SMS Marketing: The Basics
SMS messaging is becoming a key marketing channel with the number of instant messaging users projected to grow globally by 9% in 2020 to 4.3 billion people. As a digital strategy, SMS marketing is easy to use, cost-effective and is a convenient way to reach your end consumer. To determine how SMS marketing can add value to your business, explore how Main Street Contact can make communication with customers easy and efficient, resulting in higher engagement rates with existing and prospective customers.
What are the basics of text marketing?
Identify your marketing goals. Your text marketing campaign should be aligned with your overall business goals and marketing plan. Having a clear vision of your goals and strategy will help you identify how to design and launch an SMS campaign appropriate to your business needs. Ask yourself if your goals are to increase sales in the short-term, create a contact list for the future, or engage customers in order to direct them to a specific action. SMS marketing campaigns can be used for advertising, updating and notifying customers, or even polling and surveying. Text marketing campaigns can be classified as promotional, transactional or updates. Knowing the purpose of engagement via text messaging will allow you to compose an SMS marketing campaign that will enhance customer engagement and brand recognition for your business.
Create a contact list. Text marketing is permission-based, meaning that customers must consent to receive texts via online opt-in forms, allowing you to create a valuable subscriber list. By agreeing to receive messages, there is an implied level of trust and interest from the customer in hearing from you, increasing the likelihood that engagement and open rates will be higher. Customers must also have the option of opting-out or unsubscribing should they choose to do so at a later date.
Create a message for wide distribution. SMS messaging offers mass communication to your customers. With Main Street Contact’s web-based messaging platform, messages can easily be inputted and distributed to your contact list in Canada and the U.S. Instant delivery and universal access to the recipient’s inbox ensures ease of use and high open rates.
Track and analyze results. SMS marketing allows you to measure performance metrics for marketing campaigns. Using analytics tools, customer behaviour and conversions can be observed with coupon codes and link clicks, giving you the ability to monitor results and collect data. Tracking your results makes it easier to monitor response rates and the return on investment for a current SMS marketing campaign. It also makes it simpler to segment your consumer base based on the need for targeted messages, allowing for further optimization opportunities in the future.
SMS marketing offers the opportunity to reach a larger target audience given projected growth trends. Understanding how your campaign aligns with your business’ goals is vital for success. By maintaining clarity, you can effectively deliver a personalized, interactive and engaging message which can be continuously monitored to improve marketing results.