In today's digital age, text messages have become a go-to communication channel, and savvy marketers are leveraging this opportunity to connect with their audience in a whole new way.
It is not only us presenting this idea, but there are thousands of statistics out there that show that the open rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate have increased significantly since implementing SMS marketing campaigns.
Whether you're a small business owner or a marketing pro, this blog is your ultimate guide to exploring the most powerful SMS marketing ideas out there. From catchy promotions to personalised messages that'll make your customers swoon, we've got you covered.
A Brief Overview of What SMS Marketing is
In relation to what SMS marketing is, this is the practice of sending promotional-based, direct text message campaigns to potential or existing customers with brand updates, offers, discount codes, etc., in order to boost conversion rates across your website. Before receiving each type of SMS message, your customer must opt-in via their phone number to receive your marketing.
DON'T MISS: Do this once per month to expedite SMS list growth
The Main Types of SMS Campaigns
As you begin to present your SMS subscribers with personalised messages, there are different ways that you can approach them. You don’t want to be sending the same or similar SMS marketing campaigns all of the time; otherwise, people will unsubscribe and go to someone else in your industry. Here are the types of messages to customers that you can send:
- Reminder emails
- Flash sales
- Free shipping
- Discount codes related to the customer's activity
- Shipping and order confirmation details
- Holiday promotions
- Gaining reviews and feedback
- New product launch
- Loyalty campaigns
- Text-to-win competitions
- Payday campaign
The list is endless, and not only are there a myriad of ways you can reach and engage your audience, but the number of conversion opportunities you have within each 160-character message is incredible.
Why Businesses Use SMS Marketing
It is no wonder why a top-tier SMS marketing strategy has become so prominent in the world of marketing nowadays. Businesses of all sizes are seeing huge advantages from implementing this within their marketing mix and are not looking back. Let’s dive into some of the key reasons why businesses use SMS marketing:
1: Open Rate Potential
Out of all the marketing channels that you can use to promote your products and encourage your customers to buy, SMS marketing is most certainly the marketing method with the highest open rate.
As high as 98%, the opportunity for your customer base to view and act on your text message marketing is exciting. Even businesses that don’t specialise in SMS marketing see these sorts of statistics; never mind if you were to add a personalised message and create a clear call to action (CTA) to boot.
2: Instantly Reaches the Audience
In unison with the previous benefit, SMS marketing text messages will instantly reach your audience, unlike many other social media marketing platforms, allowing your business to deliver time-sensitive information or promotions promptly.
Instead of waiting for processing or approval like any other advertising platform, text messages will reach your customers instantly. Furthermore, with the average time people spend on their phones throughout the day, they’re most likely going to see this immediately.
DON'T MISS: Why I believe SMS should be managed under the same roof as email
3: Cost-Effective Marketing Method
As we currently stand, SMS marketing is still one of the most affordable marketing methods that you can use to reach your target audience. Therefore, if you’re looking to budget for an effective return on investment (ROI), SMS marketing can give you one of the highest chances of being profitable.
4: Track Record of Success
Although open rates are exponentially high, business owners often believe that they won’t convert customers. However, this is not the case, as the many different variations of campaigns will help increase revenue in multiple ways.
Whether this is a holiday sale, Black Friday flash sale, new product update, etc., there has been an increase in revenue potential for businesses that include a clear call to action (CTA) within their promotional campaigns.
SMS Marketing Ideas to Help Your Company
If what you’ve read in this blog post has inspired you to add this marketing channel to your marketing mix, ensuring that you have a clear game plan and ideas to act on is key to success. Here, we’re going to give you some actionable SMS marketing ideas that you can use to integrate this into your marketing workflows:
Branded SMS Marketing Messages
When sending out your SMS campaigns—after signing up for popular SMS marketing software and building your SMS lists—you need to clearly state your brand in the message you send out.
If customers don’t understand the reason or context of why they’re receiving this text message, they’re going to unsubscribe immediately rather than act and purchase from your company.
Always Have an Opt-in and Opt-Out Policy
In order to even send text message marketing campaigns to an audience, marketers or businesses must, by law, abide by the rules and regulations that ensure everyone receiving your messages has opted in.
To allow your customers to opt in, you can use newsletter pop-ups, or they can tick a box to receive SMS and emails when making their first purchase on your website. However, always making it clear that they can opt out whenever they please is paramount and builds trust.
Personalisation
As we’ve mentioned countless times, if your audience doesn’t feel as though they’re part of an exclusive community within your SMS marketing efforts and your content seems generalised, the conversion rate will never be as high as it could be.
Using your customers’ first names where possible, along with basing the campaign on what their interests are, will be much appreciated, and they will continue to keep their interests within your company.
Sending Your Campaigns at the Right Time
No matter if this is the time of day or an important seasonal campaign, if you have an effective SMS marketing app, it will present data on the times that your customers see your campaign. Using this data, you can formulate and act on the necessary timing to reach your customers effectively.
Creative Campaigns
Although there are best practices, you need to ensure that your creativity and practices align. Using the types of campaigns section of this blog with creative flair will ensure that the copy meets the standard that you require to see the best conversion rate.
If you’re interested in hiring an SMS marketing agency to get you up and running and generate a return on investment (ROI) that you didn’t think was possible, we’re more than happy to speak with you and see if we’re the right fit for each other. Get in touch about working together by booking a discovery call today with our experts to see what we can advise you on!
Enjoyed this article? Follow me on LinkedIn, and don't forget to join 2,000+ hungry D2C enthusiasts who lap up our CEO Adam Kitchen's weekly insider insights on eCommerce email marketing.
Related Reads Handpicked for You
- Data series: Part 1: Using Google Analytics to enhance your email/SMS strategy
- Data series Part 3: Using competitor analysis to enhance your email/SMS strategy
- Exploring The Most Effective SMS Marketing Ideas
- How Effective is SMS Marketing: A Magnet Monster Guide
- What Is The Best SMS Marketing Platform?
- Conversational Email and SMS: Examples and Strategies
- SMS Vs Email Marketing: The Key Differences
- 5 Ways to build your SMS List
- Benefits of SMS Marketing For Your Business
- Conversational Email and SMS: Examples and Strategies
- How Does SMS Marketing Work?
- Klaviyo SMS Masterclass with Nevin Jain
- Klaviyo SMS Marketing Explained
- The Key Advantages Of SMS Marketing
further in depth reading
This is a collection of articles that will provide you with more information about our FREE email marketing course.