Although SMS marketing is a tried and tested technique, it has only come to fruition in the past few years as businesses have started to shift to online marketing rather than traditional marketing strategies.
Nowadays, marketers and businesses are finding the gap to use this in alignment with other digital marketing platforms to maximise their earning potential. However, a lot of businesses are seeing it work… but don’t know where to start.
So, how does SMS marketing work? Let’s delve into this topic so you can gauge exactly how you can implement this into your business with all of the new text message marketing software in the market. Read on here!
What is SMS Marketing?
So, what is SMS marketing? Well, businesses use SMS marketing software in order to send informational, promotional or transactional messages to their customer's phone numbers for the benefit of accumulating traffic, generating revenue or even obtaining brand awareness.
Whether your business is beginning a promotion for a new product you’re launching, or we’re approaching a time of the year such as Easter, Halloween, Christmas, etc when discounts are typically proposed by high-end companies.
Communication is the main contributing factor to the success of these mobile marketing campaigns. Without the knowledge of how to leverage this form of communication via digital marketing channels, your business will be missing out on the highest earning potential of its existence.
Therefore, if you present the opportunity to potential customers of joining the SMS marketing community in an admirable fashion - you will begin to see an influx of people reacting to your SMS marketing campaigns.
Sending texts to your audience will only typically go through their actual text messages rather than other texting platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, etc.
How SMS Marketing Works
In regards to how SMS marketing works, there are a couple of opposing campaign strategies that you can set up to benefit from its uses. One is sending messages in a ‘campaign’ style and the other is using text messaging for transactional communication.
One tip to be aware of before we break down these forms of communication is to note that the messages that your customer will receive will be ordered via ‘short codes’. What this signifies is that your business can use a special 5-6 digital code to send text messages to customers that opt into your SMS marketing community.
Using this 5-6 digital code, your business will be granted access to sending their campaigns to the customers that opt-in. Here are the two types of communication described in detail below, so you can understand the disparities between the two for your future marketing endeavours:
Mass Messaging
If you have ever received text messages that you know others will be receiving too, this will most likely be a one-to-many text messaging campaign. If you send text messages in bulk to an audience that can all benefit from a certain offer, this indicates a mass marketing messaging service.
Often, you will receive these notifications regarding a new offer that you can take advantage of a discount code that is personalised to a specific date in the calendar. Or, if the goal is to generate brand awareness for an update/ event within your business - this can be an effective way to reach everyone you think it will be relevant for.
Niche Messaging
Throughout your analytics on your SMS marketing software, you will begin to recognise patterns forming within the behaviour of your targeted audience. For example, if certain customers keep proceeding to the same section within your website to buy similar products, you will be able to send personalised one-to-one marketing messages to them - relating to their specific buying habits.
Taking this into consideration, this is where you will see your revenue skyrocket if you assess and target your audience in the correct manner. Once you understand the behaviour of where certain potential customers are visiting, you will be able to optimise your SMS marketing campaigns based on what is most popular within their buying routines.
Advantages of Implementing SMS Marketing
Breaking down the advantages of implementing SMS marketing - no matter what field of work you’re in - will always add value to your online marketing performance. For most businesses, an inrush of eyes and conversions is their main objective for each year and finding a valid strategy and systems for this is vital.
Mobile marketing undoubtedly falls into this category if it is conducted well. This means that creating a system that functions effectively either by itself (through automisation) or with the help of an external marketing team will add to your diverse income streams. Here are some of the main advantages of SMS marketing that we’ve seen when executing strategies for our clients:
High Open Rates/ Engagement Rates
Due to SMS marketing being personalised to your tailored desires on a website, you will notice that the open rate, engagement rate and conversion rate will skyrocket. If you’re giving people what they want with their marketing options, added to the fact that it pops up as a notification instantly on your lock screen - it is extremely easy to purchase from these forms of marketing.
A text, followed by a CTA (call to action) link at the end of your message can be all you need to see massive improvements in your overall revenue performance.
A Great Partnership to Email Marketing
As email marketing is a longer-winded form of marketing, the designs, flows and campaigns have to be structured in a way that is visually appealing to your audience. Whereas, SMS marketing is often no longer than 160 characters.
Hence, you will notice that you’ll have to create a quick, organised way to persuade your audience to view the link you’re presenting to them in the text.
Enforcing both the longer form of marketing (emails) with a shorter form of marketing (SMS) will be an optimal duo for flourishing results in the short, medium and long term - especially if you’re not looking to spend your investments on paid advertising.
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