Reasons why you should consider text message marketing as part of your customer communications

As more brands look to target customers on the move, SMS is becoming an increasingly essential part of effective multi-channel marketing. However, with few digital marketing agencies featuring SMS as a core offering, their clients are potentially missing out on communications with customers and increased ROI. Organisations mistakenly believe that mobile marketing requires heavy investment in apps and does not allow for personalised, targeted communication and lacks strong analysis to support ROI. The reality is that access to mobile communications is far easier than perceived and gaining access to mobile consumers (smartphone and non-smartphone) can be as simple as sending a personalised, targeted text message. The means to instigate two-way SMS messaging between a company and their mobile users is essential to building a brand in households around the world provided consumer privacy is protected through legal requirements…

Businesses have begun using advanced business texting tools to send messages through channels like SMS and Facebook Messenger, ultimately bridging the gap between getting leads and engaging with them.

It has become increasingly easy to acquire leads through online marketing channels, particularly social media channels like Facebook and SEM channels like AdWords. Facebook is an especially good example of a business-friendly e-marketing channel. Some 78% of American consumers have discovered retail products to buy on Facebook and the average Facebook user clicks on eight ads per month. [si_guide_block id="33674" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – B2C marketing automation best practices guide" description="This guide to marketing automation best practices for consumer markets will help you review your requirements for marketing automation, select the best vendor and create or review your lead generation and nurturing programme."/] Google Ads is another example of a trusty e-marketing tool for both businesses and consumers. …

Effective customer engagement requires making your customers an integral part of brand creation and not just seeing them as a means of revenue generation

The first short message system (SMS) message was sent in 1992 and the first phone with texting capabilities was released by Nokia the following year. Given the digital communication technologies introduced since then - voice over internet protocol (VoiP), video streaming, and social media - it may be tempting to discount the potential of the humble text message. You do this at your own peril. After all, SMS response rates are 209% higher than email, Facebook or even phone calls. That's because 94% of text messages are read and recipients typically respond to them within 90 seconds. In addition, when comparing SMS messages to mobile ads, SMS wins every time. Half again as many recipients immediately purchase…

Have you ever wondered what your SMS referrals are doing after they've clicked?

A whopping 98% of text messages sent are read, putting SMS in a completely different league to other forms or communication in terms of open-rate. But with its simple style and 160-character limit, it can be tricky to track how your campaigns are performing once you’ve pressed send. Including a link in your SMS means you can direct recipients through to richer online content by adding the ability to track who and how many people are clicking through to your website. Tracking how many clickthroughs you receive on a campaign is awesome if you’re looking for data and statistics on how well the campaigns are performing and who’s interacting – but what about what they do after they’ve clicked on your SMS link? This is where this handy tool from Google really comes into play; adding additional information into your SMS…

How to create and implement a successful SMS marketing campaign

There are countless reasons why your business should consider implementing SMS marketing as part of your overall communications strategy. It’s budget-friendly - you can send messages from around 2p / 2 cents per message It hits the mark - over 97% of text messages are read within the first four minutes It gets your customers to act - 19% of people will click a link in a SMS campaign rather than just 4.2% for emails It produces results - 30% of SMS campaigns receive average response rates of 30%, compared to 4% for emails But there are rules to follow in order for each of your SMS campaigns to be successful. In this post I will…

Is SMS is included in your marketing strategy?

It has been predicted that by the end of 2017 a massive 4.77 billion people globally will own a mobile phone! Now that is a staggering statistic. It has also been reported that 63% of smartphone owners keep their devices with them for all but one hour of their waking day (MarketingTech, 2016). Our phones are always glued to our hands and what better way to target mobile users than by texting them? So why is SMS so rarely utilised by so many marketers? It’s underuse by businesses is quite staggering, with 64% of customers believing that companies should utilise text messaging more (SAP, 2015) and, provided permission has been sought, 83% don’t find SMS intrusive provided the message is relevant to them (SAP, 2015). Let’s be honest, SMS has had a difficult past which has tarnished its reputation. It wasn’t too long ago…

10 reasons you can’t afford to ignore SMS marketing.

As marketers, we’re constantly thinking up creative ways to get our message out to existing and potential customers; whilst also ensuring we get good results from our efforts. One of the basic practical rules in marketing is to think like your audience, to keep up-to-date with their buying habits and where they are looking. Whatever your product or service is, it’s important to ensure its visible wherever your customers go, with a ratio now of four mobile devices to every computer, it’s clear where our customers are. Mobile marketing is no longer something you can afford to put on the to-do-list for the future; you need to make sure you’re on a mobile device, now. With smartphone users increasing daily, forward-thinking businesses are looking for ways to make their business mobile-friendly. SMS is a tried,…

Enhancing the customer journey for your business by integrating SMS marketing

Understanding the journey your customers take is crucial to making sure you're providing the best possible experience. By mapping out potential journeys, you can better understand which customer touchpoints are letting you down and where there's potential for you to improve; allowing you to develop a comprehensive strategy for success. Mobile devices have had a significant impact on the customer's journey, with many relying on their smartphone to visit your website, compare prices, or read customer reviews prior to purchase. Add to this all the other mobile uses, like capturing an appointment with your business in their calendar or Instagramming a photo of their new purchase and sharing their experience on social media, and it's easy to see how crucial mobile communications have become. Customer journeys will always be different for individual businesses and customers, but to give you an idea of…

The Fails and Fixes of using SMS for marketing

As consumers are more on the move, shopping and researching using their mobile devices, getting their attention with SMS is a good option many marketers may be underusing. Yet... Engagement rates for SMS/Text are 6-8x higher than emails and 90% of SMS texts are read within 3 minutes of receipt. This infographic from West Interactive shows however that even though it's a good medium, there are dangers lurking since mobile users are highly aware of unsolicited texts and opt-out rates can be high. It recommends to ' Co-ordinate your messages across your channels, be aware of country specific legislation and test load times for a good UX.' …

Increase membership with SMS reminders

If you’re a Membership Manager, in any sector, you have the same goals – to recruit, retain and grow your membership. When it comes to membership marketing; you’re probably always looking for different ways to reach out to new people, remind members to renew as well as developing the relationships you have with your current members.Have you thought about using SMS?

Using SMS within the customer cycle of your membership marketing strategy

1. Recruit

In membership, as with any business, it is important to recruit new customers in order to grow and develop as a company. Contact prospective customers with a low-cost SMS campaign, with a 98% open rate it’s the perfect platform to make sure your message gets read.

2. Retain

Once your members are on board you need to keep them up to date with exciting content to remind them why they signed up and to ensure they stick with…