Brands

Decided to implement text messaging as a part of your marketing strategy? Here are two types of communication you can send to your audience: transactional and promotional. 

1. Transactional Text Messages. They contain information your customers require such as sipping or order confirmation details. It’s recommended that you instantly send the order confirmation update as soon as the customer purchases a product/service. This reassures the customer and builds customer loyalty.
2. Promotional Text Messages. They’re used to increase brand awareness, boost sales and promote an event or a product. In addition, you can use them to share important alerts and announcements with your customers. You can also send abandoned carts or welcome texts to your customers based on the actions they take on your website.

SMS Marketing Strategy for Brands

Here’s an SMS marketing strategy to help you get started. 

• Set clear goals. Determine which goals you wish to achieve using SMS marketing. For instance, you may be using text messaging to boost sales of a particular product or to take customer feedback. Tailor your messages in accordance with the goal you’re trying to achieve. It’s best to launch with one goal in mind that focuses on the quick wins and helps build on your capabilities.
• Partner with a great vendor. The set-up and launch should be easy. In addition, it should be easy for you to scale over time. Ensure that your eCommerce platform integrates with leading SMS providers such as Omnisend and Attentive. Select a vendor that offers tools for customization, allows automation and has the ability to have two-way communication with your subscribers. In addition, it should have robust tools to grow your list and be cost-effective.
• Grow your subscriber base. Build a list of subscribers by adding a form on your social media channels or website. Encourage more people to opt-in by offering rewards and exclusive offers. However, ensure that you have their permission to send messages as SMS marketing is a permission-based channel.
• Launch the campaign. Initially, it’s recommended that you experiment and try different strategies to understand what works for you. Once you have the results, you can then automate the entire process. 
• Continue to test and try new things. Regularly measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and search for methods to further optimise them. 

Top 6 Examples of SMS Marketing

Let’s look at some examples of SMS Marketing that demonstrate how marketers are building relationships with their subscribers.  

1. Welcome Messages

Your customers expect a welcome email once they subscribe to your list. Therefore, the same goes for SMS as well. Offer an incentive once they sign up. Add a link or a discount code like marketers at Runway Rogue. Follow up this SMS with an email in case they didn’t see the SMS. 

2. Send Limited-Time Offers

Text messages are great if you have a special promotion that you wish to send to your customers. Incorporate urgency in your texts if you want the subscriber to take immediate action. In addition, you can also leverage FOMO (fear of missing out) like FigPin. 

3. Order Confirmation and Delivery Updates

Sending key information via text puts the customers at ease. They don’t have to open their email to check if the order was placed. Once you send them the order confirmation email, it’s wise to follow up with shipping and tracking details. It’s important to be transparent with customers as it helps build trust. 

4. Customer Service

Your messages just don’t have to be about sales. In fact, they can be used to address customer issues before they become huge problems. For instance, Once Upon a Child informed its subscribers they were short-staffed in advance. This helps the customer understand the cause of delays in responses. 

5. Latest News and Events

Send relevant news and updates about upcoming events that your subscribers will find useful. For instance, Mom Life Must Haves leveraged the six-hour Facebook shutdown to their advantage. The key is to be mindful of the latest trends and events and steer clear of controversial issues. 

SMS Marketing Examples for Inspiration

There’s no shortage of reasons to send messages to your subscribers. Here are a few more examples to take inspiration from:

1. Recognize Special Occasions

Show your customers you care by offering incentives on important days such as their birthday. Use the message as a teaser or mention the details directly in the message. 

2. Promote Sales

Popular brands like Abercrombie and Fitch use SMS marketing to promote sales. Their message creates a sense of urgency which makes the subscriber click the link and visit their website. 

3. Announce New Products

Use SMS marketing to inform subscribers of the latest product launches. Don’t shy away from using emojis in your messages. It makes the message look friendly instead of salesy. 

4. Send Appointment Reminders

Send messages a day prior to your customers to remind and confirm the appointments. This is extremely helpful for service-based companies and professionals such as spas, beauty parlours and doctors. 

5. Collect Customer Feedback

Add a link in your message and request your customers to leave feedback or a review. It’s an excellent way to understand what your subscribers expect from you and provides insight that helps optimise your strategies. 

Tips and Best Practices

Since people are so connected with their phones, it’s crucial to get messages right. Therefore, it’s important to keep these tips and best practices in mind before launching a campaign:

1. Get permission. The same opt-in rules as email marketing apply to SMS marketing. As a marketer, you’re bound by law to gain explicit consent from your subscribers before you send any marketing communications. Give full disclosure early on so that they know what to expect. However, understand that you can’t abuse the permission they’ve granted. 
2. Keep it concise yet valuable. Since text messages are limited to 160 characters, it’s important to keep them short. Identify yourself, use proper grammar, think about what value you’re delivering and make your message unique. Be mindful of the time of the delivery of texts. In addition, add a clear CTAA CTA is a phrase or word designed to get an immediate response from the reader. As the name suggests, it's usually something that involves a precise action performed by.... 
3. Personalize the campaign. Use a tool that allows you to incorporate segmentation. Target your customers and send the SMS at the right time.
4. Ensure that it compliments the rest of your digital marketing strategies. All of your digital marketing strategies should have a common goal that you’re trying to achieve.
5. Avoid being salesy. No one wants to communicate with someone who’s just trying to sell something all the time. Add a mix of offers, polls, and sales promotions to keep the subscriber engaged. 
6. Avoid sending a lot of texts. Don’t overwhelm people with 15 messages a day. Instead, understand cadence and send the most important texts so that your customers know it’s something good and not just another annoying message.

In Conclusion

Getting started with SMS Marketing is easy. Experiment to understand what works for you and what doesn’t. 

Ensure that you have taken permission from your subscribers to send them messages. Next, find a messaging service that will help you achieve your goals. 

Then, create and launch a campaign. Remember to keep the messages relevant and short. Don’t send too many messages or else people will block your brand. 

What channels of marketing do you usually use? How will you create an SMS marketing strategy for your brand? Tell us in the comments section below!