A lot of businesses and marketers are wondering, does SMS still work for 2021?
The answer is a resounding yes. With more and more people looking to their mobile phones to search for a local business, buy products and find what they need on the world wide web, SMS is still a viable marketing medium.
To make the most of your SMS campaigns you’ll need to hire a reputable service that has a lot of features that benefit ecommerce and online stores.
SMS Marketing – Do You Really Need It?
SMS is a term known by just about everyone who’s ever owned a smartphone. Combine it with marketing and you get a process where brands try to attract customers using text messaging.
The message can vary depending on the ecommerce and campaign. A few good examples include updates, deals and time-sensitive offers that a customer might want.
The good news is that SMS marketing for 2021 can be achieved through automation, and this type of marketing works 24/7. It’s highly effective in acquiring leads, engaging people and getting a nice boost in revenue.
Tips to Maximize Your SMS Marketing
1. Automate, Automate, Automate
Your SMS marketing can continue working even when your attention is directed somewhere else. With the help of a marketing automation service you can launch promotional campaigns quickly and in a timely manner.
You won’t have to be delayed with manual tasks- just launch them along with an offer, discount or promotion and sit back and watch your business grow.
2. Always Ask Permission
Before you hit the launch button, make sure that your SMS list has all agreed to receiving notifications from your brand.
Flooding or spamming a person’s inbox is considered unwise, and the move could bounce back on you. That person can report you or worse, block it and tell their friends about it. This is counterintuitive to what you can achieve and can be fixed with a simple consenting process.
Even after getting consent you should be considerate of what their interests might be. Remember, they can opt out anytime and block you if you’re not careful.
3. Know Who You’re Sending a Message To
An SMS list may be comprised of details such as name, age and whatnot, but that shouldn’t mean you shouldn’t dive deeper and know them better.
Analyzing your customer base is the first step to finding out what they could be interested in. Aside from that you can glean invaluable information, such as demography, purchase history and many others.
4. Craft Your Messages to be Short, Snappy and Attention-Grabbing
Text messages are meant to be short and straight to the point. Marketing rules dictate that your SMS marketing messages should be the same.
For starters, make the reader know your intent within the first few lines. A CTA, or call to action with a link should cap off his or her interest so they could carry out the desired action.
Keep your text short, simple and pack a lot of punch. Try trigger words to capture their interest, and to avoid confusion don’t put in abbreviations or slang words. Moreover, pay attention to the spelling and grammar- no one will buy from someone who doesn’t know how to spell espresso machine, for example.
You can also divert from the usual and introduce polls, interactive text, games or rewards. People love interacting and they won’t hesitate to join if it means they get free stuff.
5. Time Your Automation Right
Just because a text can be sent 24/7 doesn’t mean you should send it whenever you like. Much like a social media post, you should wait until the recipient is most likely awake and ready to read your message.
To get the timing right you should check on your target audience and see when their preferred time to receive marketing messages are. Generally speaking, the timeline should be between 10 in the morning until 8 in the evening in their local time.
6. Offer Something That’s Valuable to Them
To get more people to sign up you should offer them something that they want. It doesn’t have to be expensive- a free ebook, a coupon code, discount or other free items should suffice.
You can make them feel more valued with this tip. As long as they’re somewhat interested in your brand or products you have a high chance of growing your SMS marketing list.
Then, keep their attention towards your brand or ecommerce by having an offer they can’t resist, such as a buy one get one promotion, a quiz or an exclusive sale only for top customers.
7. Consider Omnichannel
Omnichannel is a multi-pronged approach to marketing. You market on every front, including web push, Viber, email and others. Since people use different apps and services you get a higher chance of being noticed.
Omnichannel is great for reach as it extends to more than just one medium of communication. It covers every demographic who might be using other means to consume content.
Text shouldn’t just be for sales marketing, though. You can maximize an abandoned cart and regain inactive or lost customers by adding a coupon for 5% off, for example.
Aside from omnichannel you should consider segmentation, which will require different SMS contexts. Categorization can take the form of a welcome text or a thank you for someone who just signed up or made his or her first purchase.