The Working of SMS Marketing and its Various Applications

Unlike the general text messages, we get from full digit phone numbers, SMS marketing texts are sent from some short codes, usually 5 digital numbers. Nowadays, these could be associated with a sender or a group of senders, which may sometimes be displayed as the sender ID. However, many countries including the US with specific rules for SMS marketing don’t allow marketers to alter the sender information. This means the messages will show the same short code for the providers instead of the business. So, it becomes essential to include your company or product name too in the message body.

The two major types of messages you can send through SMS marketing are:

#1. Campaigns: These are the typical one-to-many type of bulk messaging used for general information sharing. Such messages help to communicate any promotions like seasonal sales or coupons etc. or some event details, weather updates, fundraising text, etc.

#2. Transactional: This is more of a kind of individual messaging which are triggered based on some favorable behavior by a prospect. An example may be confirmation of shipping, purchase details, or reminder of a pending item in the cart. These messages are meant to share timely information with the customer.

Various applications of SMS marketing

As we know, typical text messaging can be used for various purposes in multiple ways. Here, we will discuss some of the most popular uses cases for you to explore it is applicable to your business needs.

• E-com business promotions

Coupon codes and sales promotions are inevitable in terms of e-commerce to drive in more customers into your store and make them purchase goods from you. If you want to share a limited‑time offer or a clearance sale and want maximum people to hear about it, then SMS marketing can be an ideal option.

Compared to other modes of instant information sharing, SMS is found to be a great channel for communication to share short-term offers, especially when you want to reach to the customers when they are on the move. With SMS, you can make sure that they don’t miss out the information as people tend to read almost all SMS, they receive on opting in for promo texts.

• Even updates and order tracking

There are a lot of steps when it comes to conduction of events. More people you want to invite for the event, more challenging it becomes to stay in touch with and share the necessary updates. However, this task can be much easier with SMS, through which you can quickly and effectively communicate schedules, changes, cancellations, and updates by ensuring instant engagement compared to other channels like email or social media feeds.

• Reminders

If you run an appointment-based business like a doctor’s office or consulting service, then it may be a waste of time and money once if your customers forget their appointments or show up late for it. This may; however, happen very frequently even if you have given multiple reminders.

Sending reminder e-mails may also tend to fail as people don’t open their mailbox that frequently. However, text messaging can be highly effective in case of appointment reminder as people tend to open the text message spontaneously as they hear the notification tone on their smartphones. It is also possible to send a real-time message, say half an hour prior to the appointment or so, to avoid any possibility of missing it out.

• Sending internal alerts

If you own a business with a huge employee base spread across different locations, then it may be difficult to communicate with them in case of sharing any urgent, important messages. It may be an emergency or office closure but may take time to be distributed through any general mode of communications. However, SimpleTexting SMS can be effectively used to reach to all at once, and it is also guaranteed that 98% of them tend to open and read the message instantly and respond to it.

• Supplementing other marketing campaigns

Apart from the above individual use of SMS marketing, it can also be a supportive addition to the other digital marketing campaigns for any business. Alongside to serving the purpose of instant information sharing, they can also lead the prospects into further channels like an email or social media marketing page to gather more details and get engaged with the offer.

Considering the above facts, there are many industries which cannot survive without SMS marketing:

• E-com stores: As seen above, from campaigns to order confirmation or shipping updates, SMS is a crucial tool for e-com portals.

• Travel and tourism: SMS alerts are essential for travel operators to share real-time information with their customers. Things like flight times, cancellations, gate changes, weather updates, etc. needed to be updated from time to time as well as on the go. SMS can inform the customers what they exactly need to know on time.

• Service sector businesses:  As discussed, SMS messages play vital in not letting your client forget about an appointment. It is also beneficial to send SMS for service updates like the garage pickup and drop of your vehicle for a repair etc.

• Big organizations: Internal communication is most effectively done through group SMS in bigger companies. Instant and updated info sharing can be most effectively done using SMS, which reaches almost instantaneously to all and guaranteed to get open. SMS is the best way to ensure all the employees get the update at the right time to act accordingly.

Now, as you have a fair understanding of the effectiveness and applications of SMS marketing, some quick benefits of SMS marketing also include:

• Reliable delivery – All those who opted in will surely get the communication.

• Directly to the customer – Like phone calls, SMS too is an instant personal communication mode.

• High engagement – Studies have shown that almost all those who receive an SMS open and read it spontaneously.

• Complimenting to other marketing strategies – SMS text messages can be effectively used to divert the recipients to an email or a landing page.

Many dedicated digital marketing service providers are offering specialized SMS marketing services for businesses to reap the best benefits of it.