While SMS marketing has been around for many years, it is now considered an indispensable channel in a multi-channel strategy. Indeed, technological advances, changes in consumer behaviour as well as the impressive growth of the mobile phone market and e-commerce have contributed to the success of SMS marketing.
According to Hootsuite, more than 5 billion people had mobile phones in 2019, a particularly impressive statistic. Add to this the fact that smartphones are always at hand and that SMS messages are short and easy to read and it is easy to see the potential of SMS marketing.
Integrate SMS marketing into your digital communication strategy
We will see in this article how to optimize your strategy with SMS marketing. We will start by outlining the features and benefits of SMS marketing, then we will study its impact on your performance, and finally, how to implement it.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS Marketing consists of sending offers, alerts, notifications, or invitations via text messages, more commonly known as SMS. Brands send a message to prospects or customers who have previously consented to receive them. These campaigns can take two different forms :
- Promotional SMS: increase customer engagement (sales, flash sales)
- Transactional SMS: generate more sales and improve customer relationship management (order tracking, appointment reminders)
SMS messages contain an average of 160 characters and are therefore read very quickly. They also have a very low unsubscription of rate, around 0.13%. Please note: sending SMS messages is subject to strict regulations. Make sure you do not send marketing SMS messages on Sundays and public holidays and between 8pm and 8am on weekdays.
What are its benefits?
With more than 8 billion mobile connections worldwide, SMS has a very high engagement rate and allows you to reach your target directly and quickly. Indeed, 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes. This can be explained by the omnipresence of smartphones and other mobile phones in the daily lives of users. SMS makes it easy to send a short, easy-to-read message. Moreover, they are easy to set up. If you use a professional SMS sending platform, you don't need any technical or graphic knowledge.
With an opening rate of over 95%, your message can be particularly effective if the content and CTA are carefully written. It is also important to remember that there is no such thing as a 'junk' folder and therefore, the only way to avoid receiving these messages is usually to send STOP after reading them.
SMS messages are also convenient for the recipient since notifications related to account activity or orders are highly appreciated.
Why include it in your marketing strategy?
Adding SMS marketing to your multi-channel marketing strategy allows you to build relationships with your customers in a scalable and automated way.
Email and SMS are particularly complementary if you combine them with automation.
With this multi-channel communication you can:
- Send a reminder SMS to openers and clickers from a previous email campaign to trigger a purchase or response from them.
- Create an automated scenario and alternate your communication between email campaigns and SMS marketing. For example, you can send a detailed message by email and then send a reminder to the most receptive recipients by SMS to encourage them to consult your offer.
You can also schedule your sendings and choose between an immediate or deferred sending according to your needs. From now on, we will be interested in SMS marketing!
Creating an SMS marketing campaign with the tool
The elaboration of an SMS campaign with our tool follows the same guidelines as the emailing campaign: import of contacts, selection of recipients, message elaboration, and test/sending. You can make the content of your SMS more dynamic thanks to personalization fields such as name, email, mobile number, city, date, etc.
No technical skills are required to write your message and it only takes a handful of minutes to be delivered to hundreds (or even thousands) of recipients.
As we said before, SMS campaigns can be of two types: promotional or transactional.
To start a campaign, you must first select the contacts. The software offers several solutions to select the contacts attached to a campaign:
- Select a list: import your contacts from a list that you have already configured in Mailify or a list coming from the results of a form (for example an event registration form).
- Behavioral targeting: this option allows you to create a list from the results of your previous campaigns (opening a specific campaign or clicking on a particular link).
- Import a file: you can import your contacts by uploading a file from your computer.
Once you have named and selected the recipients of your campaign, all you have to do is write the content of your SMS marketing, you can then test your campaign before sending it.
Additionally, you should know that our tool also allows you to create responsive web pages or landing pages for reading only on mobile phones to which you can redirect the recipients of an SMS.
Conclusion
Although SMS marketing has been around for many years, it is today the communication tool offering the most guarantees. Indeed, it displays impressive statistics on its reception, opening, and reading rate. In addition, phones and more particularly smartphones are omnipresent on the market and the trend is not likely to be reversed in the coming years. By combining this channel with email marketing, you ensure your company an effective and relevant communication that will allow you to effectively prospect your targets and build customer loyalty.
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