The benefits of practicing SMS marketing are tangible- and this makes it an outshine over other marketing tools. SMS shouldn’t be overused and combined in your remaining marketing channels workflow; SMS can pack an extra punch for time-sensitive offers.
Why SMS marketing works? The combination of the immediacy, mobile push, and infrequent use means it gets your customers attention exactly when you want it.
A well-timed SMS Marketing is effective because it’s not so usual. Add an incentive in the mix, and you’ve got a message that’s hard to ignore.
But how do you go about using SMS marketing effectively, and how you add some creative ideas to your bulk SMS marketing campaigns?
Here are 5 SMS Marketing Ideas to nail your SMS campaigns:
You can have all the best practices in the world, but without ideas, you’re still at zero. Fortunately, there are at least five perfect situations where a well-timed SMS can make all the difference.
#1. Welcome Offers
What more agreeable way to welcome your customers in than a well-timed bulk SMS message. Everyone expects a welcome email, but adding an immediate SMS in the mix will be a surprise to your consumers.
If you offered an incentive for signing up, send the discount code or link via bulk SMS, then follow that SMS up with an email in case the bulk SMS wasn’t enough to get the customer to purchase.
If you have a restaurant, retail store, or personal service business that can serve return customers regularly, use SMS to keep those people coming back again and again. One creative way we’ve seen a business use text marketing is with weekly specials.
#2. Birthday Discounts
SMS demands a special occasion, and what’s a better special occasion than your customer’s birthday?
Show your customers you care with an offer that lasts for a few days around their birthday. You can either put the offer directly in your bulk SMS message, or you can send it as a teaser to check their email for a special birthday gift. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to follow up with an email.
Also, you can Celebrate the Holidays
Many businesses find clever ways to tie their product or service into popular holidays. For instance, a dentist might offer a discounted checkup during the first week of November (after the Halloween candy binge). Or a Mexican restaurant might throw a party with free appetizers for Cinco de Mayo.
#3. Special time-One of a Kind- sensitive offers
Maybe you have an extra unique promotion going on, and you want to make sure your customer has every opportunity to participate? For your very best sales and promotions, you can add a bit of urgency to your text messages like in the example above. Try out a few diverse options to see what works best with your customers. As long as you’re not sending bulk SMS campaigns every day, you should be fine.
In some small businesses selling big-ticket items, customers are waiting for the perfect fit. This can be the case with cars, homes, or specialty hard-to-get items.
UAS Properties is a Chicago organization that develops and renovates affordable housing. Many of their potential renters don’t make a decision quickly and call back regularly to learn of new listings or price reductions. UAS fields around 150 of these calls per day.
#4. Cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is the bane of any e-commerce seller. With almost 7 of every 10 carts abandoned for any number of reasons, it’s obvious to see why.
Normally, a cart abandonment email is hailed as the best response to this phenomenon. But its made even better when you combine it with an SMS. Know your channels’ strengths and weaknesses: SMS is well adapted for immediacy, and email for information. Send a bulk SMS campaign to capture your customer’s attention, and add the photos of the abandoned products in the email follow up to remind them of what they’re missing.
This combination can be super effective, but limit your SMS to one per workflow for an abandoned cart. It’s great for that initial message, but you don’t want to overdo it.
#5. Order confirmation and shipping updates
Where SMS can shine is in order confirmation and shipping updates. Giving your customer the choice of how they get their updates, which empowers them.Your customer can enjoy updates to their shipping directly on their mobile phones without worrying about opening an email. It’s also a great idea to place a link in the SMS so they can check out more details about the tracking.
#6.Give SMS Subscriber-Only Deals
Repeat customers are valuable to your business, so treat them differently. Offer your SMS subscribers deal that only they can take advantage of. When promoting text alerts, many marketers have found that using a name for these customers like “VIPs” or “Insiders” works well to make contacts feel special.
The Couch Tomato Cafe, a family-style restaurant in Philadelphia, has found great success with their VIP text program. Owner Craig Mossman collected around 5,000 numbers for a year leading up to his text program launch through paper forms and verbal signups at the point of sale.
Put These SMS Business Ideas into a Market-Leading Strategy
Are the creative juices flowing yet? We hope you can use some of these eight business SMS ideas to fuel your business in the months to come.
Of course, just throwing a campaign or two out there with no planning isn’t the best way to go. Consider how these text marketing campaigns fit into your overall strategy which may include other marketing channels.
Text your customers the way you want to be texted. There is a rule about text messages — they are private.
We, at Broadnet Technologies, have developed a useful guide to help you synthesize mass text messaging with your other marketing channels so that you can reach your contacts in the right places with consistent messaging. Also At Broadnet Technologies we wish you check our website for more desirable inquiries to excel in your business. The benefits we can also give as follows:
- Boost conversions with effective calls-to-action
- Cross-promote your offers across channels
- Use unique content to make every medium valuable
While there are many opportunities to use SMS text messaging for marketing your business, you don’t have to use all of them. Use texting judiciously and in a way that will support your existing marketing strategies and brand promise.
Remember, texting is a one-to-one type of communication. Use it primarily to communicate personally with your customers.
The last thing you want is to sully this very personal, very intimate form of communication with garbage messages. This will upset your customers.