With a mobile phone at everyone’s fingertips, it goes without saying that SMS marketing is a highly convenient way to connect with customers. It’s an inexpensive option for many small business owners and gives them an extra boost of visibility.
Anyone with a mobile device will be texting, so being able to use this feature is essential. When looking at your advertising channels, make sure you include SMS marketing so that you reach all parts of your customer base.
If you’re still on the fence about SMS marketing, fear not, it’s simple and easy to start with. With a plethora of different ways to customize text message marketing, the sender can target any number of people about their next big sale. Read on for eight different way SMS marketing can help grow a small business.
Open Rate
In the age-old battle between text and email marketing, text message marketing wins by far in terms of open rate. While a chance of a customer opening an email sits at a mere average of 20%, a marketing text has an average of 90-99% chance of being opened, states ReviewsVector.
Nowadays, the general email inbox is over-saturated, so it goes to show that the move into text marketing is the right move. Leadferno reports that the response time for a text averages at 90 seconds, versus email which is 90 minutes.
Customer Engagement
Within an hour of receiving it, customers are more likely to respond to a promotional text than the same message in an email format. When asked their preference on communicating, most people prefer texting over email by far.
You can also personalize and customize your promotional text in a way you can’t with a billboard or flyer handouts. Certain products can be promoted to certain customers, or you can keep customers updated on new stock through text messaging and increase your general brand awareness.
Opt In and Out
Consent is the priority when you begin SMS marketing. There are various ways to do this, including website popups, online forms, and more, but ensure you receive written confirmation to avoid legal ramifications.
With text message marketing, you can only contact customers if they allow you to do so, which is great since it means they’re already opened your products. Allowing customers to opt in and out of marketing texts is vital for good customer service. If it’s difficult to unsubscribe, customers are more likely to become frustrated and disengage with the brand.
Cost-Effective
SMS marketing is a highly cost-effective way to get a brand out there. Compared to other forms of advertising like television or radio, reaching a customer through text can come down to as little as a few cents per text, making it an extremely affordable option.
This makes it ideal if you don’t have a large budget, as you can reach a large number of people quickly without breaking the bank. With some software, you can send pictures or videos, even when texting a large number of customers.
Short and to the Point
With attention spans decreasing in this fast-paced world, having short and punchy messages in SMS marketing is crucial because no one has time to sit there and read a chunk of text. Texts have a character limit, marketing must get straight to the point without messing around. Consumers get simple and direct messages that catch their eye, lowering the chance of the contents of the message being skipped entirely.
Chat With Your Customers
One of the most important things about customers is that they want to feel like they have a voice. With SMS, they can. There are some text message marketing software that allow two-way messaging so that you and your customer get to have a conversation. This can be immensely helpful in easing upset customers, smoothing over wrong orders, delays, and more.
Unlike email, which is not often checked, texts can be read and responded instantly, allowing for a positive experience every time. Slow response times mean that customers will become impatient, which in turn leads to potentially lost sales.
It Won’t Get Lost
Unlike email, which can get lost in spam folders, text messages will always deliver if the phone number is correct. This gives the SMS platform a one-up over email, as overdoing emails can fall into spam territory, whereas with SMS it’s less likely so.
There’s not need to worry about whether or not your newest promotion text has disappeared into the junk folder. SMS marketing has only just started picking up the pace, so there’s less competition there than there is with email.
Automation
It’s super easy to automate marketing with SMS in ways you can’t with traditional advertising media. You can send follow up texts, schedule texts, or win back customers if they’ve abandoned their cart halfway through a purchase. If you’re in the middle of a conversation with a customer, you can use software features to pause the conversation and leave a reminder to follow up, leave notes about the issue, and much more.
Best of all, you can save time, money, and resources. You or your marketing team won’t be slaving away over what texts to send your customers. Depending on how you want to market, you can send text regularly, when a new customer subscribes, or if there’s customer who hasn’t responded to your messages in a while. There is no end to what automation can do for you.
SMS Marketing Can Change Your Small Business
Consumers spend more time on their phones than ever before. If you’re not using SMS marketing, you’re definitely missing out. There’s a growing number of reliable SMS marketing applications out there now, and whichever one you pick will depend on your needs and budget.
SMS marketing is extremely simple and easy to use, and you should implement it into your current marketing strategy to help grow your small business.