Not utilizing SMS marketing, one of the most efficient ways to reach your customers with your advertisements, in a world where the majority, if not all, adults use smartphones, is unquestionably a mistake.
When you can simply text your target audience what you want them to see, directly to their smartphones, why hope that they will accidentally come across your ads?
This article will provide you with all the information you need to create your SMS marketing strategy if your company wants to start using SMS marketing, text message marketing, running SMS marketing campaigns, and enjoying the benefits of SMS marketing automation.
SMS marketing is quickly moving from the exception to the rule.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is, by definition, short message service marketing. Text messages are used in this marketing strategy to send customers offers, information, and reminders.
This interaction could take the form of a personal conversation between a staff member and a customer, an automated text that is sent in response to a customer action, or even a mass text sent to a group of clients who have agreed to receive texts from your company.
Types of SMS Marketing Techniques-
Promotional SMS– To encourage new or repeat business, a promotional SMS is used. When you are promoting new deals, offers, or discounts, it keeps your prospects and customers informed. When used in conjunction with the proper message and at the proper frequency during major promotional campaigns, you can be sure of high engagement and response rates.
In terms of response times, SMS messages are typically answered in 90 seconds as opposed to 90 minutes for emails. This is the best channel to use for marketing teams running campaigns that require quick customer action, like inviting pre-bookings before a consumer device launch.
Transactional SMS– Transactional SMS is used to communicate urgent information and updates for a good or service your customers use. But things don’t stop there. Transactional SMS refers to any message that is not promotional in nature, such as changes to company policies that may have an impact on how customers interact with the company or unexpected alerts like software outages.
Typically, your SMS vendor’s dashboard or their API with your software is configured to trigger these messages based on specific actions that you have previously defined and configured.
Best Practices for SMS Marketing-
SMS marketing is a popular and effective way to reach customers. However, like any other marketing strategy, there are some best practices that you can follow to ensure you’re making the most of your campaigns. We’ve broken down the best practices for your SMS marketing campaigns so you can make sure you’re getting the most out of your efforts.
1. Verify That All of Your Contacts Have SMS Opt-Ins
Keep in mind that the goal of your company is to educate your clients on the topics they are interested in learning about, not to annoy them by sending them texts and promotions they didn’t ask for.
Prior to texting someone, confirm that they have either agreed to receive SMS messages from you or have given you permission to do so. This makes sure that instead of annoying them, you’re improving their lives. Few things are more annoying than being continually barraged by spam SMS campaigns.
Never buy third-party mobile data- Purchasing and using mobile data from a third party can damage your brand’s reputation and image while also costing you money in wasted advertising on unqualified potential customers.
Sending messages to people who did not give their consent to receive them can have negative effects on the perception of your brand, in addition to the potential legal repercussions.
2. Utilize analytics to find out which is the best time to send SMS
Smartphone users have been growing at an unprecedented rate.
This also allows marketers to have Mobile as a preferred marketing and advertising platform.
Mobile marketing gives you a lot of rich insights and information on what is working and what is not working.
You must first take into account the hours of the day when your mobile audience uses their phones most frequently, as well as the times that are most pertinent to and appropriate for their daily activities.
Consider the following if your message’s timing is more flexible:
– No one likes Mondays: Unless your message is specifically related to that date (or a reminder), Mondays have consistently received the lowest response rates, most likely as a result of the deluge of content that people receive the day after the weekend via email, television, and mail.
– Don’t Send During Rush Hour: Due to the nature of text messaging, people are unable to read or respond to text messages between the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. local time and 10a.m. to 12 p.m.
3. Always include a call to action (CTA) that is obvious to encourage the recipient to take the next step and a link to a page with more information. Some instances:
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By midnight, visit the corresponding <link> to purchase sale items before they sell out.
4. Personalize SMS campaigns-
Do address users by name; nobody likes to feel as though they have received a message in error. When sending an SMS message, be sure to use the customer’s name.
Not to be overlooked is personalization. Send an offer, a reminder, or a question that matters if you’re sending a text message. Instead of making customers feel as though they are receiving a mass message, use a customer’s order history, abandoned cart, or content preferences to send them special offers, alerts, or information about items they have browsed.
Studies have shown that adding a first name and last name can actually have a very positive impact on click rates and transaction rates.
5. Experimenting with Vernacular for SMS Marketing-
Local language usage is four times as common as English, according to a Google study. It’s just that, until recently, mobile marketing was not given much attention.
You can send SMS in 18 regional languages, including Hindi, using the Unicode English SMS language. This feature enables you to communicate directly with your intended audience, improving your chances of conversion because it is more effective to speak to someone in their own language.
Experiment sending the SMS in your native language, due to this, the primary language and dialect of your target audience should be reflected in your SMS communication language.Along with English-language SMS, speaking to your customers in their native tongue increases the likelihood that they will convert, particularly in India, which has a wide variety of languages.
For example, if you are marketing in India’s Maharashtra region, you should speak to your audience in Marathi. And you should structure your Marathi text message to include their dialects, such as Zadiboli, Varhadi, Ahirani, and Konkani, if you want to establish a more personal connection with your audience among Marathi speakers.
The only challenge with this experiment would be that some entry level smartphones may not support regional language fonts, though the newer handsets are supporting them.
Conclusion
Starting an SMS marketing campaign is simple. Decide what your message is and why you want to convey it, then choose an SMS messaging service and ask individuals whether you can send them texts.
Then, start communicating with your customers. Don’t overstay your welcome by calling people’s cell phones every day; keep them brief and useful.
The more often you employ SMS messaging and analyze your results to determine what to change going forward, the more effective your marketing ecosystem will become.
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