Text message marketing is easy to overlook from a business perspective. After all, we have social media, emails, and more, so why would we go with something so old school?

Because SMS marketing campaigns are still incredibly effective at reaching customers and getting them to take notice. In this article, we’ll explain how text message marketing will help your business before looking at the main dos and don’ts.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing means using SMS messages (text messages) for marketing purposes. In short, it involves writing brand-specific texts about offers, promotions, and more, and sending them to customers. We can also include MMS marketing, although that deserves its own attention.

How Effective is SMS Marketing?

Using SMS for marketing is incredibly effective for businesses. Let’s take a look at some of the most important stats that prove why you should include text messages in your marketing strategy.

Open Rates

SMS messages have an open rate of 99% compared to email’s 18% open rate. This is perhaps because 96% of Americans own a phone capable of texting (up to 99% of 18-49 year olds), and 83% of people open a text within 90 seconds of receiving it.

Text Marketing

91% of customers said they’d be happy to opt in to an SMS marketing campaign. Many do so expecting to receive exclusive discounts and offers, which statistics show they’re more than happy to use.

Similarly, 51% of people are more likely to make a purchase if they receive a marketing text message. Adding images and video helps grab their interest in the product, too.

But it’s not all about products. Up to 64% of respondents say appointment reminders are the most useful text messages they can receive from a business. At 48%, the next most important category is shipping updates.

Conversion and Sales Funnel

Text marketing campaigns have a response rate 8x higher than email – 45% to 6%. Also, the click-through rate for SMS messages is 19.3%.

Text marketing can also help with brand loyalty. 72% of customers say they’d sign up for a loyalty card via text. On top of this, more than 50% of customers say they’d rather deal with customer service via text than any other message route.

How Will Text Marketing Help Your Business?

So, as you can see, SMS messaging is a valuable part of a marketing strategy. But how exactly could it help your business? Here are some examples.

Stronger Customer Relationship

Personalization and Brand Loyalty

On that note, you can easily personalize SMS marketing campaigns. Whether it’s something simple like adding the customer’s name or sending them specific products, adding a personal touch makes it feel more relatable.

Reach Customers Directly

Sure, SMS messages aren’t the only direct marketing strategy. However, they’re more likely to reach your customers than something like email, which will typically get ignored.

What’s more, setting up an SMS marketing strategy will be much cheaper than something like online advertising. Combine this with a more targeted marketing approach, and it seems like a no-brainer.

Easy to Track

One of the most important aspects from a business perspective is the metrics. Text message marketing is super easy to track, providing you use the right messaging platform. Doing so lets you find out the following:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Conversion rates
• Response and feedback

Having access to all this data means you can massively refine your marketing strategy, making it leaner and more effective.

Things Not to Do in Your SMS Marketing Campaigns

Setting up text messaging marketing campaigns generally isn’t difficult. Providing it aligns with your brand identity, and is relevant, there’s not much else you need to do.

That said, here are some massive don’ts when setting up your marketing campaigns. Providing you stay away from these, everything should be fine.

Don’t Send too Many Texts

You don’t want to overload your customers with texts, as this could make them dislike your brand. One survey found that the majority of customers are happy with 4-6 texts a month from a business.

Of course, it’ll be slightly different if you’re sending appointment reminders or shipping updates. Even so, don’t overdo it.

Don’t Forget to Give an Opt-Out Option

The last thing you want is for your customers to struggle to opt out of your marketing campaigns. Sure, you might want them to stick around, but if a customer wants to leave, they’ll leave.

Make sure the opt out option is clear and accessible. The easier you make it, the happier your customers will be. And, you never know, they might change their mind!

Don’t Miss Your Call to Action

A call to action is basically the point of sending an SMS for marketing purposes. Whether it’s getting them to visit your website, use a discount, or attend their appointment, they all count.

So, make sure your call to action grabs attention and makes your customers want to follow your advice. Consider practicing some if you’ve not used them before, as the difference between a good and bad call to action is massive.

Start Your SMS Marketing Journey with Textr Team

As you can see, using SMS for marketing is a great idea for businesses. If you want to get started, you need an outstanding messaging service, such as Textr Team.

It gives you unlimited SMS and MMS messaging and unlimited call minutes, all of which are ideal for SMS marketing campaigns. What’s more, Textr Team allows you to manage your contacts and work team, and tag customers.

But if you want to get started straight away and see what SMS marketing is like, use Textr’s Send SMS Online tool. It’s free, and you don’t need to link it to a phone number.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started developing an SMS marketing strategy today by downloading the Textr Team app for mobile and desktop.