SMS marketing is a strategy that leverages text messaging platforms to reach consumers. It is a type of opt-in marketing that requires folks to subscribe.
All mobile marketing channels should enhance and complement each other, and they should be able to integrate well with one another. That is why SMS marketing, being a part of your team’s overall marketing strategy and campaign should be able to support and integrate with all the other means of marketing.
Although this is true, SMS marketing is more personal than all the other popular marketing and advertising mediums. It relies heavily on a database that consists of your customer’s personal information like names, phone numbers, and other data like geographic region and interests.
SMS marketing is not for all marketing teams. Your team should ensure that your campaigns are helpful and relevant rather than spammy because this may cause a rather negative result to your brand’s reputation.
Here are some tips to successfully incorporate SMS marketing into your digital marketing strategy.
1 Get Permission and allow an option to unsubscribe
SMS Marketing relies heavily on the database which consists of customers’ personal information like name, address, and phone number. Text messaging appears to be more personal compared to other types of marketing. That is why leads and customers will need to first confirm their consent to receiving these marketing materials. They may do this over the phone, through a personalized code, or on your website. In line with this, marketing teams should also give consumers the option and the right to unsubscribe whenever they need to.
2 Identify yourself
SMS marketing is more personal than any other marketing medium. A text message is perceived to be more personal than an email received. If you are reaching out to consumers through a text messaging platform without identifying yourself, you will likely be reported as spam or even get blocked.
Marketing teams need to have a loud and clear campaign. Generally, your ultimate goal with your marketing efforts is to establish your brand’s name and strengthen its reputation.
3 Proper Timing and Proper Character Count
Consumers are regularly flooded with social alerts from their circle of friends, family, work, and even from different brands. Because of these disturbances, many disable their notifications for email and other social networks. Even further, they opt to tag marketing emails as spam.
For a successful SMS campaign, it must be legal and structured. Marketing teams should be aware of their campaign’s character count, the value they include in each copy, and even the proper timing of when to send their campaigns and the sequence between these campaigns. You may want to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Evaluate whether the frequency of your campaigns would be annoying rather than persuasive.
4 Use automation
It is a big challenge to keep up with hundreds of SMS marketing recipients while being consistent with the quality of each copy and sending campaigns out as regularly as possible. On top of all these, you track and analyze if your marketing team’s effort will yield high ROI.
The solution? Automation. Incorporate drip marketing campaigns in your marketing strategy. In this method, messages are automatically sent out to contacts on a specific schedule. Building customer rapport requires time and consistency. This strategy will not only help unload your mind, but it will also clear a good amount of your schedule and help your team focus on the more valuable part of the sales funnel.
CONCLUSION
SMS marketing, being a part of a bigger marketing strategy is also anchored on the same goal of building a database of subscribers to increase customer loyalty and retention. More than informing folks about your brand’s latest deals and freebies, an SMS campaign is also a great way to send alerts, reminders, and gentle pings for upcoming events and special occasions.
