In today’s digital world, marketing strategies are developing at a rapid pace. It’s hard to keep up with the algorithm updates on social media platforms and search engines—they always seem to switch things up the second you get the hang of them. Customer and client expectations are also continuously evolving based on trends, new research, and world events.
On occasion, we marketers get a little bit lucky. Sometimes something that used to be a highly effective marketing tactic but has lost favor in consumers’ eyes comes back into style. SMS marketing, otherwise known as text message marketing, is one of these tactics.
The following will explore some of the reasons that SMS marketing is regaining popularity among marketers and customers. Of course, every business and target demographic is a little bit different. If you’re unsure whether SMS marketing suits your products, services, or clientele, conduct a beta test or do industry-specific research to help you make the decision.
The Elephant In The Room: Coronavirus And Smart Phone Use
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 had a significant impact on many areas of business (some might even say all areas of business). With people kept isolated and physically separate from the companies they typically interact with and the friends and family they usually visited with, more people turned to smartphones than ever before. In 2020, the average American adult spent three hours on their smartphones. More social interactions and buying decisions were made with a phone in hand than ever before.
SMS Marketing Produces Quick Results
Given that everyone was in their homes and on their phones, many businesses decided to give the old SMS marketing another go. People were frantically trying new and old marketing tactics to keep their companies afloat in the unprecedented time that was 2020. It takes on average ninety seconds for someone to respond to a text message, whereas it took an average of ninety minutes for someone to respond to an email. Because of the response speed, SMS marketing proved capable in 2020, especially when it came to promoting new products, seasonal sales, customer service inquiries, and picking up abandoned carts.
Texting Is Intimate
Text messaging provides a different form of communication between the customer and the business. Especially for direct to consumer brands, something like having a genuine, personal interaction can make a big difference when it comes to brand loyalty. People feel acknowledged and heard as a two-way conversation can take place between the brand and the consumer. This is particularly beneficial for companies without a physical location that lose out on this type of interaction with their customers.
It’s Inexpensive And Easy Marketing
Similar to having a newsletter, text message marketing is one of the more painless marketing techniques to pull off and has a very impressive customer acquisition cost rate compared to other marketing methods. It involves collecting customer phone numbers and using an SMS authentication service to send useful messages. If you are struggling to draft texts that help your valued customers with any pain points they might be experiencing or encourage digital purchasing, you can reach out to a few freelance writers for some quotes.
If you decide to hire someone else to write the marketing copy and texts, make sure that you ask for evidence of sales or click-through rates. Ask for the numbers like: since you began writing for your client, how did their sales or click-through rates change? You want percentages, not just words. You’ll also want to make sure that the writer has a firm grasp of your brand narrative and voice.
SMS Marketing Is Predicted To Continue To Grow In 2021
Many people have cited SMS marketing as the next phase of e-commerce. Internet businesses are expected to continue to explode, resulting in more competition than ever before. If companies want to succeed amid the e-commerce expansion, they need to work on nurturing customer relationships. Some are even suggesting that it is going to take over e-commerce completely and that future online purchases will all be made in an instant message.
The above information should help you see why SMS marketing is making a comeback. Of course, as with all marketing strategies, you need to understand your consumer and what sort of content they find useful and persuasive. In particular, sharing one’s phone number is a very intimate thing that needs to be respected. Make sure that you understand how often is too often for instant messages among your target demographic.
