Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to strengthen leads and connect with your clients. However, there’s another contender in the game that’s proving highly effective in driving engagement and conversion rate optimisation (CRO). Have we piqued your interest? Any guesses as to what it may be? Check your pocket or perhaps it’s already in your hand… Have a read to learn why SMS marketing strategy is the way forward…
Utilising Your Smartphone
Using texts on your smartphone for your SMS marketing strategy is highly effective for several reasons. Firstly, SMS messages boast an incredibly high open rate, with an average of 98%, far surpassing the typical open rates for email marketing, which currently sits at around 40%. This means your messages are almost guaranteed to be seen by your audience.
Secondly, SMS messages are delivered instantly and can be read within minutes, making them ideal for time-sensitive promotions and updates.
Thirdly, clients increasingly prefer receiving business communications via text, finding it more convenient and direct. Additionally, an SMS marketing strategy allows for personalised, targeted messaging that can drive higher engagement and CRO. With our reliance on smartphones, incorporating SMS into your marketing strategy ensures you stay connected with your audience in a way that’s timely, personal and highly effective.
Keeping It Trending
Utilising SMS for marketing strategy keeps you moving with the current times for several compelling reasons.
Firstly, the widespread adoption and constant use of smartphones means that people are almost always within reach of their text messages. This ubiquity ensures that your marketing messages are delivered directly into the hands of your audience, making it one of the most immediate forms of communication.
Secondly, the digital landscape is increasingly focused on quick, concise and direct interactions. SMS fits this trend perfectly, providing a platform for short, impactful messages that can be read and responded to quickly. This aligns with modern consumer behaviour, where attention spans are shorter and the preference for bite-sized information is growing.
Thirdly, an SMS marketing strategy leverages the benefits of personalisation and real-time engagement. You can tailor messages to individual preferences and behaviours, making your marketing efforts more relevant and effective. This real-time aspect is crucial in today’s fast-paced world, allowing businesses to respond swiftly to market changes, client inquiries and promotional opportunities.
Finally, the data supports this shift. With the average open rate for SMS campaigns being significantly higher than that of email campaigns and a substantial percentage of consumers preferring text communications, it’s clear that SMS marketing aligns with current consumer preferences and technological trends. By adopting an SMS strategy, you ensure that your business stays relevant, competitive and connected with your audience in a manner that resonates with their daily habits and communication styles.
6 Steps To Creating A Successful SMS Marketing Strategy
- Define Your Brand Voice
Ensuring the language used and the tone is relevant for your target audience. Will you be speaking differently via text than you do on social media and your website? - Identify Your Audience
Map out the customer journey, outlining all the paths a consumer might take toward making a purchase; the thoughts, feelings and actions of prospects/customers at each stage of the customer lifecycle; your existing marketing strategy for retaining, upselling and breeding loyalty among customers; which types of SMS marketing messages you should be sending; and where in the customer lifecycle you should be sending text marketing messages. - Establish Your Goals
Define goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based (SMART)
Start with your overall business goals, proceed to your long-term strategic marketing goals, and conclude with your overall SMS marketing strategy and campaign-specific goals. - Audit Your Existing Content
Is your content up to date?
Does your content meet the requirements for the intended stage of the customer lifecycle or sales funnel?
Does your content have a clear target audience?
Does your content include an appropriate CTA?
Is there any existing content that can be used to inspire a new SMS marketing strategy or tactic? - Outline Your Content Development And Distribution Processes And Channels
Ensuring your SMS content team has a clear understanding of content themes and subjects. Establishing what types of content are being created and what unique steps each type requires.
What type of SMS marketing platform or other marketing, sales and/or CX tool are you using to create and distribute your text messages? - Develop Your Editorial Plan And Incorporate It Into Your Content Calendar
Look back at your content audit and identify the topics with the best performance.
Reach out to your high-value clients and ask influencers what inspired them to visit your site, request a demo, make a purchase or promote your brand – as well as what types of messages they prefer to receive via text.
Identify gaps and opportunities related to your user personas, funnel or lifecycle stage and content types – with the goal of covering them all, as well as interconnecting related pieces of content to direct users down the funnel/lifecycle and toward your desired marketing strategy actions.
Create a timeline for each SMS marketing strategy campaign, project and assignment.
Assign all roles from development to approval and from distribution to monitoring, analysis and optimisation.
Ready To Start Your SMS Marketing Journey?
If you’re eagerly anticipating more marketing strategy top tips and tricks and ready to per your business, let Truly help you navigate the industry and its ever-changing trends to ensure you achieve maximum results!
Fill in an online contact form or call us on 01926 814 547 to speak with our friendly team.
Want to see more from us? Visit our TikTok, Instagram and Facebook profiles to see what we’re up to!