Your Ultimate Guide To Creating SMS Marketing Campaigns

Published on: 08 December 2022 Last Updated on: 12 September 2024

Every marketer would tell you that there are reasons why text marketing continues to become a mainstay in marketing agencies.

In fact, both conventional and modern companies highly rely on their efficacy when it comes to reaching out to their target audience. Because when you think about it, every person checks their text message inbox every time they receive a ping.

Leveraging communication strategies like an effective SMS marketing campaign allows you to grow your brand more, target more audiences, and even build closer relationships with prospects.

There are a lot of things that SMS marketing can help you with in terms of achieving business goals. But before you partake in this marketing tactic, it’s important to understand the concept behind this marketing practice. Use this guide to make successful SMS marketing campaigns.

What Is SMS Marketing?

It’s crucial to understand first the concept behind this old but gold marketing strategy. SMS marketing refers to a short message service you send to your customers to build relationships with them. It’s important for text marketers to communicate with their target audiences in a respectful and compliant manner.

No matter what your business goals are, SMS marketing puts you one step ahead of achieving them. For instance, you can drive more leads, introduce new products, lead them to check your website, and so on. The ideas that you can do with this marketing method are limitless.

Compared to email or push notification marketing, SMS marketing has several advantages. For instance, every person who receives an incoming message in their phone inbox will surely take the time to check and read them one by one.

While some people might check their emails at least once a day regarding text message inboxes, people often check them as soon as they receive a message.

Your message can be concise and clear with SMS marketing. There’s no need for lengthy advertising messages. With brief sentences that can take up less than 160 characters of the SMS limit, you can already deliver what you want to say to your prospects.

Choosing The Right SMS Marketing Tool

Now, it’s time to understand the tool to use for this marketing strategy. With the advent of technology, there is now text marketing software at your disposal. For one, you can take advantage of Drop Cowboy Ringless Voicemail service and some other brands that offer reliable text messaging as marketing services.

Text message delivery depends on the tools and services you choose. Such software comes with pricing plans that fit your marketing budget and goals. Unlike any other conventional marketing promotions like print ads, TV ads, and billboards, this marketing campaign is priced reasonably better. Also, consider partnering with the best SMS marketing service provider to automate your text messages to your target recipients.

How To Maximize On SMS Marketing Campaigns

As mentioned, a high percentage of people open text messages every time they receive one. By sending promotional messages via SMS, you ensure your customers will read them because they will arrive directly in their inboxes.

Check out these ideas in which you can maximize your SMS marketing campaigns.

1. Limited-Time Promotions

You can use an SMS marketing strategy to encourage your customers to avail of coupons and discounts or even redeem incentives or gifts. Offering these incentives for a limited time makes them even more effective.

Announcing that the campaign only runs on a promo period is an effective call-to-action strategy so your customers won’t miss out on such opportunities. It’s one effective strategy to get your business to high ranks.

Considering SMS marketing’s high open rate, it’s the most effective way to communicate time-sensitive offers with customers. As a result, you ensure your customers don’t pass up a good deal. This yield win-win situations for both the customers and your brand. They get discounted rates, and you could convert your sales funnel more effectively.

2. Reminding Customers

One good purpose for SMS marketing is when you could send notifications regarding the recent actions of your customers.

For instance, whether they checked your website, changed passwords, or linked different payment modes, an SMS notification will be sent to inform them that the activity is successful. Sending notification messages is essential for many businesses, and they’ve realized how effective it is in retaining customers.

By relaying notifications about their recent purchase or online activities, the customers will grow their trust in your brand. It could lead to continuous patronage. Also, they will feel at ease by getting reminders of how your brand is already dealing with their orders or purchases. Receiving reminders is valuable, especially for customers who are always busy with other things and obligations.

Make sure your brand is always at the top of your customer’s minds. It’s a job that SMS is best suited for. With SMS marketing, you can remind your customers about everything from their most recently liked products to the purchased ones that are going to arrive soon.

