SMS Marketing For Businesses In The Times Of Automation And Digital Noise

The number of times I see a text and wonder why it was sent to me – maybe 1 in 50.

This peace of mind – and uncluttered inbox, I attribute to the DND facility. Only those brands reach me, that have my consent.

This fact itself makes texting one of the most feasible communication channels for brands. The user has the device on a person at almost all times, and 90% texts are read within 3 minutes of delivery. 

In the times of all the digital noise, here are 3 interesting examples of how SMS marketing for business is unlocking powerful opportunities for brands on a never-seen-before scale.

Ford asked people to text the word ‘FORD’ to them to promote and get more information on the release of their new Escape and Taurus models. These prospective customers were then asked in a return text for the type of vehicle they were inquiring about, their name, and zip code. Later, a local Ford dealer would follow up.

It resulted in a 15.4% conversion rate for dealers representing millions in sales.

A 10-day long SMS marketing campaign required customers to send a text with the word ‘DEALS’ to 727272. In return, when customers placed their next DVD rental order with RedBox they got the chance to win discounts of between 10 cents and $1.50.

During the 10 day promotion, RedBox acquired 200,000 new “Text Club” subscribers and saw 1.5 million text messages.

A 12 store retailer, National Wholesale Liquidators created an SMS campaign idea to build up its email and text database advertising the campaign online, in-store and via print ads. The opt-in users were given a coupon worth between $5 and $25.

The SMS marketing campaign gave the company 50,000 new email contacts and saw that campaign participant spent a surprising 80% more than their typical customer.

With undeniable benefits, texting boasts of greater immediacy and attention than any other platform. It has an advantage over many other mediums – it has created multiple ways to uproot spam and is effectively doing so – better than any other communication channel.

• The open-rate for SMS is 98% while for email it is around 25% and push notification is around 3.10%.

• The response rate for SMS is 3 seconds while for push notification that requires app installation ranges between 7-48 minutes.

• Click-through rate for SMS is 36% while for email it is 3.4% and push notification is 1.18%.

As you chalk your business marketing strategy with the best SMS marketing platform, you’d see that no medium is as reliable and receptive, and when combined with other communication channels of email, push notification, voice, it simply adds to the result.

SMS for business, a marketing tool considered very effective by 65% of marketers, to add fuel to your SMS campaign ideas, consider these 7 best practices.

Text marketing isn’t called permission-based marketing for no reason. You can only send a business SMS to someone who has granted you permission to do so making it critical to the success of your SMS campaign.

6 alphabetic characters for Transactional and an operator-fixed 6 numeric character for Promotional SMS, sender ID represents the brand/company that distinguishes your SMS from million other businesses.

Integrate triggers for SMS in your product. Businesses are using tools like Zapier to integrate MSG91 into their product’s flow. The more relevant and timely your texts, the more effective they are.

While making a personal connection with a customer you need to give them the opportunity to connect with you in real-time. Keep them engaged by automated follow-up text messages.

Be clever with the content by keeping it concise with a clear call to action. Also, offer them an easy opt-out option.

A direct, measurable and trackable channel, text marketing for business allows you to analyze which SMS campaigns ideas are working and if they aren’t, then why.

The best SMS marketing platform carries a global appeal to it with extensive carriers but delivers your message to your audience at their suited local time.

SMS has become the best marketing platform that is rapidly evolving with the changing preferences of the customers allowing you to have an engaging conversation with the right audience at the right time. The use of SMS for business is definitely on the rise and there are good reasons for it.

It’s time you get started with your SMS campaign ideas.