How to do SMS Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

So how does SMS marketing work? You don’t know, or just don’t do it? Why not? Do you think SMS is expensive? Have you thought about how long it takes to look at your smartphone? What happens when you get an SMS? You look at the message straight away, right? The numbers don’t lie! 90% […]

So how does SMS marketing work? You don’t know, or just don’t do it? Why not? Do you think SMS is expensive? Have you thought about how long it takes to look at your smartphone? What happens when you get an SMS? You look at the message straight away, right?

The numbers don’t lie! 90% of people who receive SMS open messages on their mobile within a maximum of 3 minutes after receiving them.

If the likelihood that your client will read the message is hugely superior to any other tool or channel, do you still think it’s expensive? If you’re not already using this channel, then you’re losing money.

Did I grab your attention? This time to learn more about SMS marketing.

So how does SMS marketing work?

1. Define your objectives

Already thought about starting to send SMS? There is a very important element in every strategy which is very often neglected: which problem are you trying to solve? Is there a particular business opportunity that you want to explore? What is your objective?

Some of your SMS marketing campaign objectives could be: increase sales, obtain feedback via a questionnaire or simply interact with your audience.

Be clear on this before starting your SMS marketing campaign. And more importantly, establish targets and have your numbers in mind. For example: I want to close 50 sales or obtain 200 new players for my hobby.

2. Define your strategy

Now that you have defined your objectives, let’s align a strategy for your SMS campaign. Imagine that you want to recover inactive clients. What will be the best strategy? Offer a discount? Tell them that you’re now offering free delivery?

I think you already get the picture. Clearly define what exactly will influence your results according to your objectives.

3. Choose a SMS marketing software

Carefully select the SMS marketing service you’re going to use. Beware of services that offer ridiculously low prices. They could be using dubious quality routes that will simply not deliver your messages. Pay attention to the portability numbers.

There are some services that don’t even confirm whether your SMS was delivered, nor personalise the sender field of the message.  Here at E-goi, we use our own SMS marketing software which is a SaaS (Software as a Service), with an interface that allows you to easily create and send your personalised SMS and with detailed reports.

This leaves you to focus on your strategy, on your objectives and how to correctly perform your SMS marketing.

4. Already have a database?

Already chosen an SMS service? Great! But before you start, you need a database. You can start with buying one, right? Wrong! Don’t bother. It will just give you hassle. It’s like letting yourself into somebody’s house, and then once you’re in there ask if it’s okay to come in.

If you don’t like receiving unsolicited SMS, don’t do the same thing!

5. Be clear and assertive

Remember that you only have 160 characters to write your message. And just as well! This will take away the temptation to say too much in the message. So make sure you get straight to the point and give your client something of value.

Read and revise your message several times to ensure that there are no spelling mistakes in your campaign. One small error can jeopardise your reputation.

6. Don’t be a nuisance

I was thinking of going to shop X to buy a washing machine, and then I receive a message from the same shop with an incredible promotion for the same product. Incredible isn’t it? But the story doesn’t end here, because the SMS woke me up at 04:30 in the morning.

I think you already get the picture. It’s important to send segmented messages, but… don’t do things like this! And if you have clients in other countries, be careful with time zone differences.

7. Don’t send spam!

But doesn’t this just reply to email marketing? Of course not! Sending unsolicited messages, whether in email marketing, SMS marketing, in push notifications or any other channel is spam, in any part of the world.

As a consumer, be especially careful with attempts to access confidential data, and that were derived from email and used in SMS. It’s called smishing.

8. Create a sense of urgency

I want to buy a washing machine, and I even added one to my shopping basket, though I still haven’t decided to buy it. Then I received an SMS: ‘Hugo, we have washing machines with 20% discount in shop X.’ This weekend only! Show this SMS in our shop.’

This time-limited promotion adds pressure to close the sale. Apart from that, it was something I already wanted to buy! In this article, we provide step-by-step guide on how to use the scarcity trigger in an email marketing campaign, though this can also be applied to SMS, in which case make a landing page in E-goi for your intelligent SMS.

9. Make your client feel special

SMS is not only for promotional purposes. Don’t forget to get feedback, it’s crucial for the ongoing improvement of your services and therefore your clients’ satisfaction, whether they are the most important ones are not.

10. Spread to Social Media

Motivate your clients to engage on your social media channels. Encourage them to like your Facebook page, let them know about a hobby or offer to increase your page’s post reach.

11. Don’t just leave it at SMS

If you still think that SMS is expensive, remember that you can combine several channels and save hundreds of thousands of euros. Send an email marketing campaign first, segment the users that didn’t open it, and then send an SMS campaign. You can reach your entire audience in this way.

If you have an app, you can also send push notifications.

12. Analysis and Testing

Having completed these steps, it’s time to analyse the results. There are several criteria to analyse: click rates, bounce rate and conversions.

After analysing this data, you should ask some questions, such as:

– Was there a deliverability problem with a specific operator?
– Was the offer appropriate?
– Did I segment my list correctly?

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that SMS really is effective. But to make the most of this channel, apply all of the strategies shown in this article and you will undoubtedly see short-term results. Learning how to correctly perform SMS marketing and with results isn’t that difficult.

What about you? Do you have a successful SMS marketing case study? Share it with us in the comments below!