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SMS is a great tool to support your media plan to boost customer engagement and brand loyalty.
Not only are text messages the most immediate method of communication and marketing but also an easy way to collect feedback from your customers. In addition, SMS can supplement other marketing strategies.
In this article, you'll read how SMS can complement marketing methods you may already be using.
First, you need an SMS platform to easily send mass text messages. Text club subscribers must opt-in to receive text messages from you. To document their consent, your SMS service needs opt-in methods.
Keyword to short code and texting phone number
Website form
Mobile tap to opt in button for mobile version of website
QR code
Checkout form
Interactive point-of-sale screen to pull up on a tablet
Upload list of subscribers you already have—must have confirmation of consent
Gamified opt-in methods including spin & win game and scratch-off game
SMS is a great complement to email marketing
Text club subscribers opt in to get text messages from you—they have already confirmed they are interested in your company and value the content you send them. With an industry average of 98% open rates for SMS, you can be confident they see your text message. The average open rate for email is 21.5%, meaning that most of your email subscribers are not seeing your content.
However, each has its own benefits and the two can complement each other.
One example of how SMS and email work together is to send an SMS reminding your subscribers to check their inboxes for the latest news and product releases. You might also consider texting the permanent URL for the email campaign. However, be sure to use a Google Analytics URL builder to track any links that are in your email and SMS to see which method drove the higher traffic.
Promote your text club via email.
SMS and social media marketing work hand-in-hand
With 80.9% of Americans using social media, you certainly want to implement a social media marketing strategy. That statistic refers to social media usage across desktop, mobile devices, and tablets. An even larger portion of the American population —96% of Americans— own cell phones and can receive a text message.
With social media’s organic reach declining and the focus now more on “pay to perform”, businesses simply do not have the same control over audience’s feeds that they once did, unless paying to boost their content. With SMS, you know your audience is seeing your message.
You can use social media to promote your text club by publishing your opt-in link and promoting your keyword to texting number.
Adding a clickable link to an Instagram story is a great way to boost your text club. For a tutorial on every possible way to add a link to an Instagram post, click here.
SMS can also help drive traffic to your social media accounts to encourage engagement and increase followers. Perhaps your business wants to promote a Facebook post about a giveaway or event. Copy that URL, shorten it using our built-in shortening and tracking tool, then use it in an SMS campaign. To copy the original Facebook post's URL, follow this tutorial.
SMS and digital advertising
As you know, the cost of digital advertising is continually increasing, and the market is saturated with your competitors’ banner ads. Nonetheless, digital advertising can be a good method to bring new customers to your website and remind them about your business.
Once you drive them to your website, you want to integrate a remarketing campaign— your goal is to capture them while they are using their mobile devices so you can provide personalized content to your desired audience, based on their location, browsing history, and buying habits.
Add a text club signup with an exclusive offer to web pages you promote in your digital marketing efforts.
SMS and print advertising or direct mail
Print material gives businesses an opportunity to showcase their products with eye-catching imagery. Make sure to use high-quality photography and simple, concise text. Consider utilizing a QR code to direct people to a unique landing page where they can sign up for your text club OR generate a keyword QR code from our texting platform. Because website QR codes track the number of scans, location, and date of the scan, you can evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign. If you are using the keyword QR code, a static QR code, you will not be able to capture the number of scans. However, you can monitor the success as you watch the number of subscribers grow. Advertise an SMS keyword specific to your campaign, use a unique promo code or QR code with a custom URL on the print materials.
Repurpose content
Send an MMS using the graphics you publish to social media. You might also consider creating an animated GIF using your photos or converting a video to a GIF using a free online GIF editing tool such as Ezgif.com.
Monitor the efficiency of all marketing strategies by using customized URLs
If you do not already have a Google Analytics account, create one. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can follow this tutorial.
Google Analytics reports traffic sources and traffic trends to help guide you in determining the most effective and cost-efficient marketing strategies. When promoting online ordering, use trackable links across all online marketing efforts and in your SMS campaigns. If you’re promoting the same website across multiple media vehicles, use the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder to customize a unique URL for each medium. AGE Texting customers can utilize the platform’s built-in URL shortening tool to generate a shortened trackable link for SMS campaigns. It should match up with your Google Analytics reporting.
Complementing your marketing strategies with SMS can help expand your reach, boost engagement with your social media followers, track the effectiveness of print and direct mail efforts, and increase frequency of your marketing messages.
SOURCES:
1. Techjury.net “35+ Must-Know SMS Marketing Statistics in 2021”
3. Pewresearch.org “Social Media Fact Sheet”
4. Pewresearch.org “Mobile Fact Sheet”
5. Blog.hootsuite.com “Organic Reach is in Decline—Here’s What You Can Do About It”
Updated 11/27/23