SMS: The Next Level of Your Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy

Businessmarketing

SMS: The Next Level of Your Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably already know, use, and love both social media marketing and email marketing. As business owners, these are two  powerful forms of digital marketing that we should all be using on a regular basis to drive traffic, attract new potential customers, and promote our brands!

However, you may not feel as familiar with SMS marketing, a new way of reaching customers directly via text message that has been gaining popularity in recent years due to its’ hyper-personal nature. 

SMS marketing is a fantastic complement to your existing strategy, but it requires a nuanced understanding of how to communicate with your customers on such an intimate level. 

Keep reading this blog post if you want to learn more about what SMS marketing really is, the best practices you should be keeping in mind when creating and implementing your SMS marketing strategy, and the platform you need to be using to make it all happen! 

What is SMS marketing, exactly?

SMS marketing is simply the practice of sending marketing messages via text message to subscribers who opt-in to your SMS list. Common uses of SMS marketing include:

  • Sending promotional messages
  • Providing special offers, discounts, bundles, or deals
  • Asking subscribers to answer surveys or polls

Why should you be utilising SMS marketing?

Did you know the average person checks their phone 377 times a day? It goes without saying: we live in a world that is absolutely dominated by our cell phones, and so do our consumers. This makes marketing via SMS an obvious choice.

Think about it: emails can sit unread for days and social media posts only reach a small percentage of your given audience, whereas text messages get opened almost immediately. The data even states that the open rate for SMS marketing vastly surpasses that of email — we’re talking a 98% open rate for SMS versus a 20% open rate for email. That is significant!

However, SMS marketing only works if you approach it the right way. This is an ultra-intimate, hyper-personal form of marketing. The strategy you use for SMS should look very different than your strategy for social media and email. If you take too aggressive of an approach to this form of marketing, you risk alienating your consumer for good, so it’s extra important to know what to do when it comes to your SMS strategy. Let’s talk about best practices.


SMS marketing best practices

  • Get consent to send SMS marketing messages.
You need to remember that your SMS marketing messages will pop up in the same place your customer receives texts from their friends and family. This level of intimacy requires consent in order to not be a violation. While you probably already collect your customer’s phone numbers, this does not mean you should start mass-texting them. Much like email marketing, SMS marketing requires a clear and definitive opt-in.
So, how can you get customers to actually subscribe to your SMS messages? Make it worth their while! Offer them an incentive in the form of a discount or special deal if they opt-in to marketing text messages. Then, send one SMS (and one only) thanking them for subscribing and asking them to confirm their opt-in with a simple “Yes” or “No” to receive their code, money off, etc. If they don’t respond or respond with “No”, don’t text them again.
  • Include instructions to opt out.

This is not only a best practice but a legal requirement for all marketing communications, and with SMS it is especially important to give your customers an easy way to stop hearing from you via this channel if they no longer want to. After all, repeatedly sending unwanted text messages is more likely to ward off customers than lead to sales.

  • Avoid sending excessive text messages.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like receiving a constant barrage of text messages from my friends and family, let alone a brand that I’ve maybe only purchased from once or twice, if at all! You need to remember that your customers might not see every email you send, but it is likely that your text messages are reaching them at all times. Do you want them to associate your brand with a source of annoyance and interruption? If not, dial it back on the number of marketing text messages you are sending and instead focus on making a bigger impact with fewer texts.
  • Make your strategy hyper-personal.
Another way to up the personalisation level in your SMS marketing strategy is to make sure your customers can directly reply to your text messages. Allowing them to ask questions, receive information, or get customer support via this highly accessible and convenient channel is going to boost customer experience overall and make your customer feel valued (as opposed to “just another subscriber.”)

Don’t forget to add in small personalisation touches too — little details like cute emojis, addressing your customer by their first name, or recommending a product based on something they purchased in the past can go a long way.

  • Know the format.
SMS messages max out at 160 characters. That isn’t a lot of space (especially when you factor in the opt out option you should be including with every message), but when used wisely, it can have a big impact. A general rule of thumb when dealing with SMS marketing is to skip the fluff and deliver the most concise and potent message possible. You can also utilise URL shorteners to save characters when directing your customer to take action.


Getting started with SMS marketing

If you’re ready to take the leap and get started with your SMS marketing strategy, there is no better platform to turn to for help than Klaviyo. 

Those of you who have been following me for a while now already know that I’m a big fan of Klaviyo for both email and SMS marketing. I’ve spoken at length about why I love Klaviyo for email marketing on the blog before, and that enthusiasm extends to their SMS marketing tools as well!

Klaviyo’s high-level SMS capabilities include features like instant integrations, list growth tools, powerful segmentation + personalisation, two-way conversations, accessible consent + compliance, and so much more. Plus, having your email and SMS marketing in one place allows you to build a multi-channel strategy that works in alignment with your existing marketing.

I can’t recommend Klaviyo enough for all of your email and SMS marketing needs. In fact, I’m such a massive fan of the platform that I’ve even partnered with them as a Platinum Master. This means that I know all of the ins-and-outs of how to best optimise Klaviyo to see long-term results and am approved by the platform to provide you with strategic guidance in all areas of email and SMS marketing!

So, with that being said, if you’re looking to create and execute a next-level SMS or email marketing strategy in the near future, I’m your go-to! Click here to learn more about how we can set up an intensive business coaching and strategy, and have a step-by-step plan prepared for you in just 90 minutes.

RELATED POSTS