The Power of SMS Marketing: Why Text Messages Are a Game-Changer

Your average American checks their phone 80 times a day and looks at their screen 300 times a day, according to a new study. If that’s where your customers are paying attention, that’s where you need to target them. Sending consumers an SMS advertisement means you have a 98% chance of them opening your message so yes, it is worth it.

What’s so great about SMS marketing anyway? Well, there’s very little competition through that medium. We all get served ads through email, on social media, and everywhere else around us. SMS is the platform with the least amount served with the greatest open rate. Research has shown only 21% of brands and businesses are taking advantage of this strategy. With 65% of the world’s population being connected with a mobile device, using SMS marketing is a fool-proof way to reach a very wide audience.

SMS marketing is a sure way to put immediacy into your strategy. 90% of SMS messages through marketing are opened within 3 minutes. This is great when getting out last-minute deals and keeping up with timely events. It’s also a great way to integrate other channels. Since you’re getting such a great open rate, why not drive them to another outlet, like your social media or website. This way you’re keeping them around longer so they’re grabbing more information about your brand.

When done right, targeting the correct audience, your SMS marketing strategy will have a huge ROI. Not only is it a cheaper service to have done, but it’s extremely effective when you’re sending out relevant information to your customers. According to Rebixit, “… the British motor racing circuit Silverstone sent a text message to 45,000 people in their database, inviting them to buy tickets for an upcoming Formula 1 race. Just this single message resulted in 680% ROI.” The reason for this was their timeliness and relevance to the audience.

Using this strategy can also help you learn a lot about your customers. With sending out a promotion or content on multiple platforms, you’re able to track which types of customers interact with each platform. That information comes in handy later on when you begin different promotions so you can send them through each platform to targeted audiences. SMS marketing is highly trackable, thus giving you more insight into what works.

Giving your customers the opportunity to opt-in to a service like this will let you know it’s something you’re interested in. It also helps them see deals quicker and easier because they won’t have to search through their email or go to an app to pull it up. It’s equally important to give them an option to opt-out of your SMS promotions as well. This way you aren’t spamming them constantly if it’s something they decide they don’t want. That keeps you from getting a negative connotation from them.

Whatever it is you’d like to promote through SMS marketing, just know this strategy is extremely flexible. Your message is customizable so the possibilities are really endless. It’s important to stand out in today’s marketing world – SMS is a great way to do that.