3. Order Updates And Confirmation

An SMS is also useful for customers to receive updates regarding their orders. Once they make a purchase, a message will be sent regarding the successful transaction. It ensures peace of mind for the customer.

Also, the confirmation messages sent via SMS will allow them to use them as proof or evidence regarding their purchase. If products don’t arrive as planned, they can refer to the SMS notification.

4. New Product Release And Launches

SMS advertising is also useful for announcing new product releases. It’s the most cost-effective way for marketers to advertise new product launching. Without paying for the expensive talents of celebrities to promote new products, a large number of users will discover your new product offering through the message they can read in their SMS inbox.

Using this method will generate buzz and interest, and you could even entice old customers to come back and check out what’s new. You can also use SMS campaigns to drive traffic to your website or storefront. Thus, you can simply include a link they can visit to check your new product or any offers.

5. Send Welcome Messages

Send your customer a welcome message once they subscribe to your SMS marketing campaign. Companies must start building relationships with their customers. As a result, you will be able to communicate with them right away, as they will know they have been subscribed.

It also alerts them to expect a few messages from your end every now and then. There’s no need for lengthy or complex welcome messages. Sometimes short but sweet thank you message about their subscription are already enough for your customers to remember your business.

6. Customer Service Tool

SMS is not limited to being a marketing tool; it’s also a customer support tool. In this era where customer service should be at the forefront of any business, SMS strategy can be used to ensure customer satisfaction.

It’s imperative that your work processes are as transparent as possible, and you can achieve this by constantly sending them SMS in case necessary. After all, a text message is the easiest way to communicate with pre-sale customers and post-sale tech support.

7. Collect Customer Feedback

It’s essential for businesses to receive customer feedback to determine what they are doing well and what they need to improve. And it’s something that’s being offered with SMS marketing. You can send out surveys through SMS, and customers can answer them timely and convenient.

There are many ways to create survey forms for them to easily fill out. The key is to attach the link to your SMS. Another option is to ask customers to rate you using a ranking system that’s easy for them to use.

8. Announce VIP Programs

By offering a VIP program, you can encourage loyalty among your subscribers and customers. If you want to make your VIP customers feel special, offer them VIP-only discounts. This sense of exclusivity allows your customers to treat your brand with more respect and value.

Also, use this program for customers to gain early access to sales and other promotions. One way for them to qualify for your VIP list is to encourage them to fill out a signup link. However, since it’s VIP, make it seems more challenging for them to enter this list. The harder it feels to qualify, the more special and valued they would feel.

Tips To Apply Effective SMS Marketing Strategies

Applying SMS marketing strategies require effective implementations. When done right, they can produce the best outcomes for your business. Here are some tips to apply effective SMS marketing strategies for your brand:

1. Ensure That Your Customers Opted In

Your customers probably already provide you with their phone numbers. However, one common courtesy is to get their approval to start receiving SMS from your brand. Mass texting them without their consent is ethically wrong and will only lead to adverse effects on the customer. Ensure to get your customer’s clear opt-in before starting to send out text message campaigns.

Your website or other online channels can allow customers to opt-in to receive text messages. However, you should get a text confirmation before you send them anything. There are ways to get their opt-in consent. One is to make them reply Yes or No to your single SMS regarding SMS subscription. Another way is through your website.

They can press a CTA button regarding their receiving SMS messages from your brand. When the user clicks the link in the offer, they can fill out the subscription form and enter their number so they can start receiving your SMS campaigns.

2. Take Time To Introduce Yourself

A good practice is to take the time to introduce your brand in any of your SMS campaigns. Chances are your customers don’t know where the messages are coming from. Failing to include your company name or brand name on the message will only forfeit its purpose. Hence, it’s important to include your company or brand name in that short message that you’re sending.

3. Make Messages Fun And Short

It’s common for people to use SMS messages to communicate with friends and family informally. Texting should remain fun in your SMS campaign in the same way as a fun communication tool between people. Be friendly and personal with customers to build trust.

