SMS marketing has become a dominant marketing channel marketers use worldwide. The reasons for this are plausible. 60% of people read their text messages within 5 minutes of receiving the SMS. This means that a compelling message will get a reaction in minutes. SMS marketing for small businesses is cheaper, with a read rate of up to 42%, which is higher than emails (32%). SMS does not need the internet to work like emails, which makes it a convenient way to send customers One-Time Passwords for 2FA Two-Factor Authentication.
All these benefits make SMS a nifty tool for any marketer or business owner to carry out marketing campaigns. SMS campaigns refer to coordinated efforts by enterprises towards achieving business objectives such as promotional sales, getting subscribers, and re-engaging with old customers using text messages.
This article explains some of these SMS marketing campaigns and tips for launching effective campaigns using different SMS types.\
Main Types of SMS Marketing Campaigns
As a marketer or business owner looking to launch a marketing campaign, you should know that there are several SMS campaign types. Let’s unpack some for better understanding.
Promotional Campaigns
These campaigns offer subscribers discounts, promotions, or exclusive deals to drive sales or boost customer loyalty. Promotional text messages are meant to inform your target audience of new products, restocking old products, and new initiatives or programs of the brand. A good Promotional or sales SMS copy should contain product details and a CTA tag to create a sense of urgency in the customer.
Welcome Campaigns
These campaigns introduce new subscribers to your brand and provide them with valuable information about your products or services. Welcome SMS is a great way to build your customer database. You can add an opt-in option for customers to subscribe to your newsletter or to receive promotional messages from your brand.
For a more effective welcome campaign, include in the messages the following: a subject title, a call-to-action tag, a request to be added to your subscriber list, and links to your website for more information.
Survey Campaigns
These campaigns allow businesses to gather customer feedback and gain insights into their preferences and behaviors. Survey campaigns also give you an idea of how your product compares to your competitors regarding user experience.
Stats from PWC show that 73% of customers are loyal to brands with great customer experience. As you know, brand loyalty drives higher revenues from repeat purchases. A good example of an SMS survey campaign is asking customers to participate in SMS votes to rate products or your service. Use 2-way SMS to make them easily respond to the survey messages. The results will tell you what your customers think and need from your brand.
Reminder Campaigns
These SMS types remind customers about appointments, deadlines, or upcoming events. Phone Calls may go unanswered or declined by customers. However, SMS reminder messages allow customers to respond at their convenience.
If you run a booking agency or e-commerce business, you should use SMS notifications to notify customers of successful orders or their subscription renewal. Reminder campaigns prevent no-shows for appointments, and it is a more convenient way for customers to take action on the content of the SMS scheduling message.
SMS Coupons
SMS coupons are a popular promotional campaign that offers subscribers a discount or a special offer via SMS. These campaigns can be highly effective in driving sales and promoting brand loyalty, as customers are incentivized to take advantage of the limited-time offer.
A text message containing “x% off” or “Buy One Get One Free” grabs customers’ attention and makes them purchase from the messages. In the SMS Coupon, you only need to create a combination of numbers and letters for the customer to input on checkout or show to a cashier to redeem the reward. This way, customers can buy more items than originally intended, generating more revenue for your business.
Loyalty programs
Loyalty programs are designed to reward loyal customers for repeat business. SMS can be a highly effective channel for delivering loyalty program rewards, as subscribers can quickly and easily redeem their rewards via SMS without needing physical coupons or cards. You can reward customers for reaching milestones, the number of successful purchases, or the duration of their relationship with your brand.
Existing customers usually buy more and are willing to pay more for brand products. 7 out of 10 Americans stick to a brand based on loyalty programs from such brands. Therefore, a loyalty program helps retain these customers, which is cheaper than wooing new customers.
Abandoned Cart Campaigns
These campaigns are triggered when a customer adds products to their cart but does not complete the purchase and aims to recover the lost sale by sending targeted offers or incentives.
