One is the loneliest quantity. And in your advertising and marketing, normally that one is email. With that in thoughts, welcome to the Plus One sequence the place we’ll be going via the advantages of utilizing a number of channels to achieve your viewers. Even including only one cell channel can vastly enhance your buyer expertise. Up first: SMS.
How many instances did you verify your texts right now? Whether you’re an avid texter or not, there’s a excessive chance you despatched or acquired a textual content sooner or later throughout the day.
As just lately as 10 years in the past, the typical textual content consumer was sending or receiving over 40 messages per day. 40! As just lately as 5 years in the past, textual content messaging was the single most popular feature used on smartphones.
And with everybody in a single spot, not seeing household and pals, affected by Zoom fatigue (keep protected pals), the variety of each day texts is probably going rising shortly.
Texts and SMS are necessary, is what we’re attempting to say. So for entrepreneurs, including SMS to your technique is all however a no brainer. Here’s a fast take a look at how your buyer expertise can profit from including SMS to your channel repertoire.
Top Benefits of SMS Marketing
Reach Customers Where They Are
Over 90% of the U.S. inhabitants owns a device capable of receiving SMS messages. And now U.S. adults are spending virtually four hours a day on their cell gadgets. Heck, even your emails are being read on mobile.
The advantage of reaching your clients the place they’re is painfully apparent. If they’re utilizing their cell gadgets, and also you ship an SMS, the possibilities of engagement are a lot larger. You’re conserving your model prime of thoughts.
And since SMS messages are sometimes in a simply-designed app with out distractions—against, say, Instagram the place you possibly can verify a narrative, view pictures, watch movies, and so on., and so on.—you get the client’s undivided consideration to learn your message.
But, there’s an underutilized side to SMS too. Since this can be a cell channel, you’re sending your messages actually to the place the client is.
Take The Nudge, for instance. An SMS service that gives updates about happenings in your space, The Nudge does an ideal job at sending related messaging that pertains on to customers’ places. Going one step additional, The Nudge additionally permits clients to reply to higher refine the content material to their very own preferences.
The Nudge builds a way of neighborhood and understanding via SMS.
Working in tandem with email, the place perhaps you added location to your record of information factors to gather from customers, SMS could be a nice channel to include contextualized data that acknowledges the place the consumer is and improves their expertise.
YourModelHere.Co
SMS advertising and marketing will get a foul rap. It’s usually related to impersonal language, a fast low cost, and a URL that seems like somebody knocked over a Scrabble board.
This doesn’t must be the case anymore. Modern SMS advertising and marketing will be extra personalised—to the consumer and the model! We’ll get to the consumer beneath, however for the model, it’s easy now to get your model identify entrance and middle in your SMS advertising and marketing.
In this instance from Kylie Cosmetics, the model builds belief and clout by offering URLs that characteristic “Kylie Cosmetics” proper there within the identify. Taking it one step additional, Kylie Cosmetics customizes the URL primarily based on the product line to offer the recipient a bit extra context.
Without that customized URL, such an SMS may really feel like spam.
With options like customized area assist, your SMS advertising and marketing good points credibility, retains your model identify prime of thoughts, and places your clients relaxed.
Yep, Still Here!
Speaking of conserving your model prime of thoughts for purchasers, SMS is an underutilized channel for marketing campaign advertising and marketing. Unless your customers have uncommon settings that delete their messages repeatedly, their texts keep of their inbox for no less than a yr.
SMS advertising and marketing loses influence when used sometimes and inconsistently. Like we talked about above, customers as of late are texting up a storm, so your SMS campaigns ought to make the most of these common visits to the textual content app.
Kmart exhibits this in a sensible approach through the use of SMS because the channel of selection for his or her welcome sequence. By going past simply the “Respond with Y to opt in” kind of welcome, Kmart is letting the consumer know that this channel is a crucial a part of the Kmart expertise. And since these messages aren’t disappearing in the identical approach as, say, push notifications would, the consumer can regularly revisit their “conversation” with Kmart to see outdated offers.
Apart from lacking Day 3, this can be a nice method to maintain your model prime of thoughts and present your pleasure to new clients.
By entering into Day 5—and persevering with to Day 7 from our expertise—Kmart is establishing a cadence and setting expectations. Maybe a textual content per day is a bit a lot for some, however this frequency doesn’t must be sustained all through the expertise. High frequency early on units the tone that SMS goes to be an important supply for provides, reductions, and different data.
Incorporating SMS into broader campaigns—whether or not these campaigns are all by way of SMS or are cross-channel—provides customers a sign that this channel is a direct line to the model, and one that can not be ignored.
IDK, My BFF Jill
Text messages are private. They’re a direct contact between customers. The content material is fluid, conversational, and enjoyable. So why don’t extra manufacturers use SMS in an analogous method?
Email and push notifications delve into enjoyable tones, even bringing in emojis repeatedly. Marketers right now are aiming for a customized relationship with clients—one which meets them the place they’re and communicates in a approach that feels human.
SMS advertising and marketing arrives proper in somebody’s message inbox subsequent to their conversations with household and pals. To construct a more in-depth relationship, manufacturers needs to be extra human of their messaging.
Resy begins happening this extra conversational tone of their affirmation messages. “Just a reminder” is one thing you possible heard from a colleague right now. And “Thanks for letting us know” seems like a pleasant, well mannered contact past the usual, robotic-sounding “Your reservation has been cancelled.”
While not conversational, per se, Resy will get a bit friendlier of their SMS.
We aren’t saying you must go full LOL BTW textual content communicate along with your clients—until that matches your model—however including a contact of conversational language makes your messages extra readable and human. A great instance of this could be to ask clients to avoid wasting your contact of their telephone.
SMS advertising and marketing can really feel additional impersonal coming from a string of numbers. Once customers have opted in, ship a fast message thanking them for opting in and ask them to avoid wasting the quantity so that they realize it’s you straight away each time you ship a message. It might help set expectations and construct a connection along with your model. Just think about the response if their bff Jill sees your identify on their telephone!
Plus One Channel Makes All the Difference
SMS advertising and marketing is about tapping into one of many at the moment most used communication strategies. It’s a direct line to your customers the place they’re spending a big—generally the bulk—quantity of their time.
Using the above methods, including SMS to your advertising and marketing technique provides you a brand new channel, sure, however most significantly it provides you entry to a relationship builder with every consumer. Treat SMS such as you do along with your family and friends and shoppers will reply in variety.
This is simply Part 1 of our Plus One sequence. Stay tuned for subsequent week’s version protecting Push Notifications. In the meantime, schedule a demo right now to learn the way so as to add SMS advertising and marketing to your toolkit.