Use local trending words that are popular with your target audience for the time being. It ensures to catch their interest and make them read your text message completely. The maximum number of characters in an SMS message is 160. With an opt-out option and the need to identify yourself, that’s not much to work with. Don’t waste any characters, and go straight to the point of what you want to say.

4. Don’t Forget To Use Target Keywords

To encourage users to connect with you, you should select contextually relevant keywords alongside simple messages and shortcodes. Using such keywords will allow them to easily remember anything about your brand or company. If they want to research you online, they can use the same keywords found on your SMS.

5. Give An Option For Customers To Opt Out

All marketing communications should follow these standards and rules. Much like getting their buy-in, you should also give them the option to opt out and unsubscribe from your SMS campaigns. You are more likely to lose customers if you constantly text them when they do not want to hear from you.

Your messages should come with the unsubscribe option, so your customers can freely opt out anytime they want. There are some viable reasons for them to do this. But it doesn’t entirely mean that they won’t be good prospects for you in the future. It’s just that not everyone prefers to get this kind of information via text.

SMS open rates tend to be much higher than those for email, so you should also expect a higher unsubscribe rate. After a message is sent, unsubscribes may spike and treat it as a normal occurrence.

6. Be More Informative Than Promotional

You should be extremely considerate of your buyers’ inboxes since promotional SMS messages can easily be turned off. Therefore, staying informative and interactive is best, and not focusing too much on sounding sales or promotional.

A good rule of thumb is to focus most of your communication on order, whether a status update or a request for feedback. Schedule your promotional messages and send them at least only twice a week at a minimum. No one wants to keep receiving promotional messages that are obvious that they want to make money from you.

Conclusion

You can increase engagement with your target audience by using SMS marketing. Keeping your customers’ attention is easier if you market to them where they are most active.

Therefore, if your target audience is always in their phone’s SMS inbox, it’s worth considering SMS marketing as part of your marketing mix. Use this guide and wait for results to reflect your bottom line soon.

Read Also:

What Is Not A Benefit Of Google Analytics Remarketing

Arnab

Arnab is a professional blogger, having an enormous interest in writing blogs and other jones of calligraphies. In terms of his professional commitments, He carries out sharing sentient blogs.

