The Benefits of SMS Marketing

The Benefits of SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is the process of sending short, concise text messages to your prospects, promoting your business. In recent years, digital marketing has been growing at unprecedented rates. Furthermore, with smartphone use on the rise every year in the UK, mobile marketing is incredibly popular.

In short, many people cannot help but check their phones when it lights up with a notification. Companies have realised the marketing potential this brings. You have the opportunity for instant exposure with your prospects and have your company’s message in their hands.

In this post, we will talk about how SMS can help improve your marketing and grow your business. As a full marketing agency, we offer SMS marketing services to our clients and see the benefits they bring first hand. It has the potential to greatly improve your brand awareness and sales by including calls to action in the text message.

Higher open rates as it’s through a preferred platform

As mentioned above, when your phone lights up, makes a sound or vibrates, you tend to check it instantly. Therefore, with SMS marketing, open rates are much higher than a large number of other marketing methods. Most people always have their phone on them and prefer to use their phone for checking social media, emails and the web. SMS allows you to reach your prospects on their preferred platform and get an almost immediate engagement. Include calls to action (an offer, discount, link to your website etc.) to give the recipients a reason to engage and respond with the message.

Research shows that the amount of time people are spending on their mobile phones is increasing every year. Therefore, to not take advantage of this with your marketing efforts is a wasted opportunity.

Furthermore, certain industries and trades involve being out of the office or on site a lot. Therefore, a direct mail campaign or telemarketing campaign may not be the best course of action as they will rarely be around. However, they will most likely have their mobile phone on them meaning you can still reach them and get your company in front of them.

Tracking ease

As with email marketing, all data used for an SMS campaign is tracked. Broadcasting platforms track each record and note the response. Therefore, after the campaign, it is easy to see how many opens, clicks and responses your message has had. This gives you all the information you need to measure the success of your campaign. Any responses or text backs are also noted on the system so you can see exactly what your prospects are saying. This is especially useful if your SMS campaign is asking for feedback about a recent purchase or service.

Instant delivery

SMS messages are instant. When they are sent from the broadcasting platform, they deliver almost instantly onto the phones of your prospects. Unlike other marketing methods such as direct mail, where you have to wait at least a day for the marketing to deliver, the speed of SMS marketing is unparalleled. Therefore, you get the ball rolling a lot faster and reap the benefits faster as well. As the messages are often opened almost instantly, you can begin to see results just as fast.

Furthermore, with email marketing, there is a risk that your email may land in the junk box your prospects. However, that is not a risk with SMS marketing as there is no junk box with text messages. As a result, delivery rates are very high.

Reach a wide variety of demographics

Research shows that roughly 85% of the UK adult population owns a smartphone. While certain marketing methods may only appeal to certain demographics e.g. social media marketing, SMS can appeal to everyone. Even if you do not use social media platforms, you can still receive a text message. You do not even need to be connected to the internet, which other digital marketing methods require. Therefore, almost regardless of who you are targeting, you will be able to reach them with SMS marketing.

No waffle

Unlike other marketing channels, with SMS marketing, there are only a set number of characters available. Therefore, there is no waffle, or lengthy sales talk in your message which can potentially put people off. The message is brief, so a prospect can make an instant decision about whether or not it is of interest to them. Many people like this approach as it is straight to the point and they do not need to waste any of their time. Many SMS campaigns include a link to the company website or product page, allowing the individual to find out more information if they so wish.

Summary

With mobile marketing growing year on year, there has never been a better time to undertake SMS marketing. People are spending more time on their phones, giving your business the opportunity to land directly in their hands, on their favoured platform.

As Impact Marketing are a full marketing agency, we offer text marketing services to our clients. Using our in-house data, we can provide a full marketing solution for your business. We also provide a full reporting service after the campaign has gone out.

If you would like more information about this or about any of our other marketing services, get in touch today. A member of the team will be happy to assist you further with your marketing requirements.