We live in a world bombarded with information at a rapid pace. It’s hard to figure out which strategies to adopt in business with so many available and diverse solutions.
The ideal solution will always depend on your objectives and target audience.
If you think SMS Marketing could be an interesting strategy for your company or brand, read on.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS Marketing is a marketing strategy that consists of using traditional text messages (SMS) to communicate with customers or subscribers. The formats range from informative content to discount offers or alerts.
This technique is a faster way to connect with your audience because of the relevance people continue to give to text messages. Emails are often ignored until yorpen your inbox, but an SMS alert is immediately checked, right?
According to a study by Klaviyo, 86% of customers make more than 2 purchases via SMS per year!
But what really makes SMS Marketing a good strategy?
Benefits of SMS Marketing
1. Creating lasting connections or breaking them? Don’t make the mistake!
People like SMS! When they make a purchase from a brand they like, 62% of consumers expect to be subscribed to SMS communication. Not just for the discounts, but because they want exclusive access and personalization of the communication. It’s an excellent strategy for customer loyalty. The dream of every business!
But what keeps customers engaged and what turns them off?
Position the SMS channel as a useful channel for VIP groups for long-term advantages rather than momentary discounts. Customers expect SMS automations to be personalized to their tastes, their purchasing needs and their schedules.
When SMS are repetitive, with discounts similar to ongoing campaigns, without any exclusivity for the customer, sent at disproportionate times and constantly, the customer will become frustrated and unsubscribe.
Read more: How to automate your marketing campaigns
2. Immediacy
SMS Marketing is effective because messages are read within minutes of being received. By taking advantage of this feature, brands that adopt this strategy remain relevant and active in the market. Whether for stock updates, exclusive discounts, pre-sales or exclusive access, SMS ensures that information is transmitted quickly and converted into sales.
3. SMS vs. Email
It shouldn’t be a VS. but a complement!
Email marketing, characterized by newsletters, is suitable for news, images, videos, up-to-date and explanatory content.
O SMS Marketing works well as a complement to email marketing. You can create scheduled campaigns with both techniques in a coordinated way to see which method will have the highest conversion.
From this point on, SMS should be used in a more exclusive way, with direct and personalized purchase campaigns for the customer, and email should be kept to general campaigns that can be similar for other customers.
Why should SMS Marketing be more personalized and exclusive?
The secret is strategically planned multichannel marketing.
How to manage SMS Marketing
1. Get Permission and Subscribers
Using email to get SMS subscribers?
Ideally, subscribing to an email should imply subscribing to an SMS. But for people who already have email marketing, adding new SMS subscribers can be done via email.
One strategy is to offer a discount in return for an SMS subscription.
2. Offering Value
Text messages should offer something exclusive to your subscribers.
For example: a special campaign for a limited edition of a product just for these customers, announced via SMS for a quicker and earlier purchase.
3. Frequency and appropriate times
Avoid repeating SMS.
But beware: It’s better to maintain the consistency of 1 SMS per week than to send 3 or 4 in a specific week, as this will create frustration and lead to the loss of subscribers.
The times vary from region to region of the planet, depending on your goal of expanding the market. But in general, customers tend to buy at the end of the day because they are more likely to be on their cell phones. You can schedule your mailings to take place after midday or towards the end of the afternoon. This is because message notifications are more likely to be seen than email notifications when people are already at home.
There are also mandatory rules on when you can send marketing sms: in the middle of the night is inappropriate and will be considered spam.
4. Personalization
Types of SMS customers want to receive:
- Transactional SMS: update of orders placed, sent, in distribution and delivered.
- Exclusive SMS: value the customer with a special birthday discount, early access to launches;
- Reciprocity SMS: customers expect a return because they are frequent buyers. They want special discounts on products they buy regularlynotification of new stock of products they usually buy, limited editions.
Conclusion
SMS marketing is suitable for all companies as it creates a more direct and effective relationship with the customer. However, you need to follow a number of rules and suggestions to get a positive return from this strategy because, like other strategies, it has costs.
Consumers worldwide are preferring SMS from brands they like and buy from regularly, rather than email.
- 86% of consumers bought 2x or more per SMS on a brand (increased by 55% in 2022);
- 65% of consumers have planned a purchase because of SMS Marketing.
If you were unsure about using SMS Marketing, we advise you to: Experiment, Analyze, Get Feedback and Learn.
And don’t forget, it’s 5 times more expensive to attract a new customer than to invest in retaining existing ones.