View all posts

Why Email Marketing is the BEST Digital Marketing Outreach in Singapore

Times have changed. Commerce no longer waits for customers to head into a brick-and-mortar store, but instead takes on a proactive approach. Marketers must rely on various tools to reach out to their consumers, create sales channels, and generate revenue. Gone are the days when newspaper ads and billboards took center stage; with technology, digital marketing outreach becomes a necessity as it can reach a considerable amount of users in the shortest amount of time. Marketers often ask us about the most effective platform they should first choose, and our answer always goes back to good old email marketing. Singaporeans are so comfortable with technology, and the majority of the technologically-savvy generation will check their emails at least once a day. Even though it’s one of the most traditional methods, it’s still used frequently because it simply works. Here’s the tricky part: email marketing has to be implemented correctly. Use it right, and it’ll become an incredibly powerful tool. Use it wrong, and you’ll risk turning away customers, both potential and returning ones. Unconvinced? We’ll give you two reasons why email marketing is the best digital marketing outreach, and how you should use it effectively. Whether you’re on a limited budget or hiring a digital marketing agency in Singapore, it’s important to understand email marketing so you can use it to your advantage, especially after your lead generation agency has delivered new prospects for your business. 1. Email marketing provides endless possibilities. Like we’ve mentioned, email marketing may be one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, yet marketers in most industries still use it today as it’s efficient and cost-effective. It involves sending emails to a target audience’s inbox and gives companies a chance to promote their product or service, create brand loyalty, deliver value to consumers; the possibilities are endless. Since there are so many ways to use email marketing, there is no reason for you to stick to one type. As sending the same emails too frequently may turn consumers away, you should find the right balance to keep your readers interested and hopefully increase sales. Here are two different types of marketing emails that you can send out to engage your subscribers. Welcome emails are usually the first email a subscriber receives after giving you their email address. As it’s the first connection, it’s essential to not only introduce your brand but also make it a memorable one. There are several ways you can do this: you can either share with them more about your brand’s story, invite them to connect via other means (such as social media) or get to know more about them (such as asking for their birthdays). Since the purpose of welcome emails is to increase your engagement with your subscribers, an excellent way to start would be to give them a gift, either a trial or discount code. Informational emails are a series of emails sent to users to keep them engaged with your brand. There are several ways you can do this, depending on your brand. If sales are your priority, you can send out targeted emails informing your subscribers of promotions, discount codes, and holiday sales. If you’re providing software, and your main goal is to increase brand awareness, you can release a series of tips and tutorials on how to make the best out of it. There are so many ways you can continuously engage your subscribers, but remember to keep a steady pace; you want to provide your readers with value, not flood them with dozens of emails. As there are so many ways to use email marketing, if you’re hiring a digital marketing agency in Singapore, be sure to let them know what you’re trying to achieve. Different goals require different types of emails, and your agency needs to know what you need before they can help you get the results you want. Email marketing lets you personalize your engagement. Although every business has a buyer persona, it may not always be the same. As a brand, you may have a range of audiences that differ based on age, gender, and other demographics. The best way to reach out to different audiences is to cater to them differently, and email marketing helps you do so by segmenting your audiences into categories. The idea is to tailor various emails that will resonate with each audience segment and provide them with something exciting and of value. If you use email marketing correctly, you can not only address your subscribers by name but also provide them with something that they want. For example, you can email your VIP members about an exclusive event or reach out to your teen audience about a back-to-school sale. By targeting each segment differently, you can increase the effectiveness of your emails. This is extremely important as an email can only be successful if your subscribers open it, read it, and appreciate it. We can go on and on about how effective email marketing can be, but the best way for you to find out is to try it yourself. If you’re confused and not sure where to begin, now’s a good time to ask for help. Reach out to a digital marketing agency in Singapore, let them know what you need, and they’ll help you achieve it. Read Also: Why Every Business Holder Should Start Using The Drip Marketing Campaign Snov.Io Review: The Missing Piece Of The Marketing Outreach Strategy Puzzle

