How to Use SMS to Improve Your ROI
01/12/2021 | Share:
In today’s digital world, more people use their smartphones to search the internet than use desktop PCs or laptop computers. This has meant that marketers have had to adapt strategies to focus more on mobile marketing.
Lives are intertwined with handheld technology devices; however, businesses are finding an offline form of marketing to be one of the most effective. One, in particular, is SMS messaging.
SMS messaging is somewhat of a hidden gem in marketing, yet it can play a vital role in growing brand awareness in the mobile-focused world we live in. It’s incredibly effective, low in cost, and offers a highly profitable return on investment.
But, what’s it all about?
Below we will outline some of the greatest benefits of SMS.
Benefits to SMS
SMS is a form of marketing with a broad range of business-effective benefits. Here we will look at seven of the very best.
Higher Opening Rate than Email
Data has revealed that SMS marketing ads have a 98% open rate and a 45% conversion rate when we compare this to email marketing, where the open rate is 28% and the conversation rate around 5%, it makes great financial sense to opt for SMS to improve your return on investment.
Cost-Effective
It costs very little to send an SMS to a consumer or to multiple consumers. SMS is a highly affordable form of marketing compared to many other options, such as social media adverts or telemarketing.
Smartphone-Friendly
More than 90% of the global internet population use mobile to go online, so presenting your business as a mobile-friendly one is incredibly important. Mobile internet users are forecast to increase further in the future, as technology becomes more available and more affordable than ever before.
SMS marketing plays a key role in ensuring that your business is mobile-friendly and can be a great asset to your overall marketing campaigns.
Increase Your Potential Audience
Through SMS marketing, your consumer demographic can widen due to so many people having mobile phones. Instead of focusing on one strategy for your marketing that is tailored towards a specific group of people, SMS can reach everyone.
Coincides with Other Kinds of Marketing
SMS marketing doesn’t necessarily need to be a sole advertising method. You can use SMS alongside all other strategies you are currently using to market your business as a quick and easy way to reach a large audience and create further interest in your products or services.
Quick and Easy Prep
The benefits of SMS really shine with the speed of the delivery; press send, and pretty much instantly, your message is sent and received by potential consumers. The prep time is fairly non-existent; there are no materials needed, prints to wait for, or staff required to be available.
There’s no graphic design to conduct, and the text content can be written in-house, with just a few words needed to have a large impact.
Strengthens Consumer Engagement
If you allow replies, then you will see your consumer engagement rise at an unprecedented rate. They don’t need to find the time to come into the store, pen an email, or sit down and make a call to your store, warehouse, or customer service centre. Consumers who can reach you via SMS more than likely will do.
How to Use SMS
SMS marketing campaigns aren’t created equally. Some are merely a side project, and others are fully integrated into a business’s overall marketing campaign. However you plan to conduct SMS for your business, here are some suggestions and tips to maximize its success:
Write Clear Messages
Texts are short pieces of information that are around 160 characters long, at a maximum. This gives you a pretty low word count to get a message across, so it is essential you make it clear and concise.
Consumers love to know where and when, so if you’re advertising a limited sale, include start and end dates with a link to the products. Businesses should avoid emoticons, all caps, and abbreviations, as this can come across as unprofessional or like spam.
Call to Action
You’re not just checking in with consumers but wanting them to act, and for this, a call to action is necessary. A call to action would be a clickable link with enticing wording, such as; ‘download,’ ‘see here,’ ‘buy now,’ or ‘read more.
Time it Right
Marketing studies have shown that clients’ responses to events, promotions, and sales that are promoted through SMS are more effective when they’re last-minute impulses. And we know that it takes people an average of 3-minutes to open an SMS, so get your timing right.
For example, if you’re a restaurant chain launching a new menu on Monday night, send out your marketing SMS on Monday afternoon. If you’re opening a new store on a Saturday morning, let people know on a Friday evening.
The acceptable timeframe for SMS marketing messages is between 8 am and 9 pm, with much flexibility to suit you in between.
Ask for Permission
Don’t take for granted that all of your consumers will appreciate SMS marketing texts, as many won’t. The best way to gain consumer engagement is to give them the option to opt-in to marketing texts. This could simply be to receive delivery updates, or it could be a more long-term thing.
It is effective to make this encouraging, for example, by sending an SMS asking consumers if they wish to ‘opt in’ and receive exclusive access to 10 free texts per month with SMS-only discounts, to reply ‘yes’ now.
Ask for Referrals
Similar to marketing emails that ask for referrals, the same concept can be applied to text messaging. You could encourage referrals with the promise of discounts or credits on future purchases.
Is it Worth Using SMS?
SMS is a great tool to have for businesses of all sizes. You can promote new products, announce flash sales, share news, reward loyalty, or give updates on deliveries.
So, texting may not be as trendy as social media marketing, but it is possibly more effective at getting results. With SMS, there is little cost and effort but so many benefits; there is no real reason not to try this for your business, especially when its advantages can give your company an extra edge needed to stand above all competitors.
