If your company isn’t currently using SMS, or short message service, as part of your marketing strategy, you’re missing out on some serious brand exposure. SMS marketing is perfect for consumers today because it’s short, green, and tailored specifically to them. Since texts can only be about 160 characters before being broken into multiple messages, you’re forced to get your message across quickly. And with the average adult attention span being about 8 seconds, according to Entrepreneur.com, marketers need to keep their messages short and sweet if there’s any hope of them being effective.
Whether your business has found a way to make SMS work or if you haven’t quite figured out how to make this marketing method effective, here are some simple yet impactful ways SMS can bring in more business and profit.
Promote Specials
SMS – with the help of communications platforms such as Plivo, an alternative to Twilio – is a great way to get the word out about specials that your company is currently running. . And because text messages have an extremely high open rate, about 95 percent according to MobileMarketingRatings.com, you won’t have to worry about your specials not getting seen by your target market.
Share Reminders
If you’re working in the service industry, meaning you don’t sell a specific product but rather book appointments, sending reminders via SMS is a great option. Plus, this will save your staff time by not having to call every person. Simply send out a SMS to each patron reminding them of their appointment and move on to your other tasks.
Give Discounts
Everyone loves getting a discount, and providing a discount through a SMS will ensure that your customers won’t be upset about being marketed to directly. A great way to make this tactic work for you is to require the customer to show the message in order to receive the discount, giving them an incentive to hang on to the message and not delete it immediately.
Drive Internal Communication
Not only can your customers benefit from SMS, but your employees can as well. In fact, John M. Bernard, author of Business at the Speed of Now, found that when an employee feels engaged by their employer, they add around $13,000 to the bottom line of the business every year. Opening lines of communication between you and your employees through SMS is a fantastic way to make them feel more engaged, giving you higher productivity and loyalty.
Bring News
Updates and breaking news for your company can also be delivered to your customers via SMS. This will help them feel in the loop with what is going on at your business, creating a sense of community that can go a long way in building brand loyalty.
When it comes to marketing, the more touch points your customers and potential customers can have with your brand, the better return on investment you will have, no matter what marketing channel you choose. And due to the low cost, high visibility, and instantaneous nature of SMS, why not give it a try?