Creative Marketing Strategies to Put Your Small Translation Business

As the owner of a translation business, you know firsthand just how much a good marketing strategy can make or break you. However, your current advertising strategy often makes you feel like your company is getting, well, lost in translation. You need to make a change as soon as possible. But you're just not sure where you should start when it comes to updating your marketing plan. In this post, we're sharing both print and digital advertising tips that you can't afford to miss out on. When you're ready to dominate your target market and outrank your competition in the search engine results, keep on reading. Start with Your Website Especially when you're running an international business, you need advertising tips that can reach everyone on the globe -- at the same time. In short, while a strong website is important for every company, it becomes even more essential for brands who need to reach people in different time zones and across different languages. In other words? Even though you're running a translation business, it doesn't change the fact that nearly 3/4 of consumers say they prefer to read content in their first language. Start by looking for the right tools and plugins that will automatically change your site's language to the language of the user. But don't stop there. Having an intuitive and branded web design are also key digital marketing tips. This matters because people will stay on a site they find easy to use for much longer than average. Pop-ups, autoplay features, or just sites that take forever to load won't cause them to click away after three seconds. This helps you rise in search engine rankings. First of all, ensure your site loads quickly and completely on desktop and mobile devices. Use menu options at the top of your page to help users find exactly what they're looking for as fast as possible. If you're blogging (more on that in a minute) make sure you've taken the time to properly categorize your past posts. Above all, keep your homepage engaging and organized, like on this website. Finally, don't forget to include your company's contact information on not just the homepage, but every page of your internal website. Remember that consumers won't always come to the homepage first. Don't make them hunt around on your site to find out how to get answers to their questions or sign up for your services. Blogging and Guest Posting Now that we've covered how your website will drive more customers to your translation business, let's talk about how blogging can increase your site visitors by around 300%. We understand that blogging is a lot of work -- and, if you have to hire professional content services to write your posts for you, it can also be expensive. So, why is it worth it? First of all, it helps to increase your authority and brand recognition within your target market. By providing information-based (as opposed to sales-driven) blog posts, you strengthen consumer trust in your brand. Plus, blogging also tells Google and other search engines that you update your entire website more often than companies who just have a static site. This means that you'll be able to outrank your competitors in the search engine results. Plus, you'll also have more indexed pages (AKA, pages that have been read and categorized by Google.) This also helps you get higher up in the search engine result pages. Blogging also gives you an amazing opportunity to connect with your target market and shorten your overall sales cycle through the use of keywords. By naturally including keywords (what people type into search engines when they need a translation business) in your content, your website will show up in front of people who are ready to buy exactly what you're selling. But blogging alone isn't enough. You also need to get into guest posting. This is one of the best online advertising tips because it gives you the chance to broaden your market and increase your brand awareness at the same time. Write articles and blog posts for popular online journals, websites, and even forums that are relevant to the translation industry. Other Key Digital Advertising Ideas Of course, your digital marketing strategy shouldn't begin and end with site design, blogging, and guest posting alone. There are a few other digital marketing tips you should take into consideration, too. Make sure that you claim your third-party listings on platforms like Google My Business, and fill out your profiles as completely as is possible. This is especially helpful when it comes to connecting you to your target market. Those third-party listings are also important because they allow your customers the chance to leave online reviews for your business. While having a testimonials section on your website is a good idea, most consumers feel that third-party site reviews are less biased. Make sure you frequently read and respond to these reviews -- yes, even the bad ones. You want to prove to potential and current clients that you take their input seriously. Social media is also essential in the online marketing world. However, especially since you're a smaller business, we suggest that you conduct some market research to find out which platform your customers spend most of their time on. Focus your efforts there first, and then expand to other platforms. If possible, aim to post three times a day: morning, noon, and night. Finally, never underestimate the power of an e-newsletter. Not only will this allow you to let your leads and current customers know about new product offerings and flash sales. E-newsletters can also help to build up a personal connection between you and your market. You can feature employees of the month, tell customer stories, and even ask for feedback in survey form. Offline Advertising Tips for Your Translation Business Yes, having a strong digital marketing strategy is incredibly important for your translation business. However, it doesn't mean that you can completely ignore print marketing or offline marketing in general. Now, let's take a look at some seriously effective marketing ideas that don't require an Internet connection. Host an Event One of the best ways to get your name out there is by hosting an event in your local market. You don't have to spend a lot of money in order to increase your brand recognition -- you just have to focus on inviting the right people. Invite other local businesses to a dinner at an international restaurant in your area, or host a "language night" at a local school. Focus on event spaces that have a global feel -- even having a "movie night" where you show a popular international film could work. We suggest handing out promotional products at these events. This way, even if attendees don't need translations services now, they'll know who to call when they do in the future. Don't Underestimate Mailings Relying on the cousin of the e-newsletter, paper mailings, to get the word out about your business is still an effective marketing idea. People love getting "snail mail," especially as it becomes rarer and rarer. Whenever possible, hand-address your envelopes to increase their open rate. When you send out mailings, think outside the holiday card or business pamphlet alone. Instead, consider including things like a magnetic calendar, so that customers can have your company in their heads all year long. You could also include a paper card with a discount code. The same goes for simply including a physical coupon offering them a percentage off of your services. Also, slip in a few of your business cards, and handwrite a note on the back of them. You may also want to create a branded letterhead or stationary, in order to increase your brand recognition. It's all about building a personal connection between you and your leads. Grow Your Translation Business with These Tips We hope that this post has helped you to better understand how to market your translation business both on and offline. Remember that conducting thorough market research -- and knowing when to ask for the help of a professional marketing team -- will take you a long way. Looking for additional advice about how to build your brand? Want to ensure you're creating evergreen content that your market will love sharing on social media? Want to understand how good web design increases your conversions and grow your traffic? Our blog can help you to learn all of that and more, so keep coming back to us for more advertising advice. Read Also: What To Look For In A Transcription Service Provider

