Your business has a powerful marketing tool at its disposal. And there’s a good chance you’re not using it.
Or at least not using it as well as you should. That tool is text message marketing, also known as SMS marketing.
According to Grandview Research, the SMS marketing industry is booming. Grandview projects annualized growth in SMS spending above 20% through 2025.
Your competitors are waking up to the power of text marketing. Are you?
Read on to learn what SMS marketing could do for your business and how to leverage it to reach and convert your target audiences.
Text Message Marketing Benefits
Text message marketing has lots of benefits, but two really stand out for skeptical businesses and marketers.
First, it’s very cost-effective. According to Anthem Business Software, a marketing automation provider for small enterprises, text message marketing costs often work out to pennies per message. That’s much less than some other types of paid digital marketing, which can cost hundreds per day.
Second, SMS marketing converts at much higher rates than legacy marketing tactics. The vast majority of prospects see messages within five minutes and as many as one-third click through on relevant offers. Talk about impressive performance.
How to Make Text Message Marketing Work for Your Business
So, how can you make SMS marketing work for your business? How can you increase your visibility and trust with high-potential prospects?
Start with these strategies. They’ve worked for others, and they can work for you.
Deliver Personalized Messaging
Texting is a great fit for personalized messaging. That’s increasingly important in a marketplace where consumers are wise to old-school marketing tricks and respond negatively to one-size-fits-all sells.
It’s not just about marketing effectiveness either. Personalized messaging can keep your brand top-of-mind for consumers being pulled in a thousand different directions.
Deploy Event and Appointment Reminders
SMS marketing retains its effectiveness for prospects ready to convert and repeat customers eager to convert a second time. You can use it to deploy targeted event and appointment reminders to ensure converts actually follow through. And when the “event” is an abandoned digital cart, you can use it to finally close the sale.
Send Targeted, Time-Sensitive Promotions
If you know a certain set of customers tend to buy at a certain time of day or week, or you want to promote a limited-time sale in your online store, SMS can help. It’s much more effective at crunch time than promotional emails, which many prospects don’t see until it’s too late (or ever).
Pair your time-sensitive text promotions with special or exclusive pricing for recipients. There’s nothing quite as sweet as getting a deal that few others do. The more exclusives you offer, the likelier your prospects will be to pay attention to your marketing texts when they come through.
Leverage Geofencing for Better Targeting
Want to catch more of your prospects at the crucial decision point, when they’re making a final decision to buy from you or go somewhere else?
Geofenced SMS targeting does just that. Use it to send targeted marketing messages to customers in specific locations, like a neighborhood where you operate a retail outlet or even inside the store itself. By reaching more potential customers when and where they’re making a buying decision, and delivering laser-targeted messages paired with exclusive pricing, you’ll convert more and increase total revenue per transaction.
Target Key Decision-Makers (And Know When They Receive the Message)
Tired of reaching the wrong people with targeted marketing messages? SMS marketing makes it easy to reach the people who are actually responsible for buying decisions. That’s especially important in B2B sales, where the difference between a closed sale and a lost opportunity can be as simple as a phone number.
Analyze Your Marketing Effectiveness
Do you know who’s actually watching your TV ads rather than fast-forwarding through them?
Of course not. TV doesn’t provide that level of granular marketing analysis.
SMS marketing does. Using your marketing suite’s built-in analytics, you can see who’s opening your messages, who’s clicking through, and who’s converting. That’s information you must have to make informed decisions with your marketing dollars.
Send Secure Payment Reminders and Requests
SMS is a perfect platform for notifying pay-later clients that they have a new bill and gently reminding them to settle up.
For security reasons, think twice about including a direct payment link. Clients’ carriers may flag this as spam and many won’t use it anyway. But you can definitely include simple instructions for bill payment in your texts.
Source Customer Feedback (And Feedback From People Who Haven’t Converted Yet)
SMS messaging makes it easy to source feedback about customers’ and prospects’ experiences with your brand. They don’t need to log into an account or fill out a detailed form. Often, it’s as simple as typing “yes” or “no” in response to a few simple questions.
Text Message Marketing Can Make the Difference
Text message marketing is a highly effective tool that helps you reach your prospects where they are. Literally, as long as they have their phones on them.
It’s versatile, too. You can use it to send personalized reminders, deliver time-sensitive and geo-targeted promotions, collect customer and prospect feedback, and even send payment reminders and requests. SMS marketing’s potential is limited only by your creativity.
The post How To Reach Your Target Audience Through Text Message Marketing appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
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