Key takeaways
- SMS marketing can be highly effective: large mobile reach and engaging, immediate promotions drive strong interaction.
- It’s inexpensive and can deliver strong ROI.
- Offer immediate-use discounts or promotions and an easy opt-out to keep messages customer-friendly.
- SMS is not universally best: campaign success depends on your audience’s preferences and habits.
- Combine SMS with existing channels (for example, email) to increase touchpoints and grow subscriber lists.
- Do research on target demographics before committing to a full SMS programme to avoid poor fit or backlash.
Introduction
With eMarketer reporting that over 1.75 billion people worldwide will have smartphones by the end of 2014, going the SMS marketing route probably looks like a slam dunk for virtually any organization. While the regular readers of our blog know that we’re more than partial to the process, that doesn’t mean that just jumping into this form of outreach headfirst is the only option in front of your business. In order to avoid a marketing calamity for your brand, let’s spend some time discussing the particulars of this process to find out if it’s really the right option for your organization moving forward.
The Evidence for SMS Success
Aside from the massive number of aforementioned people who can’t get enough of their phones, Brett Nuckles of Business News Daily points out that the case for texting with customers is strong, and only growing stronger. Essentially, the power of this tool begins with it’s engaging nature. By providing customers with actual discounts and promotions that they can put to use immediately, as well as the ability to opt-out at any point in time, text marketing gives consumers choices – something that most audiences prefer when compared to restrictive interactions and clunky traditional advertising methods.
Aside from the interactive side of SMS marketing, Nuckles goes on to note how inexpensive the entire process is for brands working on even the tightest marketing budget. Considering the shocking disparity in return on investment (ROI) between text messaging and other methods uncovered in our case study featuring Mobil1 Lube Express, it’s not just that text messaging is cheap, it offers a great bang for your buck as well.
Is It Always the Best Option?
So after reading that last section, you’re probably thinking that there’s very little in the way of a counterargument to the benefits of SMS interaction, right? The truth of the matter is that texting with your customers can definitely be powerful, but it is not in fact always the universal best solution for your marketing operations.
While a proper SMS campaign can offer up major benefits to your brand, the success of this approach relies entirely on your audience’s preferences. Before going all in on this type of initiative, take some time to learn a little bit more about your target demographics. It may seem unlikely, but there are consumer groups out there that don’t respond well to to this form of connection.
Finding the Right Approach for Your Audience
Most of the time you’ll find that there’s more than one right way to connect with targeted audience members. In fact, complimentary marketing campaigns, often take the best of a variety of approaches to generate a powerful and varied program of interaction.
For instance, if you’re already running an email marketing program, why not leverage this existing contact list to help foster and grow your SMS operations? By offering cross-platform benefits to these subscribers, you not only double your chances of interaction with this group, but also help lay the foundation for a new branch of your brand’s marketing endeavors. Naturally, this goes the same way for supporting a fledgling email marketing contact list or even drumming up some additional interest in your latest on-site content offerings.
The big key here is that SMS marketing, while not a universal slam dunk for every business, is powerful and versatile enough to fit into the vast majority of marketing situations. Whether it’s supporting other facets of your marketing practices or standing on its own, this process is usually hard to beat, assuming your audience isn’t hamstrung by an antiquated view of modern technology. Thankfully, by putting the information in this post to good use, as well as doing a little research into the habits and trends associated with your target consumers, you can feel confident that when it comes to connecting with these shoppers, you’re always following your brand’s best option.
FAQ
SMS is highly engaging, lets you deliver immediate-use discounts and promotions, offers customers an easy opt-out and is inexpensive. Our Mobil1 Lube Express case study also showed a strong ROI advantage over other methods.
Test and research your target demographics: SMS succeeds when your audience prefers that form of contact. Some consumer groups don’t respond well, so don’t assume it’s a universal solution.
Leverage existing email contact lists to grow SMS subscribers and offer cross-platform benefits to those subscribers, doubling interaction chances and supporting both channels.
Send actionable offers customers can use immediately, keep interactions non-restrictive and provide a clear, easy opt-out so recipients feel in control.
Yes, a Mobil1 Lube Express case study that revealed a shocking disparity in ROI favouring text messaging over other methods.
When your target audience does not respond well to texting, campaign success relies entirely on audience preferences, so avoid jumping in headfirst without audience research.
Use SMS to bolster email lists, drive traffic to on-site content and provide complementary promotional touchpoints that enhance overall campaign variety and reach.
