Short messaging service (SMS) marketing is a way to keep consumers in the loop. This marketing technique also helps your business reach out to targeted audiences. It sends text messages to your leads and customers to communicate with them, specifically to keep them informed about your products, services, and other information related to your organization.

So, how does it work?  Also, why is SMS marketing helpful in business?  You can find the answers to these questions by reading more of the article. 

How Does SMS Marketing Work?

SMS marketing is a communication method that closes the gap between business and its potential and existing clientele. It uses pre-written, permission-based SMS text messages to distribute promotional or informational messages to a targeted list of phone numbers. 

This marketing technique can be a practical advertising method for various businesses in different industries. For example, a blog post from Tatango states that using text marketing software can be beneficial for restaurants. 

Restaurants and food joints can keep their customers updated about the latest menu additions. Furthermore, companies in the foodservice industry can inform their consumers about the latest promotions. Consequently, customers can use the service to relay essential feedback that the business can use to improve its production.

Note that SMS marketing needs to have a target audience for the campaign to have a high chance of success. Sending text messages to random people is like shouting at a megaphone, hoping that a random individual will find your speech interesting. 

However, use it correctly, and you can reap the many benefits of this marketing technique. Some of these advantages are: 

1. Increases Open Rates

Research shows that SMS open rates can be as much as 97% higher than other marketing forms. Also, in many cases, it only takes about 90 seconds to read a text message. Therefore, several people won’t mind opening the text since it’ll only take a small portion of their time to read the message. 

Remember, the aim of marketing your products and services is for your messages to reach your target markets. Your marketing efforts might be for naught if the receivers of your messages delete the information before opening them. 

Furthermore, you can increase your open rates by adding more phone numbers to your contact list. You should know that several methods exist to grow your SMS marketing database.

For instance, you can purchase the data from a reliable provider. Otherwise, you can develop and grow the list using in-house resources. 

Either way, feeding an SMS marketing software with a long list of contacts should improve open rates. In return, you should also see an increase in sales conversions, of which you can find a deeper explanation in the next section). 

2. Increases Sales Conversion Rates

Several businesses believe that time equals money. Hence, if you’re wasting time, you’re also wasting money. 

However, using SMS marketing allows you to significantly shorten the time for your target markets to read your messages. Receiving those texts shouldn’t take more than a few seconds before the messages pop up in the receivers’ mobile devices. 

In turn, you should see growth in sales conversion rates. It’s because you’re capturing the interests of your target audience before they make second thoughts about dealing with your business. Otherwise, if you waste precious time in sending marketing texts, your leads and customers might decide to go with your competitors’ offers instead. 

3. Inexpensive

Another main advantage of using SMS marketing is its price. It’s one of the most inexpensive marketing techniques to implement. 

SMS marketing costs a lot less than other forms of advertising, like TV, radio, and newspaper adverts. Furthermore, several services offer a ‘pay per message’ model, which means you only pay for each text sent. 

For example, you're going to send texts to 100 people, and each SMS costs USD$0.0075. Hence, you'll only pay USD$0.75 for one text blast. In contrast, you might pay hundreds of dollars in newspaper, TV, or radio advertisements, which might not be ideal if you have fairly limited funds in your company's budget.  

4. Easy Integration To Current Marketing Campaigns

SMS marketing is also relatively easy to integrate to other marketing campaigns. For instance, you can integrate text marketing to your digital advertising campaign. You can use your social media channels to capture the phone numbers of interested individuals. Then, use an SMS-sending software to distribute your marketing materials to the registered people. 

The integration process doesn’t require you to spend a significant amount of time to complete. Moreover, it’s not going to let your company ‘break the bank’ as opposed to using mass media for marketing. 

Conclusion

SMS marketing can promote numerous benefits for your business. Some of these advantages may include (but are not limited to) an increase in message open rates, an increase in sales conversions, and seamless integration to other marketing campaigns. Moreover, it's one of the most inexpensive marketing techniques to use. Consider starting this marketing campaign today, and start reaping these benefits sooner than later.