As people rely more on their smartphones for communication and information, it's no surprise that 92% of users have their phones within reach 24/7.
SMS marketing allows businesses to send timely and personalized messages to engage customers and increase sales. In fact, businesses sent 56 million more SMS campaigns in 2023 than in 2022, and automated SMS sends doubled, generating more than $34 million in revenue.
Done incorrectly, text messaging can lead to unhappy subscribers and even legal issues. In this guide, we'll show you how to do SMS marketing the right way.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS stands for short message service. SMS marketing helps businesses or nonprofit organizations send text messages to customers or clients to ensure that they receive timely communications.
With mobile usage skyrocketing around the world, incorporating SMS marketing into your ecommerce strategy can be a game-changer for maintaining customer relationships and maximizing revenue opportunities.
Businesses use SMS to send marketing messages to subscribers about limited-time offers, subscription confirmations, event announcements, appointment reminders, and more.
Common types of Short Message Service (SMS) marketing examples include
- Personalized promotions
- Offers or discounts
- Remarketing
- Surveys
Is SMS marketing legal?
SMS marketing is legal as long as you obtain consent from your subscribers and your business complies with KISA's policies.
According to the Korea Text Communication Anti-Spam Policy, businesses must obtain consent before sending SMS marketing text messages. The law also requires that SMS marketing text messages include the following
- Consent to send nighttime advertisements (from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. the following day).
- The phrase "(advertisement)" must be inserted at the beginning of the content
- The name of the business or service in a way that is recognizable to the user
- Provide information on how to unsubscribe
For more information, please refer to the Anti-Spam Policy pageon the Korea Post website.
How SMS marketing works
Strategically, email marketing and SMS marketing are similar. Like email marketing, the goal of SMS marketing is to sell, educate, or build loyalty. SMS is an owned marketing channel where the sender has full control over the phone list and distribution, and businesses can send one-to-one or one-to-many messages depending on their goals.
As with email marketing, you need to obtain customer consent before sending marketing messages via SMS.
Sometimes, SMSes are sent with just content in the body and a link to a website, which is very bad for acquisition.
The link allows you to tell the user more details on your website.
Because of the length of the link URL, it doesn't work well in a short text. So in this case, you can shorten the link in Vivoldi and put the short URL in the body of the text message. This is very useful because when a user clicks on the link in the SMS, the clicks are also counted.
Once you get consent from your subscribers, you can send a variety of SMSes:
- New product announcements
- Special offers, such as limited-time sales and free shipping
- Subscriber-only offers
- Seasonal reminders and product promotions and sales events
- Important notes
SMS marketing is effective during peak shopping seasons when email spam is high, paid advertising is expensive, and consumers' attention is focused. It's also a great way to automate your customer communications. You can create texts and set triggers to have your marketing tools send them at the perfect time.
How to use SMS marketing
Use SMS to quickly connect with customers, answer questions, and guide them to take action.
Follow these guidelines to create and send successful SMS text messages for your business:
Character count and tone
When sending SMS marketing messages for your business, make every character count. The standard character count for SMS marketing messages is 70 characters (including spaces).
Keep your messages friendly and informative to reinforce your brand. Is your business targeting younger customers? Emojis can say it all.
Respect sending times
No one wants to receive a marketing text message at 2 a.m. Make sure you respect sending times, such as only sending SMS marketing messages between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Frequency
Similar to respecting quiet times, you shouldn't send too many messages to your subscribers. Send SMS marketing messages only when you need to provide important information to your subscribers without bombarding them with too many updates.
Value
Your SMS marketing messages should provide value to your subscribers. From promotional codes to verification information, clearly explain how your subscribers can benefit from your business.
Benefits of SMS marketing for small businesses
SMS text message marketing helps businesses get closer to their subscribers and puts your message right in the palm of their hands. Here are some of the key benefits of incorporating SMS text messaging into your business marketing strategy.
Build relationships
For small business owners, the biggest benefit is building relationships with customers. By combining SMS marketing with other marketing channels, you can increase your company's average user lifespan by 78% while delivering timely information to customers when and where they want it.
Directness
The success of SMS marketing depends on your ability to deliver important messages to your subscribers. It's direct and immediate. With no spam folders and 80.7% of consumers checking text notifications within 10 minutes, your marketing messages are always seen.
