If SMS Marketing isn’t a part of your business already, it needs to be. With 90 percent of text messages being read in 90 seconds, mobile messaging has become one of the most powerful communication channels available today. The fast-paced nature of SMS also makes it the perfect opportunity to connect with your customers on devices they use, all day every day.
So how do you begin to understand the potential of SMS in a constantly-changing digital landscape? Lucky for you, our guide covers everything you need, from understanding the basics, explaining the benefits of SMS marketing and how you can use it to create, connect and convert consumers like never before.
Understanding the SMS in SMS marketing
Short Message Service (SMS), also known as text messaging (texting), involves sending short messages to and from mobile phones. While the sending and receiving of messages sounds pretty easy, implementing a bulk SMS marketing campaign for your business is another matter altogether. There are many moving parts behind the scenes before you can receive a text message from your favourite brand or e-tailer as a consumer.
So what is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is a way for a business to communicate with its customers via text. This means businesses can now meet their customers in the right place, at the right time, on a device they can’t do without. For your business or niche, creating a bulk SMS marketing strategy may involve the implementation of:
- Discounts
- Promotions
- Appointment reminders
- Order and tracking confirmations
- Delivery updates
- Internal comms
- Surveys
- And more.
Benefits of SMS Marketing
Most of your customers or clients use smartphones
The main benefit of bulk SMS marketing is being able to target different audiences where they already spend a lot of their time- on their phones. From a financial perspective, bulk sms messaging is a cost-effective way to communicate with hundreds and thousands of customers, no matter where they are in the world.
Like that?
SMS messages are received almost instantly after you send them, and with open rates of 98%, SMS marketing messages are read immediately as well. This makes SMS marketing campaigns ideal for time-bound offers.
Engage and re-engage your target audience
While click-through rates (CTR) on social media platforms are typically 1 percent, and a typical CTR for a Google Ads campaign is barely 2 percent, SMS marketing click-through rates can average 19 percent or even higher. This means that customers not only read your text messages but are likely to be far more engaged with them, than other forms of communication channels.
SMS vs. email: Who’s winning?
A study by Gartner found that the average response time for an email is 90 minutes, when compared to 90 seconds for an SMS message. Garner also notes that response and open rates of SMS are around 98 percent compared to an estimated 20 percent for email.
SMS messages are more accessible
SMS messages, unlike emails, are a lot easier to access because they don’t bounce. They don’t require wifi and can reach a larger audience faster. Even if a device is not connected to a network, a text message will eventually reach a user when they do get coverage.
Easy and simple to set up
You don’t need to be a coder or designer to create your SMS marketing campaign. Seeing as text messaging is already succinct in nature, creating a campaign is quick and easy. Check out our pricing options to get started with your SMS campaign.
SMS marketing across different industries
Since its creation, many industries are successfully using bulk SMS marketing to generate sales, expand product offerings, provide better service, attract leads and build their brand. Here’s a look at which industries are positioned to take full advantage of SMS marketing:
- Retail
- Legal
- Automotive
- Service industries
- Charities
- Healthcare
- Personal Training
- Recruitment
- E-Commerce
- Financial services
- Real Estate
- Hospitality
And more.
Choose Tall Bob when adding SMS into your marketing equation
At the end of the day, your SMS strategy is only as strong as the SMS marketing platform you use. Choosing the right bulk SMS software is a crucial step in getting started with your SMS marketing strategy. It is vital that the platform you choose is reliable, gives you a high level of data and service.
Any SMS provider can provide you with the ability to bulk text your customers. What makes Tall Bob unique are our interactive tools that provide deep and rich analytics when setting up your SMS campaign: know who’s read your message, interacted and converted.
Check out how Tall Bob can help you reap the benefits of SMS marketing, fast.