Sms Marketing: Why is it useful?

Date 10/06/2021
Category Marketing Automation

Communication channels and devices we use to access information keep evolving more and more each day and, in order to reach their target audience, brands must think of new multichannel strategies.

Understanding the behaviour and the stage our customers find themselves at is crucial, that way we can create fully custom journeys and combine the more adequate channels for each one.

Direct communication with our customers through SMS

SMS is one of the most effective channels within an omnichannel Marketing Automation strategy. It is a straightforward channel; it is of great value if we combine it with other communication flows such as email marketing, social media or website notifications.

Depending on the business model, some of the best SMS marketing strategies include express advertising campaigns, date reminders or post-service review inquiries.

How to start an SMS Marketing strategy step by step.

    1. Define the objectives

First, before sending anything, we need to determine what we want to achieve. This will help us during the decision-making process, that way we will get the best results. For example, we need to define how to:

  • Increase website/blog traffic.
  • Increase sales.
  • Obtain good reviews/ratings.
  • Generate leads.
  • Avoid the lack of service bookings.

     2. Establish the strategy

How are we going to achieve our target goal? We have to be very creative and know our customers very well. The strategy will be more efficient the more we get to know our customers. The aforementioned objectives can be achieved using strategies such as:

  • Creating valuable content.
  • Campaigns and promotions.
  • Post Sale Reviews.
  • Draws & contests.
  • Date reminders.

    3. Pick the technology

This is one of the most important points, and there are many determining factors that help choose the platform with which we will be able to collect all the data and integrate it with other tools (CMS, ERP, CRM, Marketing Automation):

  • Learning curve.
  • Price/SMS
  • Customization and segmentation ability.
  • Integration with other platforms.
  • Analytic ability and creation of reports.

    4. Take care of your database

The performance of the campaigns is directly related to the quality of the database. Not only do we need consent from our contacts, we must focus on contacting those that are actually interested in our brand and receiving our communications.

Segmentation and customization of contents will help increase our CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), key indicator to measure our strategy’s success.

We must pay very close attention to data storage. Making sure the phone numbers are correct is of great importance, as well as taking into account the different country codes if we have international contacts. 

 5. Find the right time to send the campaign

This is one of the most complicated tasks. We need to know the process in which the users find themselves and their relationship to the brand.

Furthermore, we must find the right timing to send the campaigns. Some hours work better than others, and we might have issues due to timing different per country (It might be early morning in some countries!)

For example, a Saturday at 8PM, you are thinking about dinner and, all of a sudden, you receive a discount code for your favourite pizza place, that might just be the “right time”.

6. Clear and eye-catching messages

SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, so they must be direct and brief. The message must be customized and adapted to the contacts so that they feel like they are being treated individually, and it is important to use messages such as “only this weekend” or “for the next 24 hours”. We must use appropriate language and expressions consistent with our audience. 

 7. Combine different channels

Creating fully custom customer journeys making use of different channels that complement each other to generate memorable user experiences adapted to the communicative intent of each moment.

8. Analyse and optimize.

To improve the final conversion, like in any other marketing strategy, it is important to analyse and optimize constantly. In this case, the main KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are:

  • Deliverability: Number of SMS that reach the recipient.
  • Openings: Number of contacts that open the SMS.
  • Clicks: Number of contacts that click on a link.
  • Conversion Rates: Number of contacts that reach the objective (purchase, lead, review…)
  • Bounce Rate: Number of bounced SMS (wrong number, rejected by the server…)
  • Churn Rate: SMS unsubscribe rate.

These steps will help you to start your SMS Marketing strategy and implement a solution to your sales channels that will allow you to reach any smartphone or mobile phone user, including customers with very different profiles, which makes it of great value for many different services and products. Do you have any question about how to start the project? Are you looking for some to lead the project? Contact us and we will help you create the perfect plan.

Authors

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Joaquin Buenacasa

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