Highly engaging
Ecommerce SMS marketing offers an incredible opportunity to drive customer engagement. In contrast to email, which has an open rate of only 12% to 25%, SMS has an impressive open rate of 97.5%.
Text messages also feel more personal, like a conversation with a friend rather than a transactional message. This characteristic of text messaging is what makes it so authentic, practical, and engaging.
Cost-effective
SMS marketing can reach a wide audience at a low cost, making it an attractive option for businesses with limited marketing budgets. Because it's still new in the digital marketing space, you can often find digital marketing software platforms that offer SMS marketing services as an add-on feature.
Brand awareness
Instantly connect your subscribers with your brand message by building conversations through SMS text messages. Provide value and strengthen your brand by sending information about product launches, flash sales, alerts, and more.
Efficient for customer service
Text messaging reduces the number of customer service calls.
Text messages are shorter than emails and take less time to compose. Customers can send quick text messages when it's convenient for them. Businesses can also respond in real time.
You can start a text message conversation and switch to a call only when needed. Unlike live chat or email, text messages automatically provide real contact information.
Breakthrough for younger customers
Text messaging is a great way to reach younger customers who use their phones every day.
Globally, 80% of teens with cell phones actively text, and 56% of teens cite texting as their favorite way to communicate. Additionally, adults ages 18-24 send and receive more than 120 text messages every day.
10 tips for getting the most out of SMS marketing
Here are some important best practices and key insights for successful SMS marketing efforts.
1. How to present texting options to customers
Change your message to say "Text or call". By showing "text" first, you can encourage them to choose text, which is less expensive than calling.
It's a good idea to let customers know about the text option in your newsletters, emails, and receipts. You can also add an image like the one below to the thank-you notes that come with your products or to your review requests.
This note has prevented several returns, gotten us great reviews, and some customers have raved about the product.
2. Setting the right customer expectations is key
When customers text, they expect to hear back quickly. But don't worry if you don't have the resources to reply to an SMS message as soon as you receive it. Simply set up an auto-reply that says, "I'll reply by...".
Even if they have to wait a few hours to hear back, keeping your promise will keep your customers happy.
3. Adjust your current template responses to fit your text messaging environment
Message templates are great for consistency and speed, but they shouldn't be longer than 80 characters.
Consider using a shorter template for texts and a typical length template for emails.
4. Informal is better
Using text abbreviations can be an effective way to make your SMS messages concise and engaging. Don't be afraid to use abbreviations, emojis, and more, but keep your tone informal and authentic. It's a good idea to set an informal tone from your welcome message, so that your online store establishes itself as a friendly presence from the start.
5. Being in your customers' 'contacts' is a valuable asset
The 'Contacts' app on your customer's phone is the first thing that comes to mind when they think of your business. This is especially important for eCommerce stores that rely on subscriptions and repeat purchases (such as those in the personal care space). Position yourself as a business that's always there to take care of your customers, and they'll appreciate it.
6. Position your text messages as VIP-only offers
If you want to make your SMS marketing even more special, you can create "exclusive SMS deals" for your customers.
One client (a cosmetics brand) saw an 88% opt-in rate for text offers and a 15% conversion rate for the offers themselves when they only offered them to VIPs.
7. Reply immediately or over lunch
If you're not replying immediately, it's best to do so during lunch or towards the end of the day. Why? Because people are more likely to have time to complete their purchase.
8. Don't build it yourself
The field of SMS marketing is evolving rapidly, so there's no need to develop your own system with in-house engineers. Instead, utilize an SMS content marketing manager that includes everything you need.
9. Texting isn't just for the younger generation
Grandmas text too! People over 65 use SMS just as often as people in their 40s, and even more often than people in their 50s.
The reason for this is that grandparents use texting because it's the best way to communicate with their grandchildren. Once they get used to it, they realize that texting is better than calling, which can be muffled or disconnected.
10. Don't forget to reply.
It may seem obvious, but some ecommerce brands ignore this basic concept. If you don't plan to reply, it's best to hold off on sending a text message until you're ready.
With Vivoldi, you can shorten the link URL in the body of your SMS to make it shorter and see detailed stats on how many people clicked on the link.
The #1 shortened URL service. Vivoldi!
Grazie.
