Currently, there are 5.34 billion unique mobile users around the globe, according to GSMA Intelligence. So, it is no shock that SMS is becoming a highly crucial part of multi-channel marketing.
Also, it isn’t surprising that the conversion rate for SMS is much higher than other marketing channels. According to Smart Texting:
From a variety of sources, we can see the average SMS marketing conversion rate is 29%. In terms of the average increase in conversion rates attributed to text message marketing, it’s 156%.
That’s why we decided to write this blog and show you everything you need to know about SMS marketing. So let us start first by explaining SMS marketing:
What Is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing involves sending messages to qualified leads and customers who have opted in, like text campaigns, promotions, sales, coupons, reminders, updates, and other business-related information.
Why Is SMS Marketing Important to Grow Your Business?
There are many reasons why you should use SMS marketing, and it is crucial to scale your business. Here are some of them:
Personalized SMS messages build customer loyalty
Sending random content about your business, thinking this will increase leads’ curiosity about your brand and convert them, is highly unlikely!
The point behind sending out personalized SMS messages is to customize your SMS campaigns according to your customers’ needs and past buying behaviors.
This will not only help increase their interest in your brand and convert them, but it will also build a loyal base of customers who keep coming back.
Easy to track
When you’re sending a marketing campaign of any kind, the most important thing is to be able to track its performance as soon as possible.
And the best thing about SMS marketing is the ability to track down the immediate response of the subscriber through Click Through Rate (CTR). CTR is the percentage of people who clicked on the provided link in the text message and navigated to the destined link.
Accordingly, CTR helps in tracking down the ROAS of the campaign easily.
Build your database through the opt-in option
Increasing the number of your customers is a fantastic addition to your business, but it doesn’t guarantee building you a loyal customer database. Hence, the main keyword here is “loyal.”
That’s why the opt-in option in SMS is a feature that distinguishes SMS from other marketing channels. When users are opt-in, they are giving you permission to send them text messages because they are interested in your brand and willing to buy from you but still need a little push.
A real-time saver
Unlike other marketing tools, SMS is the fastest because people have access to their mobile phones 24/7, which makes it a time saver. As a result, you can reach as many people as you want, simultaneously in real-time and anywhere worldwide.
3 SMS Marketing Best Practices
Because not every marketer has experience in the art of SMS marketing, we have gathered some of the best tips and tricks to help guide you through it:
Send automated drip campaigns
Using SMS to send automated drip campaigns is the perfect way to build your relationship with qualified leads and maintain it.
Drip campaigns are a set of pre-built or already written templates to send your subscribers on various occasions, such as:
- Welcoming them at the beginning after they opt-in.
- Cart abandonment.
- Flash sales during holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, summer holidays, etc., or events like back to school, and so on.
Use SMS keywords
SMS keywords help users subscribe to an SMS campaign to know particular event updates, enter a contest/giveaway, receive a product coupon, etc.
You just ask them to send a certain word to a specific mobile number; voilà, they are subscribers.
SMS keywords are an efficient way to get more subscribers.
Use it to send reminders & confirmations
SMS marketing is the best alternative to sending short messages that contain reminders or confirmations that could easily get lost in the email.
For example, you can send:
- A reminder that a customer billing time is soon or now.
- A confirmation message that a customer successfully subscribed to your service.
- A reminder that a customer still didn’t check out the items in their cart.
3 SMS Campaigns Success Metrics
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
As previously mentioned before in the blog:
CTR is the percentage of people who clicked on the provided link in your SMS and navigated to the destined link. The average rate of CTR for SMS campaigns is close to 19%.
Here is how you can calculate it:
CTR = Number of unique sessions/Total number of SMS sent
Opt-Out Rate
As frustrating as it is to see customers opting out or unsubscribing from your SMS service, it is crucial to monitor their percentage constantly.
Here is how you can calculate it:
Opt-out rate = number of unsubscribed users from the SMS campaign/total number of subscribers
Cost Per Conversion
If your SMS is directing users to a landing page that requires them to fill out a form or where they can directly buy the product through it, then you need to calculate the cost per conversion rate.
Here is how you can calculate it:
Cost per conversion = total cost of your SMS campaign/number of conversions
Use SMS Automation for a Hassle-Free Experience
As much as all of the previously mentioned information can help you tremendously, it will require some time and effort from your side, while you can save this time for other urgent business matters.
That’s why you need an SMS marketing tool or a marketing operating system like Convertedin, which consists of many tools like SMS, email, and ads automation. Also, it has a robust product recommendations engine.
Going back to the Convertedin SMS automation tool, it will help you to launch personalized SMS campaigns, improve user experience with its pre-built SMS campaigns, retain customers, and track the performance of SMS campaigns.
This will help you maximize your ROAS, acquire new customers, keep old ones coming back, and skyrocket your business.
Wrapping Things Up
As we just mentioned, SMS marketing is a vital tool that every business needs to have. But SMS automation is even better, leaving the heavy work to a trusted tool and getting better results.
