Businesses looking to market their brand have a wide range of popular options: social media, email, direct mail, PPC, print, and more. But SMS or text message is often overlooked – even in the most comprehensive marketing plans.

Because so many businesses overlook SMS marketing, it leaves the perfect opportunity for you to cut through the noise and reach consumers directly. While your competitors are fighting over single digit click rates on social media and email, you can get click-through rates north of 35 percent!

Why SMS Marketing?

I’ve already hinted at the power of text message marketing, but let’s take a deeper dive into the benefits of reaching your customers via SMS:

1. Numbers don’t lie: I’ve already mentioned the 35% CTR (compared to 6% for email), but the statistics don’t stop there. SMS marketing boasts a whopping 99% open rate – even more impressive when compared to email’s 30%.
2. Low investment: Everyone knows how to send a text message, even my grandmother does it! There are no design questions or printing problems – just your message delivered directly to your customers’ pockets.
3. Trackable: The best marketing efforts are trackable. And with SMS marketing you can closely monitor opens, clicks, and opt-outs to ensure that you are sending the right message at the right time.
4. Instant results: A lot of marketing campaigns take days or even weeks to deliver. But SMS marketing allows you to contact your customer base in an instant. Instant communication is an invaluable feature in the rapidly moving world of today.
5. Intimate contact: Text messaging is still primarily between friends. And so using SMS messages to contact your customers feels more intimate than email or social media – where we are bombarded with advertising messaging.

If that’s not enough to convince you of the power of text message marketing, I have one more reason: it’s easy to get started. It’ll still take planning and execution, but we can have an SMS marketing campaign up and running without any undue hardship on our clients.

How to Win at SMS Marketing

Now that I’ve converted you to Team SMS (right?), I’ll talk a bit about how to get the absolute most out of your SMS marketing efforts. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it will get you thinking along the right lines.

Of course, your marketing agency can walk you through all this, but why not come in prepared and ready to go?

Don’t Over Do It

Once you’ve collected phone numbers, there is a temptation to start blowing them up with regular messages. But resist that temptation! SMS marketing works best with a few high-value messages per month. The sweet spot is right around four per month – run more than six and you risk spamming your customers.

Use Real Language

SMS messages have a limited character count, so real estate is valuable. But spend time crafting your message so that you can still use real language. I hate getting text messages that look like this: “Reply Y as ur sig 2agree 2 Subway offers 2 this ph# (max10msgs/mo-msgs may be autodialed-consent not req’d 2buy goods/svcs) Reply HELP=help Msg&data rates apply”

What?! I get there are boxes we have to check for regulatory compliance, but that is a mess. Trim your message down until it fits in your allotted character count.

Focus on Value

Marketing text messages will interrupt your customers’ day. Make sure it is worth it by always focusing on offering real value with your texts. Offer discount, coupons, special offers, free items, whatever; just make it worth your customers’ time or they will opt out immediately.

Save announcements and general information for social media and email. SMS marketing is all about the deal.

Set Expectations

Every time I sign up for SMS messages from a business, I’m nervous about how they are going to use my number. Help to alleviate that concern by setting expectations up front. When you are confirming their opt-in, tell them how often you will contact them.

If you’re not sure how often that should be, see tip number one above and always err on the side of underdoing it.

Automate the Process

Busy business owners don’t have time to plan and send out SMS marketing messages once or twice a week. That’s why you should have your system fully automated. Whether you are using a complicated funnel system or just shotgunning offers out, automation will save you precious time.

Automation doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, we can walk you through the whole process so that your text message marketing, social media, email, and CRM are all working toward a common goal through automated processes.

Let Us Help

At Fusion Group USA, we can plan, build, and execute an SMS marketing campaign for your business. From building a contact list through regulatory compliance, we have experts that will walk you through every step of the process. See the difference that professional SMS marketing can make!

SMS marketing is a powerful tool, let us help you harness it to grow your business today!