Top Reasons Why SMS Marketing is Still Important in the Smartphone Era

Text messaging remains a highly personal, cost-effective, and reliable method of engaging with your customers

Many mistakenly believe that the popularity of smart devices, especially smartphones, means that SMS marketing is on the way out. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even with all the latest digital marketing trends, SMS continues to be an important part of every marketing strategy for a number of reasons. Let’s delve a little deeper into why you should keep — and even increase — the role SMS plays in your marketing strategy.

SMS can go hand-in-hand with online marketing

You can actually use SMS to drive traffic to your website or social media profiles. And, in turn, you can use digital strategies to gather leads for your SMS campaigns. One example of this is to have an online competition which requires entrants to give their mobile phone number and opt-in to receive SMS communication. You can then send them an SMS if they win the competition or even a consolation prize of a discount code if they don’t win first prize.

SMS messages don’t require an internet connection

This is a big drawcard when it comes to SMS marketing. Sometimes, people simply don’t have data to receive emails or WhatsApp messaging. And when they arrive in a Wi-Fi zone, they’ll likely have many, many messages to go through. In that case… let’s be honest, they’re not going to want to read through your marketing communication when they could be replying to an urgent work email or a WhatsApp message from their crush.

When you use SMS, you can be sure that people will receive your message, even if they’ve run out of data or are in a place where they can’t get enough signal to fuel their internet coverage.

And if they have their phone on them and they can’t access the internet, they’ll probably be even more interested in reading your message.

It’s easy to personalize content with SMS marketing

With SMS, you can send text messaging communication which is personalized with the name of the person you are communicating with. You can hook them in by using their name right in the beginning and even bring up a product you know they’ve bought frequently.

Of course, you need to carefully walk the line and ensure that you’re being helpful and thoughtful and not accidentally creepy. For example, depending on their purchase, don’t send communication to a customer straight afterwards, letting them know that you know what they just bought. They don’t need confirmation of the lunch they’ve just enjoyed. And they certainly don’t need to be reminded that you have their home address when it wasn’t necessary for delivery. That’s likely going to leave them feeling uncomfortable and it adds no value to you as they’ve already, just moments before, made a purchase. The exception is to keep customers informed throughout the purchase process, from ordering to delivery, of bigger ticket items. See the following example:

SMS marketing messages are less likely to be lost in the digital ether

Every day, it seems like there’s a new digital marketing trend. But within a few days, it’s likely that the target audience has become used to that particular method of marketing and has adapted their online habits to tune out the digital advertising noise. Think about how often you pay attention to the remarketing that arrives on your social media feed or pretty after you’ve visited any website. In fact, you probably have an effective ad blocker which ensures you don’t have to, for the 400th time, see the pair of sneakers you bought last week.

SMS marketing messages go straight to a person’s mobile phone without having to get their attention while they’re browsing through possible festive season gifts online. The text message can then be opened and read when they have the time.

They’ll likely read through the text and respond within a few minutes if it’s a two-way SMS. People look at their phones at regular intervals, respond to that beeping noise with excitement, and keep an eye out for that blinking light, even if their phone is on silent.

Immediate results which you can track

The data you receive through SMS marketing is becoming more and more valuable these days. While the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) may seem like it limits direct marketing efforts, it can actually prove valuable to SMS marketers if it’s used to your advantage. You see, GDPR ensures that the people who receive your SMS messages are the people who actually value the information. This is helpful for you in that your data reflects quality leads instead of simply the quantity of possible leads.

Once you’ve sent out an SMS campaign, you can track the results, especially if you’re using discount codes or two-way text messages. If you offer discount codes, you can see real-world results when people go into your store, use your app or make a transaction online using that specific code. And with two-way SMS, you can tell when people are interacting with your brand through text replies using a specific keyword. This gives you immediate results which you can track and you can use that information to either know that your SMS campaign is going in the right direction, or how you can improve your communication tactics in the future.

SMS marketing is affordable

Another aspect you need to keep in mind is that SMS marketing campaigns and the sending of bulk SMS messages are more affordable than other campaigns based on digital marketing trends. For starters, you don’t need to come up with a brand new campaign to use a medium which has yet to be proven to be effective. Instead, you can adjust and improve on an existing strategy.

There is no need to hire a team to explore new mediums or digital marketing strategies. You already understand SMS marketing and it has proven time and time again to be a method worth investing in.

And when you use SMS, there is already so much information out there on proven tactics which can help you in your endeavors. For example, here is an article on the top SMS marketing tips and tactics that you can start putting to work for your business.

SMS marketing continues not only to endure but actually increase in relevancy as mobile technologies evolve. It’s both an excellent standalone marketing channel and one which can perfectly supplement your campaigns across other digital platforms.

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