One of the best approaches to creating genuine brand connections with your ideal customers is through a proven SMS marketing strategy. Your text message marketing approach needs to be highly engaging, personalized and regulatory compliant. In the discussion below, you’ll learn how an SMS marketing campaign can be an effective marketing solution to reach out to your customers.
Text message marketing can create plenty of opportunities to reach out to more prospects and nurture relationships with current customers. In addition, a mobile marketing strategy offers several advantages, such as unmatched open rates, receptive audiences and scalable promotions.
Why Use SMS Marketing?
Text messaging is a conversational marketing method that gives you direct access to customers because your target audience tends to keep their phones within reach all day. Further, an SMS marketing strategy can be easily integrated into any existing campaign you’re already running.
Aside from that, you benefit from deploying an effective mobile marketing strategy in several ways (Finances Online, 2022):
1. Unmatched Open Rates
Over 95 percent of all text messages are opened and read, demonstrating the potential of a mobile marketing strategy. According to research, the average open rate for all text messages globally is 98 percent (Tech Jury, 2022), while other outreach methods pale in comparison. For instance, Facebook posts and messages have a 2 percent open rate, while push notifications only have 3.10 percent (Venturebeat, 2022).
2. Preferred Business Communication Channel
According to one survey, 90 percent of consumers prefer SMS as a customer engagement portal (SMS Comparison, 2021). It can be used as reminders, alerts and other forms of short business communication. In addition, around 80 percent of users see it as a fast, unobtrusive and convenient brand messaging system for consumers (ClickSend, 2019).
3. Preferred Customer Support Method
Take advantage of SMS to boost conversational marketing and effectively communicate with your customers. More than half of all consumers today prefer getting a text message rather than a phone call from customer support representatives. People today are more likely to send and receive text messages regarding customer concerns (SMS Comparison, 2021). It’s one of the fastest-growing business communication channels – over 48.7 million people in the U.S. opted to receive text messages from companies in 2020 rather than receiving phone calls.
4. Best Way To Send Promotions
Most consumers today (75 percent) prefer to receive information about new promotional offers. In comparison, 48 percent want to receive loyalty updates through text, which means it should be part of any customer engagement strategy.
5. Stellar Response Rates
Only eight percent of people reply to marketing emails, but 45 percent reply to SMS marketing texts (SMS Global, 2021). It’s a powerful conversational marketing tool and an effective customer engagement portal. Using it as a part of your overall customer engagement strategy, you can gain insight into your customer’s needs allowing you to position your products and services as viable solutions.
6. Improved Brand Image
The majority of customers (77 percent) tend to have a positive brand perception of companies that communicate through SMS. Therefore, using SMS marketing platforms is a worthwhile investment to boost your customer engagement strategy and create a positive brand reputation (Mobile Marketing Watch, 2016).
Stay Compliant With SMS Advertising Laws
As you formulate your text message marketing strategy, you should ensure everything you do complies with SMS advertising laws. Mobile message marketing has regulatory compliance requirements similar to phone and email communications. There are two laws that marketers need to understand to stay compliant:
1. Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
This law safeguards consumer privacy and restricts telemarketing facsimiles, text messages and phone calls. It also regulates artificial and prerecorded voice messages and auto-dialing systems.
2. CAN-SPAM
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) of 2003 applies to any person or business that sends emails or other business communications to consumers. It gives consumers the right to make businesses stop sending promotions and other communications, outlining tough penalties when violated.
Follow these tips to remain compliant with the two laws above:
• Send communications during business hours only.
• Avoid sending prohibited content: hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco, sex, profanity, violence and discriminatory speech.
• Provide instructions on how to opt out.
• Always Inform text recipients that signing up for programs will incur fees.
• Tell customers how many SMSes they’ll receive each week or month.
• Include the purpose of the communication.
• Always get the consumers to express consent.
• Check location-based age of consent.
SMS Marketing Best Practices
Your marketing team needs to design an SMS marketing strategy that follows the rules and regulations mentioned earlier. Here are a few best practices to consider:
Get Permission
As mentioned earlier, before you launch any SMS marketing solution or campaign, you need to request permission from your customers. One of the ways to get permission is via an online opt-in form on your website or another customer engagement portal. You can also use a lead magnet or landing page and have potential clients agree to receive your SMS messages and exchange their phone numbers. This personal information is exchanged for a valuable asset or information, such as an eBook, guide, video or discount offer.
Use SMS Short Code
Short codes can be integrated into SMS marketing platforms such as Klaviyo SMS and used for SMS marketing automation. It’s a specialized five or six-digit code that can be used to opt-in to marketing messages, enter content, promotional offers and vote. You should also include a short code to provide a clear way for customers to opt out of your SMS campaigns. You can obtain short codes from the U.S. Short Code Administration, SMS and email marketing experts.
Use the Right Keywords and Have a Conversation
Use simple messages, including keywords that customers can send to the short codes you use. This simplifies how customers respond to your offers and encourages better client interaction. Use SMS marketing automation technology (e.g., autoresponders) to allow you to respond to customers in real time.
Work With SMS and Email Marketing Experts
Seasoned mobile marketers, like those from Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, can help you design a custom SMS marketing campaign, track its performance, analyze metrics and grow your return on investment (ROI). In addition, expert guidance can help fine-tune your SMS marketing solution and integrate it with effective SMS marketing platforms.
Why Use Klaviyo SMS
Klaviyo SMS is a mobile marketing platform allowing businesses to connect easily with customers. Klaviyo integrations allow you to streamline marketing systems, use advanced audience segmentation, get detailed reporting and analytics and receive high-level support.
Build Customer Trust With an Expert Text Marketing Agency
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency is a trusted text marketing provider that has helped businesses develop SMS solutions that build customer trust. We help your business with SMS marketing automation using Klaviyo integrations and the latest technological developments in the industry.
Our team of experts creates custom TCPA-Compliant campaigns based on the specific needs of your business. After carefully auditing your current marketing strategy, we formulate and deploy SMS and broadcast automated campaigns based on your current customer metrics and key performance indicators.
We integrate any existing marketing platforms such as BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Shopify to streamline all text message campaigns. At Thrive, we make SMS deliverability easy and hassle-free.
Contact us today to learn how we can make your SMS campaigns compliant and more effective.
