What Is SMS Marketing? Tips for Running It Effectively

Promoting products and services to customers on mobile is growing strongly. There are even more phone users than internet users, which makes it an excellent marketing resource for every business. SMS Marketing has low marketing costs, high returns, can promote many categories and delivers content clearly. When response rates are high, this marketing online platform brings big results. Let's Mona Media look at this distinctive form of marketing in the article below.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS Marketing is short for Short Message Service Marketing: sending short text messages to mobile phones. These are messages businesses send to customers to sell, introduce services, send birthday greetings, VIP member offers and more.

With short messages and low costs, almost every brand, from fashion and food to furniture, uses this form of advertising. Like other forms, SMS Marketing has pros and cons. Below we cover SMS Marketing in more detail.

Pros and cons of SMS Marketing

Before you run an SMS Marketing strategy, it helps to understand the pros and cons of this model.

Advantages of SMS Marketing

The advertising message is sent directly to the recipient

No spam filtering and no hidden messages: these messages reach the recipient directly. Ad content goes through the mobile carrier to arrive in the customer's message inbox.

High message reach

90% of recipients open a message as soon as they hear it arrive.

SMS Marketing costs less than other online marketing activities

Each message costs only about 550 VND. Advertising through sampling costs sample products. Advertising in the media costs far more.

SMS Marketing is highly personalized

The message reaches an individual user directly. It influences the customer's state of mind and pushes them to act and buy.

Simple to run

Messages are collected under a sender ID and sent in bulk according to the data you provide. Tools handle all of it. You only need to write one concise, short message that drives action.

Disadvantages of SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing is usually limited by character count

A message that is too long is split into several messages, and customers only read what they see rather than scrolling down. The sender has to write briefly so the message fits one screen. Without care for the language, hard-to-follow writing will not make an impression on the reader.

It is hard to measure how well messages convert into purchases

Measuring on a website lets you see visitor numbers and sign-ups. With SMS Marketing, you almost cannot tell how many people read the message.

What types of marketing is SMS used for?

SMS Marketing is used in many different ways. Here are the most common ones:

Sending SMS about promotions or discount codes

Sending messages about promotions or customer codes is the most common use of SMS Marketing. Businesses save customer information during marketing and purchases. On important promotional occasions, they send codes straight to their customers by phone number.

Introducing new products or services to customers

Many businesses buy data with large numbers of new phone numbers to message customers. For example, if you open a new fashion brand in Hanoi, you buy a list of potential customers who like fashion shopping and text them about the upcoming opening and new products.

Or businesses that already have a customer base text them when they launch a new product or service.

Brand events and brand PR

Mobile marketing is also used for new brand events, brand PR and confirming information. Order details, purchase details and access codes shop online can be sent through SMS Marketing.

Use SMS to customer care

On a customer's birthday or on days like International Women's Day, you can text greetings, together with discounts, free vouchers and more. SMS Marketing for customer care is always well regarded.

At the very least, it makes customers think more highly of your brand. Professionalism and care for your customers shown through SMS Marketing help spread your brand better.

Sending messages to confirm a successful purchase

For e-commerce sites, SMS Marketing is essential. Customers confirm their details by receiving an SMS, then enter the code to confirm the order.

The most effective SMS Marketing strategy for 2021

SMS Marketing needs a scientific, professional strategy. Done right, it brings high profit and a sharp rise in sales.

Build a strategy for different customer groups

The strongest point of SMS Marketing is that you already have your own pool of potential customers. Customers who registered on your website to receive promotions are your potential customers, and they are quite interested in your products and services. Treat this group as your main and most important segment.

For groups whose data you bought, rank them as a second tier. Once the groups are clearly separated, you can run different promotions and send different SMS Marketing messages to each.

Segmenting potential customers

After segmenting potential customers, your SMS Marketing should include a CTA that calls them to buy.

Know who your customers are when sending SMS

If you know who your customers are when sending SMS Marketing, the quality is better. You can segment customers, know their interests and pick the right time to message. Businesses should research more about their customer information.

Use SMS Marketing together with other tools

SMS Marketing should be combined with CTA on your website, sign-up forms, social media promotion… This combination helps you get safe sender IDs aimed at the right audience.

How to collect customers' phone numbers

To do SMS Marketing you must collect customers' phone numbers, and they do not appear by themselves. You can collect them in the following ways:

• Place a sign-up form on your website. When your website works well, ranks on Google, provides the information customers need and they value your service, they will register. Having their details helps you understand who your customers are and makes SMS Marketing easier.
• Ask customers to comment their phone number to order under posts on social media, during livestreams, or under posts on your website. SMS Marketing then becomes easier than ever. When you message people who need the product or service, conversion is always faster.
• Buy potential phone numbers from reputable providers.
• Software that captures customers' phone numbers when they visit your website. When customers browse your site on their phones, this information is collected easily. However, you will need web coding skills or special software for this.

SMS Marketing tips that work

To make SMS Marketing effective, pay attention to the following:

Get customer consent before sending SMS

SMS Marketing annoys some customers when you message too much. Some businesses even send ads with content outside what they promised customers. SMS Marketing needs a thoughtful, courteous approach so that customers are not irritated.

Use plain, clear language

Vague, wordy language, abbreviations and slang should never be used in SMS Marketing. They show a lack of respect for customers and look unprofessional. Customers will never buy if your messages have these problems.

One message goes out to hundreds of different people, and tools exist to send in bulk. Your job is to study the message characters, quality and content carefully.

Offer a way to opt out if customers do not want SMS

Every SMS Marketing message should end with “To opt out, text…”. This makes customers more comfortable, shows respect and does not annoy them.

Choose when to send messages

In modern life, the lunch break is precious time. It is when your customers need to relax between work sessions. Never text during these hours. After 9 p.m. many customers are already asleep, which is also a sensitive time not to send messages.

Focus on the SMS content

Accurate, complete and engaging. In particular, keep it within 160 characters. You should have a team to research and write the messages professionally. Creative SMS Marketing content is your best tool for stimulating purchases.

Include a clear Call to Action (CTA)

A CTA under every message is a good practice. Or include a website link with a call to order or to visit the website.

SMS Marketing is a low-cost online marketing method that is not too complicated to run but delivers high results. Mobile marketing promotes your brand directly to customers conveniently, with a fairly high message open rate. We hope this article has given you useful information on what SMS Marketing is, along with strategies and tips for running it.

Other marketing methods to explore:

• How beginners can run effective Email Marketing
• What is Inbound Marketing? Building an Inbound Marketing strategy 
• What is Content Marketing? How to create engaging content