Be it a flash sale alert, an exclusive discount code, or a personalized offer, SMS marketing stands out for its ability to grab your audience's attention and prompt instant action.
As businesses seek more personalized and effective ways to engage with their customers, SMS marketing offers a unique advantage to marketers like you.
By using innovative SMS marketing tools, you can deliver personalized and relevant messages that resonate with your audience and drive conversions. However, crafting SMS campaigns that genuinely engage customers and boost sales is a common challenge.
In this article, we’ll explore creative SMS marketing ideas to help you overcome this hurdle and connect with your audience effectively.
SMS marketing has become a go-to channel for businesses due to its high effectiveness and simplicity. Here are some key reasons why SMS marketing should be part of your strategy:
Whether you’re aiming to increase sales, improve customer retention, or promote special offers, these SMS marketing ideas will help you craft messages that stand out and drive results.
Using text messages to gather feedback can work for almost every type of business or service.
By texting your list of options to choose from, respondents can cast their votes by replying to your text message. When someone replies with one of the options, you will see the results in real time.
Retailers use text voting to ask customers which types of items they want to see more of a selection of.
Text voting offers endless possibilities. Many text services allow you to view the poll results on a graph in real time, which is great for displaying at live events or in a classroom setting.
If your business does giveaways, implementing the contest using text is a great way to automate the process.
You are able to determine what time and date the contest will finish. You can also determine the number of winner(s) you would like the system to select. The system will then randomly select the number(s) for the winners and send out the winning text message that you have set up. This can be a coupon code to redeem online, a winning text asking them to reply with their address to be mailed the winning item, a text asking them to visit your location and present the text to be awarded the winning item, or whatever fits your business model and giveaway.
The best part about hosting a giveaway using SMS is that all of the entrants will now be part of your text club that you can use to re-market in the future.
With SMS messaging, you are able to mass text your subscribers or groups, and when any of those people respond, you will receive their response instead of the entire group.
This is great for answering customers' questions or scheduling appointments. The inbox will contain the entire thread of each contact’s conversation, so you can keep track of the conversation over the term they were a part of your text group.
Some businesses choose to provide customer service via text message, and many consumers report that they would prefer to communicate with a business via text message rather than a phone call or other method.
With SMS, you are able to segment your customer contact list by setting up multiple keywords or groups. This is great if your business has multiple user segments to reach.
For example, a school could set up groups for parents, administration, and students. By segmenting these groups, you can send relevant messages to the respective groups. For example, you could send students a test reminder or administrators a training course reminder.
Text message group segmentation works great for many business types, but not all businesses have a need to segment their contacts.
You can use SMS messages to collect other customer data, such as email addresses and birthdays. There are two ways to collect this information: text message or website widget.
If you choose to gather the data using text messages, you would text your subscribers and ask for them to reply with their email address or birthday. When a subscriber completes that action, their contact information is automatically updated with their information.
The easiest way to collect this information is to use a text website widget like the example below, which gathers all of this information in one place and will update the contact’s information in your account.
You can also choose to integrate your text message system with your email provider so that text messages are imported automatically to your email list. Alternatively, you can download your contact list and upload it manually to your email service, even though some people might question whether SMS is the new email.
You can use text to gather reviews for your business or service. Texting your list with a review link to gather reviews on any platform you’d like for your business. This is a great way to engage with your text following and get their input on your business or services.
You can set up drip campaigns to go out to your text list at whatever intervals of time you choose. For example, you can choose to send a second message to the subscriber a week after the initial opt-in, a month after that, and so on. This automates your marketing messages.
An auto shop could set up drip messages based on a customer's oil change dates to remind customers that the service is due three months after the initial visit. The text could also include a discount to incentivize customers to return to their specific location for the service.
Collect your text subscribers' birthdays and send them a text on their birthdays to connect with them on a personal level.
You can choose for the text to include a special birthday offer or simply just wish them a happy birthday. The birthday text messages can be set up to go out automatically, so you don’t have to manually trigger each one.
But if you're feeling creative, adding a GIF or photo to the birthday text gives an extra personal touch and will surely be remembered.
With SMS, you can send coupons directly to your subscribers' cell phones. This is great because coupon clipping is not required, and mass text messages have 10 times the redemption rate of print coupons and 60 times faster response time than email coupons.
By using a mass texting service, you are able to set up auto-replies. These replies go out automatically when someone texts your specific keyword to the shortcode. Your auto-reply can be changed at any time to reflect specials, incentives, or information you want your text club to have.
If you have messages that you’d like to send out on a regular basis, schedule them to go out at your desired intervals of time – such as weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, and so on. You can also use the message scheduler to set up texts for holidays or known sale dates in advance, which will automate your text marketing.
Many SMS providers allow for multiple-user account access, which is a great feature if you have different departments that will be sending their own messages to text subscribers.
Set up text appointment reminders to cut down on no-shows and save staff time rather than placing a call. When someone replies to an appointment reminder to cancel, you are then able to text your list and see if anyone would like to take the last-minute appointment.
Use text messages to cross-market your business, services, or products by sending text subscribers a link to your website, social media, a new blog post, or whatever you’re trying to gain traction on.
Because SMS receives a whopping 98% open rate, it is the best way to ensure that your followers see your message.
SMS marketing platforms streamline the process of sending targeted messages, managing contact lists, and tracking campaign performance. The top picks are:
*These are the five leading SMS marketing software solutions from G2's Fall 2024 Grid® Report.
Whether you’re just getting started with SMS marketing or looking to refine your approach, these ideas offer a solid foundation for building customer relationships and boosting your bottom line. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect with your audience in a way that’s personal, effective, and highly measurable.
Unlock powerful insights with the latest SMS marketing statistics that can transform your sales strategy.
This article was originally published in 2019. It has been updated with new information
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