Studies show that SMS is the most common way of communication on the planet. It’s cheap, instantaneous and discrete when compared to other means of communication between your business and consumers. SMS Marketing comes with both advantages and disadvantages, just like any other type of marketing, but if you can balance them you way you’ll have an effective method of marketing your business and be successful.
How does SMS Marketing work?
The popularity of SMS Marketing increases more each year. It’s a powerful strategy to make your business noticed since more than 80% of the population worldwide owns a cell phone. It is more likely that a person will check their phone more frequently than the standard mail, for example. Also, when receiving a text message people will open it first and read the content, as opposed to e-mails, which they can delete before knowing what your business has to offer. This is one of the great advantages of SMS Marketing, your SMS is unlikely to go unnoticed.
What can you accomplish with SMS Marketing ?
All market plans have at least 3 things in common: attract new customers, keep the existing customers intrigued and increase the earnings of the business. With SMS Marketing these objectives can all be accomplished. SMS messages are more personal than other marketing forms so you can start achieving those goals with only a little bit of imagination. For starters, don’t think consumers don’t want to take advantage of promotions or any other kind of offers. Use SMS Marketing to let them know you have something to offer for customers only. This way you can easily achieve two goals: make potential customers intrigued and keep the ones you already have by offering them something exclusive. Not only that, but an increase in the number of customers means an increase of revenue for your business.
How does SMS Marketing actually work?
SMS stands for Short Message Service, and it is done via mobile devices. In order to communicate with the customers you need to have their phone numbers, something which every person considers as sacred. This is why there are laws that prevent businesses from sending SMS messages to anyone.
The starting point of SMS Marketing takes time and you need to be careful not to spam potential customers because it is illegal. Not only that, but your business will lose some of the reputation you already have since you cannot bother individuals with something they are not interested in. Or at least they don’t know it yet. Attract customers with exclusive offers and they will sign up themselves if they are interested in your business. Make your company number public every chance you get and in time people will sign up, thus your database of mobile phone numbers will increase.
Now that you have a client list, it’s time you come up with ideas to keep them and maybe tell their friends and colleagues about the deals they get by subscribing to your SMS Marketing program. The first challenge was to create a database of customers. This one is as important as the first: let your customers know you mean business. You already have a targeted audience so you can let the SMS marketing begin for real. Over 90% of the SMS messages you send will be opened and read so make sure you offer interesting deals for your customers. They will look forward to your next offer and you will look forward to closing more deals.
Challenges of SMS Marketing
SMS Marketing, while it’s a great opportunity for you to grow your business, comes with some disadvantages as well.
First of all, you need time and patience to construct a database of customers and if you don’t manage to match their expectations they will most likely unsubscribe from your SMS Marketing program. With a market that is infinitely wide you have to make yourself noticed and make your customers see you care about them. Once they unsubscribe it’s going to be hard to get them back.
SMS Marketing has its costs. Sending text messages to hundreds of phone numbers can get pretty expensive. While one SMS only costs you a few pennies, multiplying it by hundreds can mean a big investment from your part. Make sure when you send an SMS to your customers you make it as attractive as possible. A company needs to generate income so by spending too much on SMS Marketing you will most likely lose a great amount of money if you don’t make clients interested in your offers.
An SMS message has a character limit. This is another disadvantage if you are not able to present your promotions in short sentences. Short, to the subject messages are also easier to read. If you use short and catchy phrases your SMS Marketing program will be successful.
Return Of Investment
The way to calculate ROI is easy. Simply divide your total earnings by your total costs of the investment you made in SMS Marketing. This way you see if the investment you made in sending all those SMS paid off in the end. This way you can see if your business will be viable in the long term. Any Return of Investment above 0 is already a good sign. It means you managed to increase your sales through SMS Marketing and you did a good job. If your ROI is above 10% then you should know your business is really doing good and SMS Marketing works for you. The more you earn the better. For an increase in ROI you could send text messages at a specific time, when it’s most likely customers will read them.
If you manage to make SMS Marketing part of your business plan you are going to have lots of benefits. You can reach more customers, keep in touch with them and grow your business in a modern way. Text messages can be customized to fit your clients needs which means the more interesting your messages are the more likely your customer database will grow.
Being a more personal approach on your clients, SMS Marketing will lead to an increase in sales.
