advantages of sms text marketing

The world of digital marketing has evolved drastically over the course of the last decade. There are now more ways than ever to reach potential customers. But to be honest, some methods are drastically more effective than others.

Believe it or not, mobile marketing has actually risen to become one of the most efficient forms of advertising out there. By capitalizing upon the global populations increasing smartphone addiction, brands are already using mobile messaging to engage would-be super fans in loads of new and innovative ways.

But the benefits of short message service (SMS) text marketing stretch far beyond the obvious. Below are some of the amazing results received when you text customers through an SMS marketing campaign.

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Benefits of SMS Text Marketing

Extended Reach

When it comes to expanding your brand’s potential reach, nothing beats SMS. According to Mobile Marketing Watch, there are currently almost seven billion active mobile subscriptions across the globe. Compare that to just 2.5 billion email users, and SMS marketing undeniably trumps the more traditional method of email marketing.

In addition to gaining an incredible reach, engaging consumers by text is also more likely to generate leads. Approximately 98 percent of texts are opened, and 90 percent are read within three minutes. It’s not hard to see why. Researchers at IDC and Facebook reckon eight out of ten (PDF) 18 to 44 year olds have their phone with them 22 hours out of 24 each day.

Bearing that in mind, mobile SMS marketing is most likely the single easiest way to reach your target audience – no matter what industry you’re operating in.

Higher Response Rates

SMS marketing tends to generate a far higher response rate. Last month, your average, run-of-the-mill retail business saw an email click-through rate of just three percent.

So while traditional print and email response rates are floundering, SMS marketing is flying high.

According to researchers at eMarketer, would-be consumers are ten times more likely to redeem a brand offer made via mobile versus a traditional print coupon. The number of mobile coupon users has more than tripled in recent years, with roughly 54 million consumers responding to SMS offers every year.

Increased Customer Retention and Repeat Sales

When it comes to mobile marketing, the proof is in the numbers. After all, engaging with your current consumer base and transforming them into brand super fans will undeniably increase revenues. According to the Pareto principle, roughly 80 percent of the output from any scenario stems from just 20 percent of the input.

Translation: 80 percent of your profits will inherently come from just 20 percent of your customers.

So how does that apply to SMS marketing? Simple. By working to engage a small, core group of consumers, you can leverage their loyalty in order to generate reliable, repeat customers – and sales.

Time Savings

Unlike more traditional marketing methods, SMS marketing takes just a few minutes, and the process can be 100 percent automated. By planning ahead and utilizing a talented marketing firm, customers opting into your campaign using short code can receive instant replies in order to maximize engagement.

Consequently, small business owners can spend less time fretting over advertising and more time focusing on the day-to-day running of their companies.

Cost Effectiveness and Increased Savings

Not only are SMS marketing messages far more likely to get picked up, they’re also more cost effective.

For as little as $1, marketing experts like TXT180 can issue 500 optimized messages to your company’s built-in community of followers. Not only is that roughly the same price you’d need to cough up for a standard email campaign. But your odds of success are going to drastically increase.

Mobile SMS marketing messages generate up to four times the open rate of typical email marketing and ten times the response rate. That means long-term savings and a far greater ROI (return on investment) for each of your respective SMS marketing campaigns.

Highly Targeted, Trackable Campaigns

By taking on a mobile SMS marketing campaign, you’ll also gain access to a world of useful targeting mechanisms and invaluable analytic tools.

So long as you’ve already got access to customer insight and buying habits, SMS text marketing enables you to create a targeted group of consumers based upon their past purchasing behaviors or demographic segments. By organizing these distinct groups, you’re then free to issue extremely relevant SMS marketing messages that are specific to their interests to individuals.

Any standard Point of Sale system can then go on to track mobile coupon and offer redemption. Likewise, built-in analytics will be able to track click-through rates on smartphones and subsequent user journeys. That means it is terrifically simple to gauge the success of each and every text issued.

Increased Urgency Equals Same-Day Traffic

Because a vast majority of mobile users will receive branded texts while they’re on the go, SMS marketing is ideal for pulling would-be customers into a sale by way of creating a genuine sense of urgency.

These SMS marketing messages are capable of generating a huge amount of footfall and same day traffic by issuing a time or date-specific call to action. Because nine out of ten text messages are opened within three minutes, users won’t be in a position to cast your offer to the back of their minds.

The Ability to Leverage Your Other Advertising Efforts

Unlike more traditional means of advertising, it’s frightfully simple to integrate mobile SMS marketing into your company’s overall marketing mix.

By advertising your opt-in SMS campaign on existing social media pages, storefronts and website, you’ll be able to maximize the potential reach of your campaign. You can even leverage your email audience in order to generate higher numbers for your mobile marketing campaigns.

According to researchers at Responsys, 43 percent of customers are more likely to make a purchase when a mobile offer has been presented as part of a multi-channel campaign. Pressing users to engage with your campaign on multiple platforms will not only enhance their sense of brand loyalty, but will also create new opportunities to generate sales.

Increased Sales Through Marketing to an Already Interested Audience

With email, it’s difficult to tell when and where you’re supplying would-be customers with engaging content that legitimately applies to them. Instead, many times you’re essentially cold-calling any and every former customer in a desperate bid to produce results. With SMS marketing, you can be a bit more specific.

Approximately 70 percent of US consumers say they want to receive applicable SMS marketing offers from brands they’re interested in. That’s why campaign specific opt-ins deliver you an army of users that have already expressed an interest in your goods or services.

Increased Brand Loyalty

Brand promotions specific to SMS marketing are also a fantastic way to inject a sense of exclusivity into your campaigns. Granting customers the option to opt-in to your mobile marketing audience makes them feel special. According to experts at Zoomerang, 90 percent of consumers who have joined an SMS marketing campaign feel they’ve gained value from it.

In response, you’ve got to take it upon yourself to deliver your customers special offers that merit this feeling of exclusivity. Treat your base of super fans like VIPs, and you’ll generate a sense of brand loyalty that money simply cannot buy.

The above results are by no means exhaustive. If executed properly, SMS text marketing has the potential to drastically increase your strength as a brand. Mobile marketing helps you reach more consumers, track down more leads and consolidate your marketing efforts in order to generate far greater returns. It’s a proverbial triple-win for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

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