SMS Marketing: Definition, Examples & Best Practices 2023

aroundknowledge.co.id – As a business owner, have you ever considered SMS marketing to reach your audience? Otherwise, you are missing out on a strong and thriving communication channel.

Last year, 55% of businesses texted customers and had high open and click-through rates. With a phone in almost every pocket and on every desk, it's no surprise that more and more companies are using this powerful channel of communication.

Despite the benefits, some businesses are still hesitant to implement an SMS marketing strategy. Misunderstandings such as out of date SMS or annoying customers prevent them from taking action.

Today we're going to debunk these myths and explain how SMS Marketing can be a valuable tool for your growth.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing, also known as text message marketing, is the act of sending transactional or promotional messages via text. Marketers can use it to send discounts, personalized promotions, and surveys to people whose businesses have opted in to receive text messages.

How SMS Marketing Works

Email marketing and SMS share similar strategic goals, such as educating customers, selling, or building loyalty. SMS marketing is a “own” marketing channel that allows businesses to control their number distribution list by sending one-to-one or one-to-many messages.

As with email marketing, it is important to obtain customer approval before sending marketing messages via SMS. Shopify simplifies the process of getting SMS approval for store owners. You can enable this feature by following our step by step instructions.

If you agree, there are different types of SMS campaigns that you can test, such as special customer offers, loyalty programs or new product announcements. SMS marketing requires a short code which is an SMS that matches your business email address.

A short code is a 5 or 6 digit short telephone number that is easy for participating subscribers to remember. Before launching an SMS campaign, it is important to list phone numbers with opt-in approvals.

SMS marketing campaigns are effective during peak shopping seasons when email spam is high and paid advertising is expensive. It's also a great addition to omnichannel marketing automation campaigns where automated captions can be triggered by certain actions.

Advantages of SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing has many benefits:

Increase Engagement

Reportedly, around 96% of marketers who use SMS marketing experience increased revenue. On average, e-commerce marketers make around Rp. 1 million for every Rp. 15 thousands spent on SMS Marketing.

Also, because subscribers must opt-in to receive text messages, you need to make sure that the list You only consist of customers who are interested in your business, so there are hardly any deliverability issues There is.

Customer Preferred

SMS Marketing appeals to large and small businesses as well as customers. In fact, about 58% of consumers prefer to receive information via text and tend to open and click via text more often than other marketing channels.

Ease of Writing

Unlike bulk email, which requires significant effort to create compelling subject lines and copy, SMS messages require only a few lines of text. And because the texting window is small on mobile devices, you can add visual interest to your messages with a simple emoji or GIF.

Fostering Fulfilling Relationships

SMS messages promote personal and fulfilling relationships with customers. People are looking for texts that are easy to reply to and encourage real, private conversations. It's no surprise that the average response rate of SMS is much higher than that of email. 45% of text recipients reply, compared to 6% of email recipients.

8 Types of SMS Marketing Messages

Now that you understand the basics, here are some sample SMS marketing campaigns to inspire you (photo courtesy of Fantastic Texts).

1. Welcome message

Consider sending a series of welcome messages whenever a customer subscribes to your listing, offers a discount, or invites them to a competition.

2. Order Flash Sales

Everyone likes a lot! Use SMS to promote a big promotion or one-time flash sale that's running in your store.

3. Order back-in-stock

Notify customers when out of stock items are back in stock. It's a simple but effective way to re-engage your old visitors and increase your average order value.

4. Hype-Up Messages

Send us a text a few days in advance to generate excitement and anticipation for your new product line. This frees up the customer's time to plan purchases and ensure a successful product launch.

5. Feedback Message

Start 1:1 conversations with your customers using SMS. For example, you can send an SMS asking for feedback on a new product idea. Engaging customers in the process makes them more interested in your brand and more likely to buy your product when it launches.

6. Order Gift

Generate leads and grow your customer base with giveaways or text-to-win contests. Studies show that 46% of people share contests without additional incentives.

This means you can get more leads without increasing your marketing budget. Promote your giveaway across all marketing channels to maximize engagement.

7. Order BFCM

Encourage consumers to act quickly by automating SMS messages for time-sensitive campaigns during Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday.

8. Cross-sell/up-sell messages

Recommend products to customers based on past purchases to increase the average order value and customer lifetime value. This is a common strategy in email marketing that can easily be replicated via SMS.

SMS Marketing Software

If you're a Shopify store owner, starting an SMS marketing campaign is easy. Just download the app from the Shopify App Store, which has built-in compliance features. Here are some SMS marketing platforms for beginners.

• Attentive: This SMS platform is ideal for big brands with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Among his notable clients are Coach and Williams-Sonoma.
• Postscript: This software is easy to use and easy to integrate. Once installed, you can quickly create automated workflows for personalized communications or bulk campaigns. Price depends on usage.
• SMSBump: Another fantastic SMS marketing platform widely used by Shopify and Shopify Plus customers.

5 SMS Marketing Best Practices

After knowing the meaning of sms marketing and the marketing examples above, now is the time for us to practice how to make the right sms marketing.

1. Permissions are Key

To ensure that SMS messages remain a valuable marketing tool, it is important to obtain permission before sending messages. Sending messages without approval can cause legal problems and make your company look like spam.

Please do not upload phone numbers or contact information or send messages without prior approval. Please pay attention to the opt-in agreement to avoid misunderstandings.

2. Stay Contextual

Don't send random messages to your customers. Contextually relevant text has a higher click-through rate and conversion rate. Send timely messages, such as texts about promotional events on Friday afternoons or bar specials in the afternoon on weekdays.

Keeping it simple and appropriate will prevent you from being marked as spam and will get you better results.

3. Make it Easy to Opt Out

SMS marketing relies heavily on buyer trust, so unsubscribing should be easy. Make it easy for your customers to join and leave your SMS list.

Losing a few subscribers is better than having disinterested subscribers on your list. You can control your subscribers by texting your business first to register.

4. Don't Promote, Inform

Promotional SMS messages are easy to unsubscribe from, so it's important to consider your buyer's preferences. Make sure most of your text is educational and provides value to the recipient. Promotional messages must be limited to once per week.

5. Make it Interactive

SMS is interactive, so your marketing messages should reflect that. This is a great way to generate reviews and feedback from your customers. Asking for opinions on future product lines, for example, can generate engagement and excitement.