2023 will be a pivotal year for brands. New tech, evolving consumer behavior, the rising value of first-party data, and aggressive measures to crack down on third-party cookies pose new challenges for small businesses and enterprises.
But don't get discouraged so easily! There's a tried-and-true marketing tool your brand can use to break through the digital clutter and get your message seen where it counts: SMS marketing.
If you've hesitated to adopt text messaging as a marketing channel, now is the time to revisit the idea. SMS messages have an open rate of 98%, and 75% of consumers say they don’t mind getting texts from their favorite brands. And that's just the tip of the SMS iceberg!
Read on to learn what SMS marketing is, how your business can benefit from it, and what we’ve learned from running successful SMS campaigns for our clients.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS (short message service) marketing involves a business sending text message campaigns, promotions, news, updates, and other branded messages to customers.
SMS marketing can take many forms, including:
Customer feedback surveys
Limited time offers or promotions
Personalized promotions
Registering for an event
Real-time order and shipping updates
Referring a friend
Live customer service and support
Like email marketing and blog content, SMS is an owned marketing channel. In other words, your brand has full control over who receives an SMS message, the content you share, and when it’s delivered. With SMS marketing, you control the entire customer journey from start to finish.
What are the benefits of SMS marketing?
SMS marketing isn't a revolutionary concept, but more and more businesses are discovering how it can help them scale in an increasingly cookie-less world. Here are some ways SMS marketing can benefit your brand and give you an edge over the competition.
Higher open rates
Among all advertising options, SMS has the highest open rate. SMS text marketing has an open rate of over 98% compared to an open rate of just 20% with emails.
Even though email has been around longer than SMS, 90% of people read a text within three minutes of receiving it. In contrast, nearly 55% of people who receive emails never open them.
It makes sense when you think about it. The average person's inbox is clogged with emails, and most only check their email a few times a day. With SMS marketing, messages reach users immediately. And since people are more likely to receive texts from people they know, those notifications are less likely to go unanswered.
Higher customer engagement rate
According to a Marketing Consumer Trends Report by Attentive, 91% of consumers said they were interested in receiving texts from their favorite brands. Connecting with your audience through SMS will make your business feel more accessible and a part of their everyday lives. Instead of pulling them into your website, social media channels, or relying on them to open your emails, your brand can use SMS marketing to meet your customers, wherever they are, in the moment. Some of the most successful SMS campaigns incorporate some element of personalization and reward users for their engagement, like filling out a survey or acting on a limited-time promotion.
Supports your current marketing initiatives
SMS can complement and amplify your brand's other marketing channels and initiatives, such as social media, email, TV, and print. All your marketing channels can work in concert to maximize the results of your SMS campaign. For example, if you’re promoting an event via email, you can leverage SMS to remind attendees to RSVP. Then, you can send another reminder text with a link to their digital ticket on the day of the event.
Cost-effective
SMS marketing also delivers a good value proposition for businesses looking to stretch their budget. Prices vary, but many SMS marketing platforms let you send messages for as low as a few cents each. If you intend to send messages in bulk, bundle plans let you send hundreds or thousands of messages per month at an affordable and transparent flat rate.
How effective is SMS marketing?
Being aware of the potential of SMS marketing, we approached our client Betsy & Adam with an idea to supercharge their Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotion. We deployed a lead generation campaign on email and social media to capture phone numbers, engaging new SMS subscribers with exclusive promo codes and educating them about sizing options. The results? 1325 new SMS subscribers in 60 days, resulting in a 38% increase in purchases and $100k in revenue.
Can SMS marketing work for your business?
As consumers' inboxes and social media feeds become increasingly inundated with ads and branded content, your business can turn to SMS marketing for a more personalized approach.
Now that you have a better idea of what SMS marketing is, let's review some of the benefits:
Higher open rate
Cost-effective
High customer engagement rate
Supports your current marketing initiatives
So will SMS marketing generate results for your business? There's only one way to find out! At SLTC, we place a high value on harnessing the latest marketing innovations to take our clients’ strategy from fragmented to focused.
Contact the SLTC team today, and learn how joining forces with an award-winning, boutique digital marketing agency will help you maximize your digital marketing investment.