Are you a small business looking to establish a fine-tuned SMS marketing strategy to help you reach and interact with your target audience more personally while increasing revenue?
You’ve come to the right place.
With nearly 98% open rates, SMS marketing has the highest engagement rate compared to other traditional channels.
And the biggest reason of all to choose?
Consumers like receiving promotional offers, reminders, and critical notifications by SMS from their favorite brands.
So – how to get SMS marketing done effectively?
This guide covers the top SMS marketing practices to help you launch a successful SMS marketing strategy to increase your company’s sales and customer success.
Table of Contents
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing tactic involves sending promotional messages to prospects and consumers via SMS software or API.
You can share news about product rollouts, clearance sale offers, seasonal sale discounts, and likewise.
For example, if a prospect signs up for your website but leaves without purchasing, you could send them a cart abandonment SMS message to encourage a sale.
Quick Benefits of SMS Marketing
- It is affordable and scalable.
- It is easy to get started – It integrates quickly with your software, or you can send SMS via the web dashboard.
- The open rate and engagement rate are more than 98%, which is unusual compared to similar channels.
- Instant messaging and results.
- It is versatile – SMS marketing can be used for various situations, such as welcoming new subscribers, making birthday wishes, running a sale, and more.
- Help you reach a broader demographic.
- Mobile-friendly; People tend to read texts even if they’re on the move.
- SMS campaigns can be easily analyzed and optimized further for better results.
Above all, nearly 40% of marketers globally make most of the SMS marketing since it is a personal channel, and they love the speed and engagement they get.
Early sale? Last minute sale? Rolling out a new product? Unique discounts to specific segments of consumers?
Whatever the reason, create an SMS campaign in a few minutes and be ready for the revenue swarm.
7 SMS Marketing Tips for Small businesses To Boost Revenue & Customer Success
Now that I’ve emphasized the value of SMS marketing for your brand’s growth, it’s time to learn a few pointers to make the most of your SMS campaigns.
1. Get Consent
You only need to send text messages to someone who has given you consent to receive your texts, and a brand must acquire them.
With all the latest TRAI regulations to curb spam, you could get into legal issues if you do not adhere to the rule about acquiring consent.
You can get subscribers’ consent via the signup form or email by making them read your SMS terms and opt-out procedure.
2. Be Precise
Customers may be preoccupied with their lives and wouldn’t want to read long, tedious, and fluffy texts.
Marketers must provide information within the limited “SMS space,” which may be as few as 160 characters.
Remember to write appealing offers that readers can’t take their eyes off, if possible, inside 160 characters to capture the buyers’ attention rapidly.
3. Segment and personalize
Just as every family member is unique, so are your customers. You wouldn’t want to communicate with new and loyal customers with an identical SMS message.
You need to target the right consumer with suitable information, or your efforts will fail.
Utilize consumer profile data and behavior to segment and give a customized experience to each, assuring relevant and valuable content.
4. Don’t always promote
Using SMS marketing to constantly promote discounts and sales can harm your brand’s reputation and lead to subscriber loss. After all, no one enjoys being bombarded.
Use the SMS strategy to keep your audience updated about other elements of your business, such as customer service and feedback, product usage tips, loyalty programs, charity events, seasonal gifts, and so on.
5. Add Call-To-Action (CTA)
The CTA is essential for every firm to close a deal, and SMS marketing is no exception.
The CTA in your SMS instructs users on what action to take after reading the text.
Want subscribers to buy a product, check out the new arrivals, or take advantage of an Earlybird offer? Use a CTA.
What would you do, for example, if you received an SMS with the words “Huge discounts on our recently arrived accessories” but no link to the company’s website? You’d probably overlook that SMS because it doesn’t say what you should do and lacks a call to action like “Visit our website.”
It is critical for a brand not to leave its subscribers hanging and instead include a CTA to increase engagement and conversion.
6. Choose a reliable service
Hundreds of SMS firms have emerged due to the growth of telecom infrastructure in India over the last 2-3 years. Unfortunately, not every SMS service is reliable and provides all the required functions.
Finding the best SMS service in India that balances functionality and ease of use with pricing can be challenging.
Here are some tips to consider when exploring a good SMS providers list:
- Register for a free trial.
- Test SMS dashboard and API integration
- Examine the average time for SMS delivery.
- Compare features and benefits.
- Check which provider helps you stay compliant.
- Look for customer support – knowledgebase, blog, email/chat support
- Finally, compare costs. But don’t stress about it.
7. Measure results
When executing SMS marketing, you need a strategy and direction in which A/B testing is performed to identify working and scalable opportunities that will allow you to optimize future SMS campaigns. A robust SMS system enables you to track and measure results to improve.
The following are a few key metrics to measure an SMS marketing campaign’s effectiveness:
- Check no. of opt-outs.
- Measure clicks and conversions.
- Delivery rate
- Cost per acquisition
- Return on Investment (R.O.I)
Once you know what metrics to measure, you will understand what you’re doing great and where to improve.