Although there are a variety of marketing strategies that business owners can employ to help build their businesses, SMS marketing can be particularly effective. The acronym SMS stands for short message server, and SMS marketing is a form of marketing which is used through a mobile phone. It consists of sending prospective clients or existing customers text messages geared towards marketing the goods and/or services offered by a business. By learning more about the benefits of SMS marketing and making it a part of your business’s advertising campaign, your company can experience the continual growth and expansion that you want.
Why SMS Marketing Is Important
As stated earlier, SMS marketing is a form of marketing that involves the use of a mobile device. This form of marketing is garnering great interest from both large and small business owners as a result of the fact that more than 70% of the world’s population currently owns a mobile phone. In America, 9 out of 10 people have a mobile phone, making the U.S. market a particularly viable medium through which to use SMS marketing. Currently, research indicates that mobile internet usage will exceed use of the internet via desktop by 2014. This is unsurprising in light of the fact that more than 50% of “local” searches were completed through the use of a mobile device in 2011. To facilitate SMS marketing, a bulk SMS gateway is often used. An SMS gateway is a type of telecommunications network facility that functions by receiving or sending SMS transmissions from or to a telecommunications network that can support SMS.
How SMS Marketing Can Boost Your Business
If you are serious about ensuring that your business undergoes continual growth and expansion, you may want to think about the ways that SMS marketing can boost your business. Here are three reasons it can be advantageous for your company:
1. It’s cost-effective.
Although SMS marketing can boost your business in a plethora of ways, one of the most important is that it is cost-effective. As many marketing experts know, the cost of SMS marketing is just pennies per text message. This is much less expensive than the costs you would incur from other forms of advertising, such as print ads, commercials, and other forms of media marketing. Moreover, the money that you save through SMS marketing can be channeled into other forms of marketing efforts, which can help expand the influence of your business.
2. It’s promotional.
SMS marketing is a great form of advertising to invest in because it functions as an easy and effective promotional tool. When you want to advertise an upcoming sale or hot new item that your business is selling, sending text messages about it is an incredibly simple and fast way to do so.
3. It helps build relationships.
As many marketing experts know, one of the best ways to ensure that you develop and maintain an ever-expanding client base is by building relationships with people. Since SMS marketing is a very personal and direct form of advertising, it is effective in accomplishing this goal. Although generic text messages may not be effective in helping you build relationships with your customers, sending highly personal messages with detailed information regarding their account with you is a wonderful way to do so.
Things To Remember When Beginning An SMS Marketing Campaign
In recognizing how advantageous SMS marketing can be for your business, you should be sure to maximize its efficacy for your company by recognizing a few tips and tricks that can make it more useful to you. First of all, you should keep in mind that you have to obtain the consent of your customers before you begin sending them your promotional text messages. Also remember that you must include an unsubscribe option with each message you send so that your customers are not receiving your text messages against their will. Finally, remember that customers can grow irritated and overwhelmed if you send too many text messages, so make them as infrequent as possible.
Getting Started With Your SMS Marketing Campaign
Once you recognize what an effective role SMS marketing can play in boosting your business, you may be ready to begin implementing an SMS marketing strategy. There are several things you will need to do to get started, including collecting the mobile numbers to which you’ll send messages and verifying that you are in compliance with any and all legal responsibilities required to create an SMS marketing campaign. In many cases, a company CEO may find that the use of business SMS services is a great help in implementing an SMS marketing strategy. Business SMS services offered by a marketing or advertising agency could include things such as tracking the return on your investment, monitoring the number of mobile users who subscribe and unsubscribe from messages, and tailoring the text messages sent to suit the needs, values, and interests of the receiver.
Conclusion
If you are interested in building your business by effectively promoting your goods and services, you should know that SMS marketing can help you do so. By making use of a bulk SMS gateway as well as SMS marketing services provided by professional advertising experts, you will likely find that your business begins experiencing increased growth and expansion. Good luck!
This post comes from Sarah, who has been researching the effectiveness of SMS marketing by reading the blog at directSMS, a business dedicated to getting people started in the world of SMS marketing.