4 Lessons Content Marketers Can Learn from E-learning Courses

Content marketing is one of the most dynamic marketing disciplines because it involves engaging consumers through a piece of content you create for boosting website traffic and sales for your business. This isn’t easy to achieve because consumers constantly change, meaning that the parameters for creating good content that will engage them to change accordingly. This is one of the key reasons why content marketers need to keep themselves up-to-date with the latest techniques and learn the right way to approach content creation. In this article, we will talk about what content marketers can learn from online courses. If you are not convinced, stick around for a while and learn about the connection between content marketing and elearning courses. 4 Lessons Content Marketers Can Learn Through E-learning Make sure that your writing is concise and absolutely clear and leave no room for readers to misunderstand it. The content that you put out should be easily understood by everyone reading it, and give readers a sense that they are accomplishing and learning something important. Here is the name of four lessons that content marketers can learn from eLearning courses. 1. Being Topic Relevant And Staying On Topic Learning courses include relevant and meaningful content that engages learners and motivates them. The same logic can be applied when creating content for marketing purposes. You need to include specific information that will engage the audience. Consumers will be deeply engaged in your content if they find valuable information that revolves around the general topic. If you are providing information that is not closely related to the topic or simply talking about unimportant things, they will lose interest in your content. So, make sure that you don’t lose perspective and stick to the main topic. This is not always easy to do because of the fact that you simply won’t know what people would like to learn from your content. Working hard on putting yourself in the shoes of your target audience is essential in order to create engaging and concise content. 2. Segmenting Content And Giving Readers The Freedom Apart from the fact that you need to create content that can be intriguing to your target audience, you also need to give them the option of exploring your content the way they see fit. Elearning is effective because learners create a hypothesis and they try to prove it. You must allow people to navigate through your content, test ideas, and give them the time to make their own conclusions. By segmenting content into clear paragraphs and subheadings, people will also be able to decide on their own which information is new to them, and which isn’t. For example, if we are talking about an instructional blog post, a reader can quickly skip over the steps they know already and find the information they are looking for. Try as best as you can to avoid creating linear content that has no scope for interactive involvement. Let your learners choose what they want to learn. For instance, online management training courses give learners the option to make choices that will affect their training outcome. Although you don’t have the option of allowing too much freedom and action, you should look to simulate similar structures within your content. 3. Building Engagement On An Emotional Level People whom you are targeting with your content need to have those elements that resonate with their personalities. A person won’t be able to learn if that learning content doesn’t engage that person emotionally in a positive way. The same rule applies to content marketing as well. In order to be effective and keep the target audience engaged while being memorable, it needs to invoke positive emotions in those consumers. If a person thinks that some information is unimportant, they will probably not remember it. You need to learn a lot about your target audience and fight some broad characteristics that most of them share. For example, you can use their job or level of education to your advantage and include relatable information within your content that will have them connect with what they are reading or looking at. 4. Make Your Content Digestible Simplicity is the key in content marketing and this doesn’t mean that you shouldn't focus on some more complex topics. Always explain them in the easiest possible manner. Learning courses always try to deliver knowledge in a simple and understandable way, and your content should be similar. First of all, make sure that you split up your long paragraphs for added clarity. Include bullet points, divide information, and highlight information that is essential. This way, you won’t exhaust your readers and allow them to digest your content, piece by piece. It is also important to learn the right type of content for explaining certain topics and not to stick bluntly to one type of content just because it is easier for you. Use charts, infographics, pictures, illustrations to quickly explain something without having to write long paragraphs that have the potential to be misunderstood. Wrapping It Up: The business management training can be very complex and it slowly introduces learners to the terms and techniques until they have all the knowledge they need to participate in advanced training lessons. These are the key features of eLearning courses and the main reasons why they are so effective at teaching people. Engaging people in your content and allowing them to memorize it quickly is vital in content marketing, and these above-mentioned four things will help you achieve that without fail.

Your Ultimate Guide To Creating SMS Marketing Campaigns

What Is SMS Marketing?

Choosing The Right SMS Marketing Tool