What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing (or text marketing) is a way of using your existing cell or mobile phone databases to communicate your marketing messages.
Should I be using SMS marketing?
The goal of your marketing is to drive customers. SMS does this better than any other channel. No channel is more urgent and intimate than SMS. Think of what happens when you receive an SMS or text message. You receive an alert and almost instantly start looking at the content. As it turns out, you’re not alone. Almost a third of Millennials worldwide check their phone screens every 5 minutes. What’s more amazing is they do this without hearing SMS or text alerts. 97% of smartphone users text their contacts at least once every week. Knowing the level of engagement, why wouldn’t you use SMS marketing.
Reaching your customer where they live
Your customers spend on average 4 hours each day on their smartphones. Most people are never more than a few feet from their smartphones, so it makes perfect sense that this is where your marketing should be.
Email vs. SMS or Text marketing
Email is considered to be the most effective form of marketing; however, SMS can boast even higher performance.
Email marketing has an average open rate of 22%. SMS marketing has an average open rate of 97%.
Email marketing has an average Click Through Rate (CTR) of 6%. SMS marketing has an average CTR of 36%.
The average marketing email is opened in under 90 minutes. The average SMS message is opened in under 5 minutes.
(Now you can’t stop thinking about SMS marketing.)
Getting personal with SMS marketing
There are two proven ways of increasing the success of marketing.
The first is targeting. Making sure that you segment your cell or mobile phone database to target specific messages to specific target audiences. You might target based on location, gender, age, previous purchase activity or any other segment in your target audience. The most important thing to remember is to match your message with your target audience segment.
The second way to improve the success of your marketing is to personalize your messages with the recipient’s name. If you have this information in your database, you’re well on your way to create your first SMS marketing campaign.
Next steps
You have your cell or mobile database. You probably also have a matching database of email addresses. Now you’re ready to trial your first SMS marketing campaign on XL.Today™.
Sign up for a trial on XL.Today™ and you can trial your first SMS marketing campaign. You can also experiment with email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and get a feel for an entirely new way of marketing your business. Bring everything together onto a single professional marketing platform that empowers you to become a better marketer, from your very first campaign. Try it now.
