SMS Marketing refers to the sending of text or SMS messages, either as campaigns or transactional messages, in order to achieve a marketing objective. It is also known as text marketing or text message marketing.
SMS is mainly used to communicate offers, updates, and urgent alerts to those people who have previously decided to receive these types of messages from a company.
It’s no mystery that building customer relationships takes work. If you want to communicate with your customers, don’t wait for them to come to you. You have to be proactive and go where they are.
Now, I don’t expect (or advise) you to knock on your customer’s door-to-door, that would be crazy. But, you can do better: send them a text message.
It is increasingly common to see how people use their telephone or mobile more, so it makes sense that SMS is the most direct line of contact.
This has made text marketing, or SMS marketing, one of the most effective ways to communicate with customers as long as it’s done correctly.
If this definition seems too complicated for you, don’t worry, later I will explain all these terms so that you can get a clearer idea of how text messages can improve your marketing strategy.
Text messaging is a very effective and direct line of communication with the customer. However, there are many rules that you need to keep in mind when sending bulk SMS. The first, and most important, is to receive permission from your contacts to send them SMS messages.
SMS has an extremely high open rate, but this won’t help you if you’re sending messages to people who don’t want to receive them. Also, customer acceptance (also called opt-in) is a legal requirement in most countries.
Unlike emails, which are only checked a few times a day, text messages are opened almost immediately. This is great for urgent messages, but don’t abuse this power by annoying your customers after hours.
Some countries even have laws about when text messages can be sent for business purposes (for example, France does not allow SMS marketing on Sundays, public holidays, or any time after 10 PM).
When sending bulk SMS, most providers send them through a short number, which means that your contacts will not know that they come from your company. That is why the first thing you should do is inform your contacts about who is sending the message.
You don’t want to send them a discount coupon without telling them where to redeem it.
SMS is one of the most useful marketing channels at your disposal for several reasons:
SMS marketing messages are sent from “short numbers”, as opposed to full phone numbers. These numbers are typically 5-6 digits long and can be associated with one sender or shared among multiple senders.
Many countries do not allow sender information to be changed. This means that your message will appear as a text message with the short number the provider used and not your company name. This is why it is important to include the name of your company in the message.
SMS can be used in several different ways. I will share with you some of the most common cases to give you a better idea of what you can do when sending bulk SMS and how they could help your business.
Coupons and promotions are a great way to drive more people to your store or website. If you’re running a limited-time sale or promotion, you’re obviously going to need as many people as possible to hear it.
SMS is a great channel to communicate these offers, especially if you want to let customers know when they’re on the go. In this way, you can ensure that they receive the message on time.
There are many changes in the planning and execution of an event. The more people attend the event, the more difficult it will be to communicate the necessary information to everyone.
With bulk SMS, you can easily communicate any changes, cancellations, general information, or updates more effectively than email or other channels.
If your business runs by appointment, then you know the frustration of customers forgetting appointments and showing up late. It’s even more frustrating when they don’t show up.
Not only does this mess up your schedule, but it also wastes your time. Maybe you could have turned down other appointments because you already had that time booked for a particular client. Sending reminder text messages is a great way to make sure clients don’t forget their appointments and show up at the right time.
If you have a large number of employees, it can be difficult to communicate urgent messages (office closings, emergency updates, etc.) to everyone at once. You can email them, but they might not see it (yes I know, I don’t check my work email too often outside of the office). For this reason, bulk SMS is a great way to ensure everyone gets your message on time.
Text messages can be a great addition to your digital marketing strategy, regardless of the type of business you have. They perform the function of communicating very urgent information in a highly effective way.
But, there are certain companies that cannot live without sending bulk SMS:
You should now have a better idea of what SMS marketing is, and why it’s so great. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the pros:
If you already use email marketing (or are thinking about it), try sending mass SMS to complement your strategy.