Online SMS is one of the most effective sales and marketing channels available today in terms of cost per conversion and cost per engagement.
Even though SMS has been around since the 90’s yet the SMS and text messaging channel has become a powerful way for businesses to drive more sales largely due to the incredible growth of the mobile industry.
When you think about how many people today have mobile phones and how much people prioritize text messages over all other communication channels including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. it’s a wonder why business owners are not trying to implement an online SMS strategy into their existing online marketing mix.
Unfortunately, business owners and even marketers are overlooking the hidden opportunity that exists inside SMS technology.
Why Use Bulk SMS?
First off, it’s important to cover off some points on why people should even consider SMS as a viable customer acquisition and growth channel.
High Open Rates
Did you know that on average anywhere from 82-97% of people will open and read their text messages? Compare that to email which only gets you 20% on average or PPC where 2% is considered “good”.
High Deliver Rates
Getting your message in front of people is a massive challenge, thanks to spam and fraud companies have been forced to increase their security which in turn is highly sensitive to any messaging that may appear to be SPAM.
As a result, most email messages end up in the promotions or SPAM folder if they are even delivered at all.
SMS by contrast doesn’t have anti-SPAM algorithms in place of any kind which means your message gets delivered 99% of the time just so long as the recipient’s mobile number is correct, they’re in range or don’t have their phone switched off.
High Click Through Rates
From a marketing and conversion perspective, having high open and delivery rates are great but if you can’t get that person to take an action whether that be to call your business or click on a link to your landing page then it doesn’t mean much.
SMS has anywhere between 16-45% click through rates (depending on the offer) making it one of the highest converting channels available.
No Everyone Has An Online Enabled Mobile Phone
There are plenty of marketers and businesses out there who are focusing on mobile marketing activities but keep in mind that there are still a lot of people who have what are called “dumb phones” these are phones that do not have internet access so mobile marketing campaigns will not reach these people.
Bulk SMS marketing campaigns on the other hand will still be able to reach their phone because it uses the cell phone towers, it’s not an online medium.
5 Ways You Can Use Bulk SMS To Drive Sales
Generate Leads
Have you ever seen something like this?
Text 50%OFF to 112233 and receive a coupon code for 50% off storewide!
This is an SMS lead generation campaign which is designed to pull in mobile numbers of people who are interested in purchasing products.
While you make less money on the front end, companies that use these campaigns are more interested in building up a list of buyers which means all they need to do when they want to generate more sales is send out a bulk SMS campaign.
Segment Your Groups
This is a mistake that I see a lot of companies make and it’s something that you really need to get right at the start because it becomes a headache trying to segment your list of subscribers once you have hundreds or thousands of them.
Typically what happens is that business owners (or worse marketing teams) will generate new leads from multiple campaigns and then stuff them all into one giant pile together.
The problem with this is that these people have different needs, they’re trying to accomplish different goals and because of this they need to see specific offers and specific messaging in order to get the highest click through and conversions.
Create different SMS campaigns that target specific types of customers and this will help you build highly focused customer groups.
Having the same types of customers together makes it a lot easier to create special promotions because you’ll know exactly what that group of people would be most interested in.
Follow Up
Acquiring a new customer is one of the most expensive business activities, ad costs are going up, consumers are less trusting and there is more competition so when you actually acquire a customer the dumbest thing you could do is to forget to remarket to them.
Remember, just because a person has purchased your product doesn’t mean that they have achieved the goal that they want so you want to make sure that a) you understand what your customers goals are and b) follow up with products that can help them fulfill those goals.
The power of SMS (like email marketing) is that you get the opportunity to generate repeat business and repeat business is where major business growth happens.
Send Targeted Promotions
I touched on this earlier but you want to make sure that you’re not sending special discounts on meat to your vegan customers – this will get guarantee high opt-out rates and low conversions.
When thinking about what offer to send it’s a good idea to think in terms of the goals that your customer is trying to accomplish.
Create offers that help them get a step closer to realizing that goal or even helping them to completely achieving that goal.
This is mush easier to do with a segmented list and you can see why it’s an essential piece of the SMS marketing strategy.
Conclusion
If you’re not using SMS marketing then there is a great opportunity for you to generate more sales for your company. SMS shouldn’t be the only strategy you use, like all marketing tools it’s best used in combination with other marketing channels.
