The Relevance of SMS Marketing and Various Goals to meet with it

If you are a business marketer, considering SMS just as a mode of making announcements and sending confirmations, it’s time to think again. The savviest marketing campaigners are now using SMS marketing as a handy tool to boost conversion rates, improvise customer engagement, recognize loyalty, and also to build a feeling of personal care. There are many businesses now use SMS marketing as a standalone marketing strategy and also along with other leading marketing modalities. Let’s first see some great ideas to leverage the potential of SMS marketing.

1. SMS as a benchmark to cover your bases

Any cell phone across the globe may instantly receive text messages. The marketers need not have to worry about the demographic or location of the receiver while planning an SMS marketing campaign. Intelligent marketers can sum up their content in the limited 160 characters and reach to many prospects at a time through SMS broadcast. Compared to many other marketing modalities, SMS marketing is cost-effective, and text messages also have a high open rate.

2. SMS marketing to determine how many customers may engage with your brand

SMS is treated as a more personal mode of communication. So, you may share a simple message like, “Hi Mark, get a 50% off one of your next purchase with us by simply showing this SMS” will get you some terrific responses. SMS is a highly effective way to keep your customer group loyal and updated about your offerings.

3. Reminding them about your brand

SMS is also a highly effective marketing model for trade stores and local outlets. It allows the business owners to announce some timely offers and get instant responses during a full season too. For example, some of the top dine-out restaurants just send their special offers like ‘enjoy couple dinner just at the cost of one’ right when the busy city dwellers leave their work to drive in some results.

4. Integrating SMS with email campaigns

In fact, 160 characters cannot tell much, but then can surely drag attention and then let the readers ultimately end up where you want. SMS marketers now include URLs in the text to encourage more communication. On incorporating SMS to email, e-commerce sites further push their sales, which also allow the providers to track customer activity to the SMS. You may also try a booster SMS with some extra incentives within 24 hours of delivery of an offer through the mail, which will surely turn more people in to check it out.

5. Run the customer surveys

Long survey forms are not largely encouraged by all. Instead, a flow of SMS text spread out over many hours may elicit some better info, obviously with higher response rate. A concise yes or no question as given here or easy multiple-choice choices will only take lesser effort from the customers to respond. Also, through SMS, they can answer the questions from anywhere anytime even while on the go, which makes surveying easier and more effective.

6. Spot the influencers with SMS

All the customers in your SMS database are not equal. If you can spot your brand advocates, then you can focus more on them with some inside tips to make them feel especially cared for. Allocate more resources on them to provide with unique offers and individual support. The apt influencers tend to refer your brand to their friends and family. They can also add some better insights to your sales team to make things better.

7. Better manage the marcomms

Once if can successfully segment the target audience to those who are already interested in your brand and those who can be engaged, you can use this data effectively to communicate you’re your advocates and aggressors. It is not just for SMS marketing, but across the media. A well-bred platform can help the providers to define the messaging strategy and the copies which can treat your customers well to boost awareness and enhance sales. Knowing customer will provide marketers with the scope of enthusing each individual with a personalized touch.

8. Reaching to them at the right time communicate

What time will be ideal to hit a prospect with an SMS is it 7 a.m. or 9.30 p.m. First thing in the morning or just before bed? In fact, everyone as individual preferences and as SMS messages are almost instantaneously read, you have to plan your campaigns based on the need of the situation. Compared to any other mode of communication like e-mail or social media notification which lack immediacy, SMS is the apt mode of reaching to the prospective customers on time with the right message.

9. Support other campaigns

SMS is not just a mode of marketing promotions, but it can be a two-way interaction. In many cases, the strategy is to let your customers talk back to you through text. Marketers try to put a Short Code on the buck slips of other marketing campaigns and invite feedback through SMS. This is found to be a highly effective mode of collecting customer numbers alongside valuable information and suggestions regarding your products and services.

To wind-up, here are some smart goals to be met by using SMS marketing campaigns effectively

•  Make use of SMS to determine the engagement rate of customers with your brand.
•  Remind them about your brand from time to time and identify your key supporters and influencers.
•  Integrating SMS marketing with email marketing campaigns for e-commerce promotions.
•  Make use of SMS as an effective mode of customer support and feedback gathering than going for a longer survey form.
•  Use SMS to custom stitch your marketing strategy for various media.
•  To check the effectiveness of your promotional campaigns through other media.
•  Get insight about customer behaviour to identify the right time to promote.

In the realm of transactional communication, SMS marketing is admired as one of the most successful direct channels to confront customers to establish brand identity. However, many times, SMS avenues are found to be extremely rigid primarily because of its 160-character limit. But intelligent and creative marketers don’t find it as a limitation, instead of an opportunity to share crisp and precise messages to the prospects, which they always tend to read.

Guest posted by Barrack Diego