Establishing relations with customers needs a lot of hard work. To connect with your customers, you shouldn't wait for them to come to you. Instead, you have to be active in following your customers. The preference for emails over texts is no surprise as texts being appearing on their cell phones make it personal.
According to a survey by Learn Hub, 68% of people said that they're most engaged with on their phones throughout the day on activities like checking, sending, and answering text messages.
SMS campaigns majorly increase the chances your marketing efforts will be seen. Not only that, but SMS marketing is also permission-based, so consumers opt, making them jump down the sales funnel.
The key to successful SMS marketing is creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the customer and your business.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is a way to send promotional or transactional messages directly to customers' mobile phones via text message. These messages are primarily meant to communicate exclusive offers, updates, and alerts to people who have opted to receive these messages from your business.
According to recent statistics, SMS messaging is one of the fastest ways to reach consumers directly. 60% of consumers say they read a text within 5 minutes of receiving it. Notably, 86% of small business owners who utilize text messaging say texting offers higher engagement than email communication.
Why do you need SMS Marketing?
A recent survey completed by SAP confirmed the growing acceptance of SMS marketing: 64% of consumers consider that businesses should converse with customers more often using SMS. Other attitudes about SMS communications the survey found were:
82% think organizations should make it easy as possible for the customer to communicate with them.
76% report that they are more likely to read a message sooner if it’s an SMS/text message than if it’s an email.
70% feel using an SMS/text message is a good way for an organization to get their attention.
64% think that organizations should use SMS/text messages more than they currently do.
62% report that they would like to use SMS/text messages more to communicate with organizations.
Consumers cite SMS as useful in providing ‘peace of mind’ about their identity and data (39%) and receiving a quality service (36%) [Source: Forbes]
Texting is gaining popularity as the preferred mode of communication, and the number of SMS users worldwide is constantly increasing. At present, mobile marketing is a multibillion-dollar industry and is growing exponentially.
Benefits of using SMS marketing for your business
1. Efficient Reach
SMS marketing is the most accessible method of reaching people of any geography or age; there is no domestic or international boundary constraint. More than 60% of the world’s population owns a mobile phone, which creates a good base as your preferred target audience.
2. Cost-effective
The best thing about text marketing is the minimum initial investment, but it gives high returns. It’s affordable for all types and sizes of businesses - be it a small start-up or a multinational corporation. Text messages are pure text and do not involve any designing expense, thus saving additional printing costs.
3. Easy Set-Up
Not only is SMS marketing cost-effective, but it’s also effortless to start and manage. A good bulk SMS provider will set up everything for you in a matter of minutes. Sending out scheduled messages to individuals, specific groups or even entire lists of people is relatively easy.
4. Quick Results
Personal conversations are increasingly moving to text messaging applications, making SMS an option to grab the attention of their consumers. More than 90% of people open every SMS they get within three seconds – that’s much faster than how long it takes to open an email.
Since texts appear on personal cell phones, people tend to respond to them more quicker.
5. Adaptable
Text marketing is appropriate for public-sector companies, internal communications, and obviously, commercial brands. Be it B2B or B2C audiences, SMS marketing is a developed and effective channel that can be used for a range of communications.
6. Measurable
Analytics software used by a good SMS marketing agency can track and monitor the click rate and delivery of each text message. This is particularly useful for marketers to measure the uptake of offers and to decide whether to continue with the same campaign, make changes before the next batch of messages is sent out, or stop it completely.
7. Easy Generation of New Leads
The SMS gateway will generally not require you to get your short code, but if you do spend a little extra, then you give customers a way to join your database to receive offers and other messages of value.
Moreover, having a short code makes it easier for customers to spread the word about you to their network, thus generating thousands of new leads.
Wondering what happens when you text a landline? Visit our blog post to learn more.
Get started for MS teams texting by scheduling a demo with our Falkon SMS team.