With consumers home now more than ever due to the pandemic, their phones are ubiquitous, and are largely their link to the outside world. Therefore, many entrepreneurs are considering using SMS-based marketing campaigns to reach them.
Businesses of all categories and sizes are leveraging SMS marketing to achieve different objectives. One study found that 39 percent of businesses use some form of texting with their customers and 60 percent of companies are planning to increase their SMS budgets. To help you decide whether to invest your time and money in SMS-based marketing, we’ve compiled a list of the pros and cons of this marketing method.
Pros of SMS-Based Marketing Campaign
Text message marketing is becoming more popular due to advances in technology and changes in customer preference. Following are some of the pros of using SMS marketing.
High Conversion Rate
Studies show that the conversion rates of SMS marketing campaigns can be as high as 45 percent. Some 85 percent of consumers in the report said that they prefer receiving a text message over a phone call or email.
High Response Rates
People often open, read and respond to marketing messages quickly. About 90 percent of people read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it. Branded text messages have a high response rate: around 98 percent of consumers open branded text messages.
Cost-Effective
SMS-based marketing is a relatively low-cost option and is easy to set up as compared to other marketing activities. SMS marketing has the potential to provide high ROI due to the exceptional open and response rates; therefore, SMS marketing represents a cost-effective option for any business.
Customizable
You can incorporate personalized content into your SMS marketing strategy, and it’s a good idea to do so: Personalized content outperforms static content by 42 percent. Sending out a message to customers at the best time based on their past interactions with your SMS can optimize your marketing results. You can also target SMS subscribers based on their location, proximity to specific stores and more.
Easy Tracking, Optimization of Performance
Most SMS marketing platforms offer reports that make it easy to track campaigns’ performance. You can also measure the click-through rate of your campaigns through these platforms.
Boost Customer Engagement
SMS is one of the most engaging and highest ROI marketing channels. Call-to-action options in SMS can increase customer engagement. These let customers read, interact with and act on messages. You can provide a link to an event, a map, a video or a website where there are more details. Text messages are a trusted method for answering customer service questions and sending order confirmations for online purchases.
Reach Customers Instantly
When you send out an SMS, it gets delivered immediately. Many people view it almost instantly, and the average person replies within 90 seconds. SMS related to flash sales, event-related promotions and mobile coupons offer a great way of driving traffic. SMS marketing helps you build a database of engaged customers and prospects, which you can use to increase customer loyalty and convert leads into sales.
Create More Personalized Experiences
SMS can provide a more personalized experience to customers than social media marketing platforms are able to offer. It’s also easy to send promotional messages to an entire contact list, a group or an individual through SMS marketing. By sending consumers only relevant messages, an SMS campaign can achieve a higher response rate while delivering a better customer experience.
Reliable
Marketing messages can reach the intended recipient instantly, thus making SMS marketing an extremely reliable method of business communication. SMS is a cost-effective and highly customizable channel for marketing that allows businesses to expand their database of contacts and run engaging campaigns to achieve a high ROI.
Increase Brand Awareness
SMS marketing is an effective way to build brand awareness, attract a more robust audience, and increase event attendance. It can also encourage loyalty with weekly or monthly offers to customers.
Now Check the Cons
Like any other form of communication, SMS marketing has also its downsides. Here are a few cons of SMS marketing.
You May Need to Grow Your List
You can grow your list efficiently using strategies such as a text-to-win, coupon offers or contests, so that you can quickly create a list of interested audience members.
Requires Constant Monitoring
An SMS marketing strategy requires constant monitoring and improvement to optimize campaign results.
Customers May Avoid Long Texts
Customers often avoid reading long business text messages that are more than a few sentences.
Content Restrictions
Lengthy messages split across multiple texts could prove costly for the business and frustrating for the recipient. Also, you can face restrictions on the number of characters to use in one message, which is up typically to 160 symbols. Instead of using animations or images, you’ll need to work on writing engaging, quality content.
Maximize Your SMS Marketing Results
SMS marketing is the practice of sending special offers and information to customers who have opted into receiving text messages from you. Businesses can send SMS’ to prospects and customers to increase brand awareness, boost engagement and generate sales. Here are a few tips to improve your SMS-based marketing campaign results.
- Offer coupons, discounts or rewards to encourage new sign-ups or visits to your online or offline stores.
- Promote a sale.
- Announce new products, updates or events.
- Send appointment reminders.
- Collect customer feedback or ask them to cast a vote or participate in a poll.
- Always get permission to send SMS.
- Use SMS marketing tools to track and measure performance
- Personalize your SMS content, include a human touch or add humor.
- Keep your message short and direct.
- Choose the best timing based on previous interactions.
- Don’t use abbreviations.
- Define your brand clearly.
- Ensure that it’s easy to opt out if customers do not wish to receive further promotional messages.
- Don’t send too many SMS messages.
- Make sure to include a call-to-action, such as “text to win” or “buy now.”
- Segment your customers for targeted promotions.
- Begin lead capturing immediately.
- Leverage analytics and reporting to monitor and improve your SMS engagement.
- Analyze purchase history and location-based demographics so you can send the right messages to the right customers.
