5 Reasons to Use SMS Marketing to Boost Your Business

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I’ve discussed the value of varied marketing methods in the past (and I have a dedicated one on email marketing to come) but I need to spend some time on the oft-neglected SMS marketing. Unlike online means like social, email and search marketing, SMS adds a whole new dimension to your campaigns.

Before you go to the effort of exploring the intricacies of each text messaging service, first consider why SMS marketing would benefit your business’ marketing efforts, and how you would utilise it to improve your KPIs.

1. Keep in Touch with Your Customers

Simply put, mobile engagement is king. 98% of all text messages are read by their recipients, massively surpassing other forms of marketing. You can’t argue with that as a means to deliver messages to your customers and even prospective ones. While the cost of SMS may put some off, it’s priceless to have a channel that you know almost all of your campaigns will reach, unlike in other ones where a lot of content simply misses its intended target.

2. Brand Loyalty

There’s a scale of how much we, personally, value each channel. It goes from the sacred to the public ones. As for social, we expect a lot of noise from voices we aren’t familiar with. We may have our safe spaces online, but we can’t be mad if we see content from ‘foreign’ sources. In email, we can tolerate a little bit of it, but we know we can make it go away with a simple unsubscribe. As for text, you have to be extra special for people to not only put up with your messages, but to actually desire them.

Having the luxury of a mobile number grants you access to create brand loyalty, so it should be your brand’s mission to ensure that this relationship is truly solidified through whatever incentives you decide to offer.

3. Implied Urgency

Nearly 80% of people check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up, and most people check their phones as soon as they’re alerted that they have a new message. This means that it’s a lot easier and quicker to prompt action from your database, compared to other forms of marketing

4. Greater Promotion Support

Linked with the previous point, flash sales, discount codes and surprise rewards are all very much suited to text message marketing. As discussed before, it feels a lot more personal to receive a text than an email, so it feels as though the recipient is being tipped off by a friend about the deals they can receive, rather than the brand itself. It’s easier to convey the urgency of time-sensitive promotions through text.

5. Online Integration

Just because SMS isn’t online doesn’t mean that it’s completely separate from your online marketing strategy. The two can be connected to one another. For instance, did you know that you can connect your SMS marketing to Google Analytics? All of your channels should be interconnected to create conversions, which is my it’s essential that you use an SMS messaging platform that integrates with others tools you may already use.