Believing these 4 SMS marketing myths will cost you money

Misconceptions, untruths, myths and misunderstandings. Believing them can lead you to make bad business decisions. Here are 4 myths about SMS Text Messaging that you should ignore.

1. Text messages are a dying communication medium

It’s true that text messaging between friends and family is falling out of favour due to internet messaging apps. But it still has huge potential for businesses to send SMS marketing messages.

The average person receives 1,216 emails per month, compared to only 178 text messages (Tatango). This means they won’t forget or lose your marketing message in the middle of an avalanche of emails, and spam filters won’t eat it. This will be further noticeable as personal messaging shifts towards internet messaging apps. The path will be clear for SMS to remain a powerful tool for business marketing for a good few years to come.

2. People don’t want SMS messages from businesses

Hipcricket discovered 57% of consumers would opt into SMS marketing from their favourite brands. Additionally, 90% of those who received loyalty discounts and bonuses by SMS felt they were good value.

In other words, send them occasional deals and discounts for being a good customer, because they don’t mind at all. But it’s worth pointing out one caveat. Good value doesn’t just come from deals and discounts, but also from good customer service.

Don’t bombard them with deals and discounts, look at incorporating SMS as part of better customer service. This could be account alerts, or 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) for more secure logins. People are more likely to part with their personal mobile number if the reason isn’t just for marketing purposes. But remember not to opt them into text message marketing without their permission.

3. They won’t read them, it’s just a bland text message

You might think that SMS marketing isn’t engaging due to the lack of fancy layouts and images. It might come as a surprise to hear that SMS produces engagement rates of 6 to 8 times higher than email, according to Cellit.

Another study (Frost & Sullivan 2010, Slick Text) found that people read 98% of text messages. This is a much higher rate than its nearest rivals: 29% of tweets, 22% of emails, or the 12% of Facebook posts.

This means a customer is more likely to read an SMS than email and social media campaigns COMBINED.

4. Okay, they might read them, but they won’t engage with them

The average click through rate (CTR) of URLs included in SMS messages is 19%. Compare to this emails, with just a 4.2% CTR (TextBoard and Mailchimp).

In other words, they won’t just open your text message and read it, they’re also far more likely to respond to your call to action.

In conclusion

The numbers add up in your favour. You’re likely to get just 1 response for every 100 email offer you send out, but the figure rises to almost 20 with an offer sent by text message. It’s time to embrace SMS text messages as part of your marketing campaigns.

This article is written by Andrew Johns on behalf of Reach Data, a mobile messaging service provider. Bulk SMS services including a web-based interface for sending SMS marketing and an SMS API for developing integrated solutions with your CRM or any other system.

Photo provided by https://www.flickr.com/photos/68453216@N03/