Did you know that the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes? That is almost 80 times a day. What does that mean for open rates for text messages? Quite a remarkable number: 98%.
The point? People are constantly checking their phones and their phones are always nearby. In addition, open rates for texts exceed the open e-mail ratios of e-mail, which fluctuate around 20%. As digital marketers and an Iowa web development company we are talking about mobile SEO, responsive website design and even social apps such as Facebook Messenger, but one of the most under-utilized tools in the marketing tool is still text message marketing.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing – is sending coupons, special offers, announcements, current events and other information to your customers via SMS. In short, SMS text marketing is simply a faster, easier and direct way to reach your customer.
At Blue Compass we always think of all Chipotle text messages that we receive at the office. The ease of receiving deal notifications or exclusive promotions directly on our phones makes super easy lunch decisions! Chipotle not only speaks directly with us, their customers, at the exact moment that we can make a decision or make a purchase, but they also talk to us personally.
MMS Marketing: Multimedia Messaging Service
Another form of SMS marketing is MMS marketing. While SMS stands for Short Message Service, MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. The difference? Exactly as it sounds. A text message is what you remember when you think of a standard text message of approximately 160 characters. An MMS message is any SMS message that contains multimedia content, such as a video or image, or messages that are longer than 160 characters.
Some marketers think that SMS and MMS marketing is highly regulated, but it is no more regulated than email marketing. Just as you need individuals to voluntarily subscribe to your email list before you actively send them emails, you also need to give people the option to sign up for your marketing efforts for text messages. Likewise, people should also be given the option to opt out of your text messages whenever they want.
Fortunately for both marketers and prospects, customers have an easy way to sign up or unsubscribe directly from their mobile phones with most SMS marketing services.
Why you should use SMS marketing
Advantage # 1: SMS Marketing has the best involvement
Simply put, SMS Message marketing has the best involvement of any marketing medium. Although emails can remain unread for days, 90% of text messages are opened and read within the first three minutes of receipt.
What else? Mobile phone ownership among adults is almost 95% worldwide. And since no internet is needed for sending and receiving text messages, are the communication tool with the largest reach in the world.
Advantage # 2: Trackable platform
Most SMS and MMS marketing services have traceable platforms. Just like your other marketing efforts, you can manage your SMS marketing campaign directly from your desktop. For example, smsala, the SMS marketing service, is a web-based platform, so there is no app or software to download. You manage everything within their dashboard.
Advantage # 3: interactive content
With SMS and MMS marketing you can receive quick feedback from your recipients by including a ‘Reply’ button or a link to a landing page. You can deliver short messages to your target audience that they redirect to your site so that they can quickly communicate with your brand.
Advantage # 4: immediate delivery of messages
Another major advantage of Bulk SMS and MMS marketing is that it does not take long to gain important insights. As soon as you press send, your message will be delivered almost immediately. You can set up a marketing campaign for text messages and receive hundreds of clicks or user feedback within minutes.
Advantage # 5: possibilities to add a personal touch
An additional advantage of Text marketing is the possibility to add a personal touch to your message. The use of words such as ‘your’ and ‘you’ are great ways to keep people interested in your marketing efforts via SMS and MMS.
How SMS Marketing Works
The basic components of every SMS marketing campaign are a keyword and a short code.
Here is an example:
Text “TASTE” to 123456 for our taste of the day!
“FLAVORS” is the keyword that users type in the body of an SMS message and “123456” is the short code to which users send their SMS message.
When a user sends a keyword to a short code, this is considered “opt-in”. (Pretty easy, right?) When a customer comes in, you have a few options. You can send them a quick follow-up text message and let them know what they can expect, or you can add them to a list for future campaigns.
Of course, there are other ways for people to sign up for text messages, such as filling out a form or passing on their phone numbers on your website.