Statistics show that about 80% of customers, on average, abandoned their shopping carts leading to less revenues for e-commerce companies. Imagine an e-commerce store having that number of customers failing to complete their purchases.
In that regard, starting an abandoned cart campaign becomes critical. It may help drive revenue by making these huge numbers of customers check out their carts. One way to be successful here is to offer incentives such as free delivery or discounts for completing their orders in the marketing SMS.
Seasonal Campaigns
These campaigns are designed to coincide with specific holidays or events, such as Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, or Back-to-School season. Seasonal campaigns appeal to seasonal excitement and leverage customers’ willingness to buy products in certain seasons.
In the fourth quarter of the year, most e-commerce companies make the most sales due to holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Boxing days. You must prepare for the surge in sales during this period by using SMS targeting to tell customers of discounts and offers on their favorite products.
Re-engagement Campaigns
These campaigns target inactive subscribers and aim to bring them back into the fold by offering incentives or personalized text messages. Re-engagement campaigns are critical tools to win back lost customers.
Sending a “we missed you” SMS to customers tells them that you care about them and they are important to the success of your brand. Their response will tell you which are still interested in your brand. Customers are usually bombarded with messages from different brands. To get a jump on the competition, run a win-back campaign to remind them of why they chose your brand in the first place.
Personalized Text Messages
Personalized SMS campaigns enable you to send text messages that change based on each contact’s name, purchase history, birthday, and more. Personalized SMS marketing for business is important in driving sales and building trust in a brand.
A Mckinsey report shows that personalization is a key consideration for 76% of customers to buy from a brand. In the same vein, 78% of customers pointed to personalization as a reason for making a repurchase from a brand. SMS personalization can turn occasional customers into lifelong customers who guarantee a return on your products.
Best Practices for SMS Campaign Creation and Execution
Now that you know the different types of SMS campaigns you can launch, let’s see how to run an effective SMS for marketing campaign.
Building your subscriber list
A subscriber list is a collection of the contacts of customers who have opted in to receive promotional SMS and are likely to react positively to your messages. As a marketer, building an SMS database for text marketing conserves your efforts as you are sure your subscribers will act on the text messages.
Crafting effective messages
An SMS typically has 160 characters, meaning your Sales SMS messages must capture the important details in a few words. The secret here is introducing the subject and using call-to-action tags to urge the recipients to act on the text message. If you are sending a promotional message, use catchy words like “FREE,” “DISCOUNT,” and “x% off” for more effect. If you are constrained by space, add a link to your website.
Timing and frequency
The timing of marketing messages is as important as the content. For instance, sending a marketing message on a Monday morning may have a different effect than on weekends or evenings. You should know your target audience and the appropriate time to send the marketing SMS.
You should also be clear about how many marketing SMS you want to send per campaign and the duration between messages. SMS advertising is seen as a more personal communication channel, so you don’t want your customers to see your messages as spam which could lead to high unsubscribe rates.
Personalization
We told you earlier how important SMS personalization is. So when sending out marketing messages, endeavor to use personal details such as first name, address, or interest of the particular receiver to give a personal touch to the message.
Opt-out process
SMS opt-out is for compliance with SMS regulations and customer data privacy. When asking customers to subscribe or to give their contact details, marketers and companies are mandated to explain the process and obtain express consent from the customer before any marketing messages are sent. They must also give an option for unsubscribing or opting out as well.
Wrapping Up
In the end, launching a bulk SMS messaging campaign is a sure way to reach more customers. It is far easier and cheaper to run than other marketing channels. The benefits of integrating SMS into your marketing efforts should leave you with no doubt about its effectiveness.
To ensure a successful SMS campaign, you must partner with an SMS gateway provider with all the tools to scale your campaigns. BSG Global Communication Platform provides solutions for SMS messaging for enterprise companies, including analytic tools to generate real-time reports on your campaigns. Reach out to BSG to start with your SMS campaigns.
