impact of sms marketing for your business in the year 2017

SMS Marketing is one of our most favorite tools.In fact, 91% of all adults have their mobile phone within arm’s reach every hour of every day!

Consumers today are more mobile than they ever were and history has showed us that ignoring the power of mobile will hold you and your business back. In 2017, they’ve predicted that more than 4.77 billion people will have a mobile phone (that’s 2/3 of the world’s population!).

But use with caution: SMS Marketing is heavily regulated and you’ll find yourself in hot water if you abuse the privilege of having a customer’s personal cell number. So, if you’re looking to reap the benefits of adding another (largely under-utilized) channel to your marketing campaigns read on for all the Best Practices for SMS Marketing in 2017.

High Value

Text messages are reserved for your customer’s most inner circle, make it worthwhile for them to include you. We like to use SMS Marketing to increase the attendance rates on our webinars. What we never use it for is to send SMS blasts with information and offers that they can find on our site/social media or in our emails.

Dynamically Send, Receive & Enhance Text Message Campaigns.

While you may not realize it, sending a subscriber an irrelevant or unwanted message can feel like a encroachment into their personal space. If you plan to use SMS marketing in your campaigns, make the effort of understanding exactly who your subscribers are and what they expect from your texts.

Offer Incentives to Sign-Up

SMS Marketing is permission-based and the user has to opt-in before sending messages. This is why you should use exclusive offers that will create a sense of exclusivity and get people to sign up for your texts.

Tempt your customers with coupons and deals available only to SMS-subscribers. Programs like this will make your subscribers feel like they’re part of an exclusive community or club.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency in your SMS texts to subscribers so you can yield better results or gain information as quickly as possible. For example, a simple expiration date encourages your subscribers to respond or act faster.

Use a Numeric Vanity Short Code

A numeric vanity short code is an easy-to-remember number such as, 44444 or 12121, that will be the ‘phone number’ for your SMS marketing campaign. You can create a specific number picked by you that will be easy for your customers to remember.

Short, logical keywords get used quickly, but a great numeric vanity short code also assures those opting-in that your SMS marketing program is trustworthy and committed.

Personalized Texts

Since SMS is much more personal than email or direct mail, personalizing your texts to subscribers will get their attention. Customers respond better to material addressed directly to them so insert their name whenever you can. Target them further with more relevant texts based on their preferences.
Conclusion

Ad spend on mobile was expected to reach $100 billion in 2016! But it’s the mobile advertising on websites and apps that tend to get most of the attention from marketers. Now that we know the best practices and the favorable rates of SMS messages, 2017 is the year to make room in your ad spend and start integrating SMS marketing into your campaigns!

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