You may have heard that SMS Marketing messages are now the go-to in new marketing strategies. Many companies are already experiencing exponential success with the use of bulk and automated SMS marketing platforms. If you are currently using traditional marketing methods, you may not be seeing the same ROI you once did. Why is this? Well, times are changing and so are your users. The marketing methods that once did the trick are now lost in a fog of new technology and consumers are driving businesses towards more cutting-edge techniques that fit with their own lifestyles. If they can’t access it in the palm of their hands, does it even exist?
You may be new to the world of SMS marketing messages and would like to know how your business could benefit and how TextAnywhere could boost your ROI. Just in case you are unsure about how SMS marketing messages could work for you; we have put together some key information along with some hints, tips, and benefits to help you to decide for yourself.
What is SMS and why are businesses moving towards it?
SMS stands for Short Messaging Service but it’s more commonly known as texting!
Did you know that 23 billion SMS messages are sent out globally every day? It makes perfect sense when you consider that in 2021, 3.8 billion people owned smartphones and that figure is set to continue to rise in the years to come. In the UK alone, a staggering 92% of all brits already have one and we look at our smartphones on average once every 4 minutes. The amount of different mediums of communication we have access to on these little devices is ever increasing. Quite frankly, smartphones have taken the world by storm and are by far our favourite way to interact with others. When dealing with businesses, we are now partial to a non-invasive approach. Marketing by SMS messages and two-way SMS interaction is right up our street.
It should come as no surprise that statistics show 48% of people prefer to receive marketing communications by text. By contrast, only 22% prefer email ads and alerts, 20% pay attention to app notifications, and a meagre 8% would now welcome direct mail. Many businesses have already upgraded their marketing strategies and adjusted their budgets to keep up with the growing trend for SMS marketing. They already know traditional methods are no longer hitting the mark and are more costly and inefficient.
And that’s not all, studies show that on average over 98% of SMS marketing messages are opened and read within 15 minutes and have a response rate of 32%. We can break this down for you further; approximately half of all consumers will respond to a text within 3 minutes. By comparison, the open rate for email marketing campaigns is only 20% overall. This makes SMS messages nearly 4 times more successful than email.
To win the best consumers for yourself, you need to get noticed and reach out to your audience in a more targeted and efficient way. By using SMS business messaging, you will be enhancing your marketing performance and boosting your ROI. So, it’s clearly the fastest way to receive a response.
The mind-blowing thing is that, not only are SMS marketing messages the obvious way to reach your target audience, but it’s so cost-efficient. In fact, you will not find a cheaper way to advertise to your consumers, the ROI is nothing like you have ever experienced before. As the description suggests, Short Messaging Service, SMS marketing messages do not take a lot of time, effort, or design to create, which will have a positive impact on your labour costs. With the use of two-way SMS interaction, staff costs are cut down further as there is less need for calls to your engagers, also organically reducing your phone bill. Expensive pay-per-click internet ads can be reduced as you will be driving your own consumers directly to you and cutting out the middleman.
Another big savings is the loss of direct mail. As the marketing statistics suggest, very few people are happy to receive direct mail and it is one of the more costly methods of communicating. This is an important measure for any business looking to boost its ROI.
What are the main benefits?
- It’s instant – When sending out SMS marketing messages, we are not talking months, weeks, days, hours, or even minutes to reach your recipient, we are talking about seconds! That’s right when using the right SMS gateway, your marketing material is delivered directly to all of your recipient’s smartphones instantly!
- It’s far-reaching – There is no limit to how many people you can send your SMS marketing messages out to. With bulk SMS you can send out as many messages as you need to the people on your database. It works internationally, to any smartphone device, and across any network.
- It’s environmentally friendly – By eradicating the need for direct mail, you are also helping the environment and reducing your carbon footprint.
- It’s trackable – From the moment your SMS Marketing message leaves your PC, you will be able to track the results. From the open rate to the engagement rate, you can quickly find out if your campaign is looking successful or hitting its targets.
- It works for a variety of industries and purposes – SMS Marketing messages are suitable for many different industries such as retail, leisure, real estate, schools, healthcare, finance, travel, automotive, and much more. You can use SMS marketing messages for flash sales, events, news, updates, reminders, competitions, etc. With transactional SMS messages, you can keep in touch with your engagers to send alerts and reminders about bookings and appointments to reduce no-shows.
- It’s optional- Your engagers will have the power to opt-in or opt-out of your communications. This way, you can ensure that you are only targeting the people who really want to hear from you and not plaguing those who don’t.
- It can be personalised – For that personal touch, you can tailor your SMS marketing messages from your PC to include names, dates, or times.
- It can use scheduling – When using the right SMS marketing message platform, you can time your messages to perfection. Whether you need to send out an urgent message or a flash sale. Automated SMS can send out your messages at the right time.
- It can be selective – Providing your database is well maintained, you will be able to separate your intended recipients into categories to ensure that they only receive the marketing messages that are right for them. This is really important for reducing the number of people who opt-out and keeping your audience engaged.
What do consumers think?
Feedback on SMS marketing indicates that recipients would actually prefer it to any other method of communication they are likely to receive from you. Statistics show that 77% of consumers opt-in to receive coupons or to hear about deals and sales. 66% said they had even redeemed a special offer via text within 7 days of receiving it! Perhaps that’s why 64% of consumers think that companies should contact them more often through SMS marketing messages. We know that these statistics reflect how communication has changed over recent years. On the whole, people no longer like talking on the phone, they don’t have time for lengthy emails and are not prioritising mail through the door. Why would they? All the important stuff is on their smartphones.
How to make the most of SMS and boost your ROI
Once you decide to give your marketing strategy a boost, TextAnywhere will be there to offer you support and advice along the way. Our system is easy to use, with no need for complicated coding. We want you to maximise your ROI with SMS marketing and do it the right way, first time. Here are our top tips to get the best out of it:
- Add links to drive traffic to your website – Clicks on links are trackable, you will be able to see who is engaging with your campaign almost immediately. This will help you to get to know your customer better. If the correspondence is not inspiring, it is unlikely to score much engagement from the recipients and you will see this soon rather than later.
- Make messages clear and concise – Cut through the waffle, you only have 160 characters to play with, so make them count.
- Know your audience – Make sure that you are sending your audience information they want to hear about. Always add an opt-out option to avoid being a nuisance and tailor your SMS marketing messages to meet your target’s needs. Don’t send them out offers, deals or information that is of no use to them. Talk to them in the right tone, make your texts match their profiles.
- Use scheduling – With bulk SMS and automated SMS you can achieve a global reach, by scheduling your SMS marketing messages to leave your platform at precisely the right time and at the right intervals.
- Send surveys – Get feedback from your engagers, find out what they want to hear about and avoid being an unwanted contact.
Why choose TextAnywhere
We understand a thing or two about boosting your ROI with SMS marketing messages, it’s what we do best. We offer SMS landing pages and can help to build engaging campaigns that capitalise on the benefits of SMS while offering images, videos, and interactive elements. Here are some of our highlights and things that any good provider should offer:
- Studio two-way chat for conversational commerce.
- Advanced analytics on campaign performance using studio tracking open rates, conversions, and more.
- 99.9% uptime.
- Enterprise-level support for companies of all sizes via phone and email.
- Professional API to integrate with your software.
- Bulk segmented SMS campaigns that can be sent using our platform.