When was the last time you didn’t open a text message? Compare that with the last time you didn’t open an email or direct mail.
SMS is a hugely effective and versatile tool used across the whole gamut of marketing communications – the whole product life cycle from cradle to grave.
With open rates close to 100 per cent SMS are read within minutes of receipt and its success at communicating is difficult to beat.
SMS is typically used when messages are time-bound, urgent or important enough be saved for future. Clearly not the length of an email or letter messages are intended to inform, remind, notify and update customers often with a call to action such as a number to call or URL to click.
Often associated with promotions and offers SMS is also widely used in travel alerts, delivery notifications, appointment reminders, engineer visits, purchase confirmation, sending contact details, flood alerts, payment reminders and account updates to name a few. Let your imagination run wild.
While many marketers look to use the latest and greatest in mobile technology many such tools are in their infancy and not widely adopted. The humble SMS on the other hand comes as standard on every mobile and despite its age (maybe even because of it) continues to be trusted and widely used across the whole marketing spectrum.
What to consider when planning an SMS marketing campaign
Proper planning of a campaign is critical. Depending on the message you will need to consider the following:
- How robust is your mobile data? Do all the numbers work?
- Are your customers opted in?
- What results are you expecting? Are they realistic?
- Are you including a promotion code? If so, are you tracking it at the till or checkout?
- How will success be measured? Does your supplier provide reports such as non-delivered messages, number of calls to the call centre or clicks on URLs?
- Are all landing pages mobile friendly?
- Can you cope with the surge of inbound calls?
- Make it relevant and personal
- What time and day are you sending? Is it too soon/ late for the promotion/event
- Do not bombard people – you will only annoy them
How you send messages will depend on volume and frequency, either manually, API integration or a bespoke solution.
What to do after you have launched your campaign
Reporting is a hugely important feature and text messaging is very measurable.
Without reporting you have no way of telling how many messages were delivered (there may be residential, faxes or typos in there), how many calls were made through to the call centre, who or how many clicked and measurements will merely be a stab in the dark. You will also have no way of reconciling your invoice.
Make sure you discuss reporting with your service provider before you begin.
Now check your results. Do they stack up against your goals? Measure results after two days – any later and the peak will have subsided.
How will the results impact future campaigns? Cleansing the database of bad numbers may be a start. Would it be worth segmenting the data further? Would a different time or day be better/worse? Maybe a different call to action. Depending on the campaign there can be several ways to improve results.
Example uses of SMS campaigns
For companies sending large, frequent campaigns a bespoke solution or API integration is wise.
With open rates close to 100 per cent SMS are read within minutes of receipt and its success at communicating is difficult to beat.
A well-known international florist runs daily and seasonal SMS campaigns. Daily promotional campaigns are generated automatically by a bespoke solution which takes data from the CRM and sends messages to customers based on previous purchase history such as birthdays and anniversaries. Specific campaigns are also created for major events such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s. Campaigns can range from 300 to 500,000 recipients but importantly they are automated – no one is creating them manually.
For APIs, take the company providing booking and appointment software to hair salons and spas. Reminders are automated and sent out prior to the appointment. Not only does this reduce missed appointments it also gives businesses the opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell services such as facials, manicures and massages.
Alternatively take the sports software supplier who enables clubs to send promotional offers to thousands of fans directly through their CRM.
For smaller businesses or infrequent campaigners a manual upload may be quite sufficient: great for local business with local custom, for example a garage reminding customers an MOT is due or a local restaurant promotion.
SMS has proven itself time and again as a robust and successful communications tool. Widely used, cost-effective and non-intrusive it will help deliver any marketing and communication campaign.
