6 Tips to Get Best out of SMS Marketing

There are multiple forms of communicating with prospects/clients and Short-Message-Service (SMS) is one such channel. Marketing through SMS means sending out promotional messages, offers or transactional messages in the form of text messages through mobile phones, smartphones, computer systems with web, handheld devices, etc.

In this ever-changing digital landscape, the cost-efficient channel of SMS marketing still remains the most underutilized mobile marketing tactic for most businesses. The stats mentioned below will definitely ring a bell, especially at a time where the global economy is facing a crisis.

2/3 rd of the population, which comes to around 75%, like to have offers sent to them via SMS
Mobile offers are redeemed ten times faster than the print offers
As per the result of a survey, out of the total people receiving SMS from retailers, minimum 50% made a purchase as a result
Sending text messages to prospects has shown a 40% higher conversion rate than the ones who are not sent a text message.

Before enclosing what makes B2B telemarketing so effective, here are a few statistics that will tilt your
attention towards ‘what makes it better’

Validate your database: no one having a good knowledge in marketing will suggest you to purchase phone number database from outside as more than half of it can be a wreck. Having your own data, built up over a period of time is reliable. But in both the cases the phone validation needs to be carried out. A phone validator provides key information upon which the success of your SMS campaign depends.
- Validation of the phone number
- Segregating the phone number into landline and mobile
- Performing phone number carrier lookup
- Determining location of the number
Know the customer: Keep a track of the SMS campaigns and analyse the data regularly. With the use of Customer relationship management app (CRM), the success of the messages can be measured. With an in-depth analysis of the open-rate, location based demographics, purchase history etc, right messages can be sent to the right person. Send a reminder to a person who has added products in the cart but not purchased yet or avoid sending an ad of wrinkle lift cream to a young customer.
Write clear messages: Be Open & Honest: Text messages have a limit of 160 characters. So remain straight to the point in a clear and concise manner. While attracting the customer to go for opt-in to receive SMS, be clear and honest with what the customer will receive in those messages. This ensures the information to be reaching out to people who actually want to hear about it. Make sure to provide a button for opt-out from SMS services.
The message should be short, sweet and structured: Due to the character limit, the SMS has to be brief which makes it important to have a standard structure for every message being sent out. If you don’t have one in mind, follow this one.
- Business name - Either in the beginning of the message or as a sender ID. The customer should be clearly aware of the company reaching out to them.
- Customer name: Personalising the text message is more impactful. The customer gets a feel of being provided customised offers.
- Offer: Details about the product, the discount, coupon etc. The offer should be stated in clear terms and presented in a way that makes the customer feel special. For eg: ‘An exclusive deal for you’ or ‘Additional 25% discount just for you’
- Instructions: How to redeem the offer, validity of the offer, procedure to be followed. Keep it simple.
- Opt-out: To avoid any legal penalties and for the convenience of the customer, always provide an opt-out button for halting the SMS notifications.
Right timing: What if Jack Dowson had not held Rose while she was out committing suicide? The story of titanic would have been different! Sorry for the movie-made example but no better way to convince you that timing matters a lot. An extra 50% discount will be irritating for me if I get the offer in middle of my sleep. Testing out uncommon times can prove to be beneficial too as it would offer less competition. Before running the entire campaign you can try A/B testing by shooting out some texts and judging which time as the best response rate.
Links to other social media: This is an additional tip to boost your other social media channels as SMS have outstanding opening and click through rate. You can direct the traffic to your website, social media page or any landing page.

Marketing through text messaging is much more simple, personal and convenient than any other complicated form of marketing. Moreover, the above-mentioned stats have suggested SMS marketing is here to stay and its impact is only getting stronger. Not only small businesses but even large businesses, who have multiple other expensive methods of advertising available, are accepting and considering the power of SMS marketing at different levels in their campaign to drive ROI.