The term SMS marketing, like so much business jargon, is used far too frequently. When companies talk about sending an SMS marketing campaign, what they often really mean is: ‘we need to give our sales a quick boost, so let’s send out a bulk SMS blast and see what response we can get’. There’s nothing wrong with that as a tactic but it doesn’t really fit the description of SMS marketing.
To be described as an SMS marketing campaign, there needs to be a little more strategy involved. For starters, how does the SMS campaign fit in with all the other marketing activities that the company gets involved in? What are the objectives of the sms marketing campaign? How are we going to measure whether it’s worked or not? Is there a common and logical connection between the different communication channels? Is the offer presented by the bulk SMS campaign reflected in any of the other activities?
SMS Marketing – Not a stand alone solution
SMS marketing as a way of communicating with customers and prospects should never be seen in isolation. While the tools that you use to send an SMS marketing campaign are stand-alone, companies need to take a more joined up approach to see the real benefit from the channel.
For example, one of the most effective ways of using SMS is as an alert for e-mail campaigns. Open rates to e-mail marketing campaigns can be dramatically improved if a text is sent shortly before the e-mail lands, alerting people to what’s in their inbox.
We’ve recently launched an SMS auto responder system that allows customers to bring a little more planning to what their customers receive by text. The tool allows you to set up a series of SMS marketing campaigns in advance, based on when someone joined a list or was uploaded into a group. So rather than receiving a one off SMS blast, members receive a more rounded series of texts over the course of weeks and months.
We’d love to help shape your SMS Marketing strategy. If you think we might be able to help, please feel free to give us call. Our details can be found on our contacts page. You may prefer to dive right in and manage your own programs. You can set up a free SMS marketing test account, which will come with free credits for testing.