An SMS marketing strategy can benefit organizations and customers alike, with tactics like personalization, real-time results and communication, and loyalty between both parties.
Traditionally, email was the primary communication channel to engage with prospects and customers. While other channels, like social media and company websites, could also attract target audiences, many organizations turn to SMS to outpace the competition and stay on top of new marketing strategies.
SMS marketing differs from other traditional and digital advertising methods because it offers a direct line of communication to customers. With an SMS strategy, businesses can reach out to customers directly, engage in meaningful conversations with them and update them on new products or business news quickly and effectively.
Explore the main benefits that SMS marketing can bring to businesses.
1. Increased reach
SMS marketing is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, as it enables them to reach a much larger customer base than traditional methods of advertising.
With SMS marketing, organizations can send text messages directly to prospects' and customers' mobile phones, which gives them increased access to audiences that were previously difficult or expensive to target. This direct communication targets users where they are on a regular basis.
2. Higher engagement
Higher engagement is a substantial benefit of SMS marketing. If marketers target and send text messages directly to customers' mobile devices, organizations can ensure their audience will see messages in real time.
Text messages have a higher open rate than emails or other digital marketing channels, which increases the opportunity for engagement. Because text messages require little effort to read and respond to, customers are more likely to interact with them than with emails or other digital marketing methods. And, as businesses already use customer data, marketers can customize and personalize SMS marketing messages to make the content more relevant for higher engagement.
Organizations looking to gain immediate results from their marketing efforts can turn to SMS.
3. Cost-effective
Compared to traditional methods of advertising, such as radio, print or digital channels, text messages require minimal investment and marketers can send them in bulk without spending a lot of money. SMS marketing's personalization and targeting benefits help businesses avoid wasting time and money on irrelevant messages to customers outside of their target market.
Combined with higher engagement, conversion rates, sales and profits, the ROI potential from SMS marketing makes it enticing for organizations that want a reliable and low-cost method to reach out to their customers. Ultimately, this approach helps businesses get more value for their money.
4. Immediate results
Organizations looking to gain immediate results from their marketing efforts can turn to SMS. Unlike emails that can take hours or days before customers open them, they instantly receive text messages on mobile devices and often read them within minutes.
With little effort to execute and the potential for high engagement, businesses see more immediate feedback and results from these messages, and they can take advantage of their built-in immediacy.
SMS marketing and personalization are closely tied together, as personalization is a benefit of SMS marketing and brings all its benefits along too.
5. Personalization
Unlike print ads or broad advertising campaigns, text messages can take advantage of email marketing's historical benefits, like being tailored to specific users based on demographics or behavior analysis. Marketers can make text messages more personalized than traditional marketing channels.
If marketers use customer data, they can customize text messages to ensure they address individual needs. This data lets organizations create more relevant and engaging messages that are more likely to resonate with recipients.
Additionally, when customers receive personalized messages from a business, it helps them feel valued and recognized by the organization, which helps build trust between them and the brand.
6. Loyalty building
If marketing teams use text messages to engage customers in meaningful conversations, they can foster long-term relationships and create a sense of loyalty. Personalized messages help businesses tailor their content to individual customers, which can show how the brand values and appreciates each person individually.
With a personalized approach, organizations can give customers discounts or promotions over text messages, which incentivizes them to return and purchase again. And, if marketers embrace SMS automation, those text messages can remind customers of upcoming events or offers to ensure the business stays top-of-mind and encourage customers to remain loyal.
7. Better for the customer
Altogether, the aforementioned benefits of SMS marketing make this approach better for the customer, compared to traditional methods. Personalized text messages with relevant offers and updates make it easy for customers to receive the latest communications from an organization. Customers can more easily open a text message they find relevant to engage with a brand, rather than emails or website searches, which often require extra steps.
Overall, SMS marketing offers customers more control over their journey, as they can easily opt in and out of marketing messages. Customers can also set their own preferences for the type of content they receive, so they can easily tailor their experiences to their individual needs with minimal effort on their part.
