9 Steps to Run an Effective SMS Marketing Campaign
SMS Marketing is among the record-breaking works of art of advertising and considered as the first class result-creating marketing strategy. Roughly a wide range of businesses are using SMS Marketing Services to propel their things and administrations in a fruitful manner. The advantages of Online SMS Marketing Campaigns are really legitimized paying little mind to the money being spent on it.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is sending customized messages (offer/info) to your clients. It’s a type of direct marketing where marketers get a lot of opportunities to reach out to their customers anywhere, anytime.
Marketers can tap the potential target group, existing customers, and company beneficiaries just by sending a simple text.
We don’t deny the popularity of mobile applications. Still, there are many people who are not so tech-savvy and use age-old keypad phones.
SMS marketing includes those people too under the existing marketing umbrella.
What is an SMS marketing campaign?
SMS Marketing is a strong and moderate marketing way to send your commercial messages through SMS to your clients, prospects, or some other anticipated recipients.
Over 350 billion text messages are sent across the global mobile networks each month and 15% of them are classified ads.
Starting from its journey to making phone calls and sending texts the usage of mobile phones has evolved with time. Thanks to the internet service mobile phones are no longer that same age-old boxes.
SMS is something that a mobile user sends/receives on a daily basis. Thus, SMS campaigns can prove to be truly an effective medium for offline marketers.
Here we shall discuss how affordable SMS marketing is and how it’s going to benefit your business.
Starting from the basics, an SMS is something with which you can communicate with a large number of people.
Just give it a thought. Almost 99.9% of mobiles available in the market are SMS enabled. How you can turn this facility in favor of your business.
Texting has an 82% open rate, which is the highest engagement rate from the digital marketing perspective. It’s seen that 90% of the mobile users read texts within 3 min of receiving. This is why all the leading brands are into SMS Marketing these days.
Considering its reach and easy access, SMS is really affordable and offers an amazing ROI for marketers, if utilized correctly.
9 Tips to launch a Successful SMS Marketing Campaign
Let’s dive into 9 easy steps to launch a successful SMS Marketing Campaign.
1. Know Your Goals
When hopping into mobile advertising, the normal oversight sponsors it as a different marketing activity. Associations that approach mobile marketing as an isolated framework will never get the results they were looking for after or even anticipated.
Prior to bouncing into your execution, it is clever to survey your business and marketing targets, with the objective that you are making your SMS Campaign Management through a point of view that considers your present business goals too.
Some important Marketing Goals –
- Targeting new consumers
- Fostering customer relationships
- Boosting engagement rate
- Re-targeting existing consumers
2. Assemble a group to build a Cross-functional Team
One individual can’t manage the entire SMS Marketing system. Your online SMS Marketing Campaign will influence various divisions of your company. Having a cross-practical group to help imagine and execute the SMS marketing will be a champion among the most fundamental parts to ensuring ROI with SMS Marketing Services.
For instance, to channelizing an SMS Campaign for driving clients to retail, you will require a cross-functional group that includes individuals from groups like accountable for retail, in-store signage, IT, email, digital creative, online networking, advancements, the budget, and some outer individuals also.
It is essential to guarantee everyone concurs when it comes to the ideal opportunity for the execution of the SMS Marketing Campaign.
There are three types of key SMS which marketers can send to their customers.
- Promotional SMS – Selling product/service, marketing, and offers
- Transactional SMS – Information regarding order updates, and alerts
- OTP SMS – Verifying users for the security purpose
3. A creative call to action button
People won’t find a way to the shopping cart after watching your product/service demo. They need precise instructions on what to do and how to do next. The best way out is to provide a clear call-to-action.
If you are offering some special discount coupon/s, make sure you keep redeemable instructions too. Let’s assume that you are promoting financial services. Obviously, you want to drive more traffic to your website or app download. Here you have to connect with your target audience with engaging content, practically offering them a solution that makes them click on subscribing to your SMS.
If you’re using any keyword and shortcode to trigger some action, the best practice is to capitalize both of them as your call-to-action. Avoid using quotations around the keyword. Just sending messages with keywords won’t ever trigger any action.
4. Provide incentives to get ROI-driven SMS marketing
A business needs to nourish its customers before it can expect something in return for them. An incentive or eye-grabbing discount will be great for driving high and quality traffic.
In the early stage of SMS marketing, providing a solid discount of up to 20% can push your campaign to generate high traffic and lead to conversions.
You have to know your audience before proceeding with SMS Marketing. You have to essentially know your customers’ interests and the purpose of their mobile usage.
The rule to send promotional messages: “Do not send SMS marketing messages before 8 A.M. and after 9 P.M”.
It is not mandatory to provide only monetary incentives as other non-monetary incentives can also be given to attract quality customers.
- Personalization is important – “We shall provide you an update about the arrival of your product.”
- There should be Reminders – “Your item will be delivered sooner than you expect.”
- The message should be engaging – “Tell us how we can assist.”
- Get access to great – “You are our genuine SMS subscriber. We can help you get the best offers.”
- Provide Privileges – “Special offers for esteemed customers.”
5. Approval is necessary for Successful SMS Marketing
Much equivalent to email, SMS Campaign is an approval based opt-in channel. Your client needs to undeniably opt into getting what you are moving forward.
Know the technology you are using and the technology competitors are using. Let’s have a look at how it works:
Moreover, by helping customers acknowledge your SMS campaign you are attracting more and more people to your business.
6. Use of immediacy will lead to more conversion
Over 90% of SMS messages are read just within a short period of 3 minutes, which makes SMS strategy a standout amongst the briefest channels available to connect with your prospects.
Understanding this promptness is basic to your thriving and driving client movement.
On the off chance that you have an occasion on Sunday evening, sending an SMS before Saturday night would be of no advantage. With your messages guaranteed to accomplish your client and upset whatever they are doing, it is basic that you expect to pass on to an extraordinary degree with high incentive through an indisputable and minimized CTA.
Since SMS messages comprise of 160 characters, it is great to be short, sweet, and to the point.
7. SMS Marketing Strategy should be consistent
Most of the SMS marketers lack the part ‘consistency’. Effectual SMS marketing demands to send messages with consistency. When brands send promotional messages to their customers they need to come with a compelling message. If the message fails to connect with the audience, it invariably impacts the subscription rate. Consumers tend to unsubscribe the sender out of disorientation. Top players like Shopperstop, CCD, and Reebok, etc. send no less than one engaging message to their target audience in a week to stay connected.
8. Media integration is the key to SMS Marketing
For advanced SMS marketing, use preeminent media outlets leaving aside the fact whether it belongs to any media category such as TV, Radio, Print, in-store signage, email, on the web, social, and so on.
You can incorporate your media advantages into your SMS marketing strategy. For you have to synchronize your SMS CTAs with the adversaries in order to be on par.
The goal of a smart SMS marketing strategy has been always to expand the radius of market aptitude and convert every opportunity that comes to light.
9. Recognizing the value of your SMS marketing campaign
When it comes to creating an effective SMS marketing strategy there are many aspects you should address. Before executing an SMS campaign, have a steady focus on these key metrics:
- The growth of the subscribers
- The attrition rate of the subscribers
- Engagement rate of Omni-channel marketing
- The burn rate of the subscribers
- Cost per remunerative subscribers
Final thought
These are 9 essential points to consider while planning your next SMS campaign. You can also incorporate these tips into your digital marketing campaigns.
Haven’t you include SMS marketing in your digital marketing strategy yet? Now you know how to make the best out of it. Let us know your view on it.