The Power of SMS Marketing

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is the process of sending short, marketing messages directly to consumers. As mobile usage continues to grow on an exponential scale, it’s becoming increasingly vital that our marketing efforts align with the changing behaviour of our consumers.

As one of the most immediate channels, SMS boasts an impressively high 98% read rate and our friends over at dotdigital say that it is the 2nd best performing channel after email. SMS is a compelling form of communication that has the potential to drive a huge volume of customer engagement and ultimately drive conversions.

How can SMS benefit my eCommerce business?

There is a long list of ways in which SMS can boost your eCommerce business. We have listed those we believe to be most important below:

Instant and attention-grabbing – Think about where you keep your phone. It’s usually right next to you, in your pocket or maybe even your hand. And if an alert were to sound, the first thing you’d do is unlock it to find out where the notification has come from. This is the exact reason SMS is so effective.

Increasing reach and engagement – Practically every mobile phone has the ability to natively send and receive SMS messages, which explains the huge potential reach that SMS marketing has as a method of advertising communication. Consumers are highly engaged with their phones so it is a perfect chance to share valuable business updates and marketing messages.

Gather customer data – There is a great opportunity to gather great volumes of customer data through survey feedback and other types of research via SMS. You can therefore gather a wide set of results within a short space of time.

Clear concise messaging – With a limit of 160 characters, you have no choice but to create messaging which is simple and straight to the point. Clear and concise communication is beneficial to businesses and consumers alike.

SMS is fast – Messages have an instant delivery and messages opened quickly, so businesses can reach customers in a blink of an eye.

Competitive pricing – SMS is fairly inexpensive compared with other marketing techniques such as Facebook or LinkedIn ads.

What about customer privacy?

It’s also worth noting that since GDPR legislation has been introduced, privacy laws protect individuals from being contacted against their preference. Customers are required to give their consent before they are targeted by companies, SMS messages included. Every SMS marketing campaign should also always include an opt-out option which provides an opportunity for consumers to unsubscribe from further text messages, should they wish to.

How can we help?

As you can see, there are a huge number of ways in which SMS Marketing can benefit businesses. However many still underutilize this marketing process and are therefore potentially losing out on valuable communication with consumers.

If you need help with your SMS marketing or just want to find out more and ask further questions then please do not hesitate to get in touch today by calling 0121 369 5874 or emailing success@5874commerce.com