SMS marketing allows you to communicate directly with your customers and prospects, which can be a powerful way to build relationships and gain trust.
If you're looking for ways to improve your business, you've come to the right place.
Here are the top 7 benefits of SMS marketing:
- SMS Marketing is very personal
- Your customers are familiar with SMS messaging
- SMS marketing has a high open rate, is reliable and fast
- SMS marketing is low cost
- SMS Marketing converts leads into customers
- SMS marketing is easy to use
- You can target the right audience with SMS marketing
1. SMS marketing is a very personal
SMS can be used to deliver a coupon, confirm an order or even send information about the latest sale. There are many reasons why SMS marketing is so effective, but one of the main reasons is that it gives you an opportunity to connect with your customers on a personal level.
When you send an SMS message, it will land in the hands of your audience whether they are on the move or sit comfortably in their sofa. They will see it on their phones in real-time, which means that they can respond back immediately if they want to, read it later, or delete it if they do not find any value in the message.
This makes it easier for them to engage with you and have conversations about the service or product that you are offering them. So the fact that you can personally reach them wherever they are is enormous.
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2. Your customers are familiar with SMS messaging
One of the biggest benefits why SMS marketing is so effective is because customers are already familiar with it. In fact, 88% of people use their phones mostly for texting, despite the growth of all the messaging apps.
That’s around 6.5 billion people! This means your prospects don't need to learn a new technology for their communications and won't have to switch from their usual messaging app if they want to stay in touch with you.
Your customers have been using SMS messaging for years to communicate with friends and family, so they're already comfortable sending short messages back and forth on their phones.
They also use it regularly for communicating with businesses, including ones they've never interacted with before or ones that they do business with frequently—like their favorite coffee shops and grocery stores.
Furthermore, because customers are familiar with SMS messaging, they're more likely to respond positively when they receive an offer from your company through this medium.
Whether you're sending coupons or promoting sales and new products in your store or online shop via SMS, customers are more likely than not going to react positively based on their past experiences with other businesses who have utilized this form of communication for promotional purposes.
Indeed, 48% of customers prefer to engage directly with brands via SMS. So it's a natural extension of your communication strategy to start using SMS marketing as well, because your customers are already comfortable with it.
3. SMS marketing has a high open rate, is reliable and fast
SMS marketing is a great way to reach your customers and build your brand, especially if you're on a budget (more on that later). But it's also important to note that SMS has a high open rate.
In fact, according to Gartner, it has open rate as high as 98%, which is one of the reasons why it’s a great way to communicate with your customers.
The number is so high because people are getting texts from friends, family and businesses all day long—and they expect them to be relevant. If you send something interesting or useful in an SMS, there’s a good chance they’ll read it right away.
Those days are gone when many people concluded that emails were the best way to reach their customers. Now we know that email has a huge number of problems: it's full of spam and often gets lost – in the spam folder. Plus, it only has about a 20% open rate (Gartner, 2016)!
Today, more businesses prefer SMS over email because they know that text messages are personal and fast—and they're highly reliable in terms of delivery.
Customers also want to hear from businesses in real time rather than waiting until the next morning when they receive an email or generic newsletter with ads for products unrelated to their own needs or interests.
4. SMS marketing is low cost
I'm sure you're thinking that this all sounds too good to be true. You think the catch must be the price, don't you?
Nay!
I can assure you that SMS marketing is much cheaper than other forms of digital marketing as it doesn’t require any special software or technical expertise. All you need is a web browser and internet connection.
It is one of the most cost effective ways to market your products or services.
For example, the price per SMS for the UK is €0.0228 here on BulkGate, but you can see pricing for other countries, as we help businesses all over the world with SMS marketing.
This means that for every 1,000 messages sent out via our platform, you will only spend about €20 on text message marketing.
What perhaps makes the low cost point even more appealing is the next point I'm going to address.
5. SMS Marketing converts leads into customers
Using SMS marketing is a great way with which you can increase sales and grow your business. It has been proven that SMS marketing converts at a much higher rate than other types of digital marketing, such as email or display ads.
As with the open rate, the click through rate is also incredibly high – on average 19%! And can be, according to Gartner (2016), as high as 45%.
This means that for every 100 people who receive your message, up to 45 of them will click on that link to buy your product or service. That's amazing!
Just compare it with email marketing (4%), Google Ads (1.91%) and Facebook (0.90%). (SMS Marketing Statistics 2022)
Needless to say, the ROI on SMS marketing can be huge. According to a report by Insider Intelligence, brands typically see a 10x to 20x ROI on SMS marketing. This makes it the most profitable channel.
The best part is that you don't have to be a big company with hundreds of employees to use SMS marketing effectively to build brand awareness or driving traffic back to your website or app.
You can simply send a text message containing links or calls to action to the relevant landing page of your choice to customers who are interested in your business.
But let’s explore it more in the next point.
6. SMS marketing is easy to use
SMS marketing is easy to set up. It's a great way for businesses to get started in the world of digital marketing.
You don't need an army of developers or designers, just an internet connection and a browser.
It's also is intuitive very easy to use, with no complicated setup process like other digital marketing channels might require.
You can get started right away by creating an account with SMS gateway like BulkGate and then sending out your first batch of messages! These can help bring new customers into your store or encourage past customers to come back again and buy more things from you!
It's also very easy to track your results, making it simple for you as a business owner or marketer to measure how well your campaigns are doing (or not doing). And once you've figured out what works best for your business and customers, you'll be able to expand faster than ever.
7. You can target the right audience with SMS marketing
With SMS marketing, you can target your audience based on demographics such as age, sex and location.
You can also target them based on interests, such as sports or fashion. Or you can even target them based on past behavior; for example, if a user has made an online purchase from you in the past, then there’s a good chance that they will be interested in receiving messages about new products or offers from your company.
With email marketing and social media advertising it is difficult to glean this level of information about customers because they don’t have to give up personal details when signing up for these services.
But with mobile phone numbers being freely given out by their owners at events like trade shows and conferences (to enable people to contact them easily in future), it becomes easier to segment your customers.
This allows brands with limited budgets but larger customer bases – such as small businesses – access towards micro-targeting messages which will resonate best with their ideal buyers.
SMS marketing is an effective way to market in 2022 and beyond
The possibilities for SMS marketing are endless. You can use text messaging in many situations. It more or less depends on what kind of business you run. However, I will list a few ideas on how it can be used.
Businesses can use SMS marketing and text messages as:
- An update of the status of a delivery or item shipment (SMS notification),
- A great discount coupons or a promotions of a product or service (bulk SMS),
- A reminder of an appointment,
- A booking conformation,
- Healthcare related updates, such as covid-19 updates,
- Weather-related alerts,
- Transit or commute notifications,
- Surveys, so that you get instant feedback from your customers directly from their phones (Two-way SMS),
- An alert to change the oil in your car,
- If you’re a restaurant owner, for example, and want to let customers know that you added some new menu items to the menu, then sending them an SMS with this information would be ideal since it’s quick and easy for them to read through on their mobile device.
Conclusion
In overall, SMS marketing is a powerful tool that can help you build relationships with your customers, improve their experience and increase sales.
We hope this article has given you a better understanding of what SMS marketing is, how it works and why it’s so effective.
If you still have any questions about SMS marketing or want to discuss some options for your business then please feel free to contact us today!