SMS marketing or short message service marketing focuses on communicating with customers through text messages. In SMS marketing, a business has complete control over who receives its updates and offers through the medium.
However, this type of marketing is opt-in marketing, wherein it requires prospects to subscribe to get into the message list. The messages sent are typically meant to relay time-sensitive offers or updates to people who have subscribed or consented to receive marketing messages.
6 SMS Marketing Campaigns Businesses Should Try
If you haven’t already, this article will discuss why SMS marketing campaigns are so effective for business and how you can improve SMS conversions.
Welcome campaigns
Similar to welcome emails, a welcome SMS campaign is an opportunity to introduce your brand, products, and services. Emails contain in-depth content, but SMS is immediate, easy to consume, and doesn’t require too much time to read. A great tip for you is to start with the offer in your text. Doing this keeps your message straight to the point and concise.
Exclusive campaigns
You can use an SMS campaign to promote your exclusive program, whether as a member or a VIP. The trick is to let your customers know that you value them and you’re ready to reward their support for your business.
Offering a text invite saying that you want them to join your exclusive program is a great way to show that you care for them, and in return, they become more trusting towards you. Ensure to provide a clear call to action and use urgent and straightforward language.
Upselling products
Upselling SMS marketing campaigns invite customers to buy complementary or higher-value products with their previous purchases. This is a great way to instill repeat purchases and let your customers know about the new products you offer.
Seasonal campaigns
This is probably one of the standard SMS marketing campaigns you can launch because there is a targeted season, allowing you to promote a specific line of products. This is usually effective because the products are relevant to the season and encourage the customers to give in to the novelty.
Product launches
A great thing about SMS marketing is that it’s concise and straight to the point. You could use this conciseness and urgency to introduce new products. Using attention-grabbing language to encourage people to quickly purchase your product or get early access to a new release is a great way to build loyalty to your brand and gauge their reaction to the new item.
Conversational campaign
An SMS campaign doesn’t always have to mean you’re offering something. There are many ways to strike a conversation with your audience. This SMS campaign style is a great way to know what’s on the minds of your audience. You can do this through surveys or feedback forms.
Why SMS Marketing is Effective
Consumers crave convenience and don’t like being bothered by messages. They want to buy something when they want it, however, they want it. In short, they want convenience.
Business2Community made an infographic indicating that according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), the average time for someone to reply to a text message is approximately 90 seconds, and the open rate is at 98%.
These numbers prove that SMS marketing is still very effective because it’s convenient, straightforward, simple, and requires minimal effort from the customer. Moreover, it is personal and highly tailored, meaning customers can opt in or out of the subscription, which gives the power back to them.
They would only subscribe to brands they already love and trust, building a more personal relationship with them.
3 Ways How SMS Marketing Helps Businesses
- Customer support
Customer service is the backbone of businesses. Great customer service encourage customers to keep coming back. Two of the most important factors about customer service that all companies should consider are immediacy and convenience.
SMS marketing offers both of those. A customer doesn’t want to wait for days for you to cater to their problems, and they certainly do not want to be bothered with email links that will take them to different websites where they need to fill in their details before answering a long-form survey.
SMS marketing gives customers the freedom to reach out when they want and be sure that they consent to the conversation.
- Reinforced customer relationships
When your business adapts an SMS marketing strategy, you put your customer’s preferences first.
Putting your customers first can entail a lot of different methods that would be relevant to them, such as a personalized email, an exclusive message, or a short survey. Doing these will let your customers know that you care about what’s on their minds and what they like, and you choose to deliver it in a way that’s convenient for them. These efforts will make your customers stick and stay with you longer.
- Context-based offers
You could take your SMS marketing campaign up a notch by sending highly relevant messages in the right context. If your customers realize that what you’re sending them is just what they need when they need it, it could inspire them to keep coming back.
A prime example is geofencing. Geofencing helps send contextual text messages to subscribers within a certain area limit, such as a store or mall in a specific location. So, if a customer passes by one of your store’s locations, you can send them a message sending them a coupon exclusive to that specific store location. More often than not, customers fall for this because of the context in which they received the offer.
Adapt an SMS Campaign Today
SMS marketing campaigns have proven their effectiveness for many years. Customers see relevance and convenience to be a top priority when it comes to purchasing, so you should take the time to study what they want so you can adapt it to improve SMS conversions.
Don’t forget that the key to great customer satisfaction is meeting your customers’ needs. You can achieve this by starting with personalized and highly relevant SMS marketing campaigns.
