Why SMS needs to be a key part of your marketing strategy

When you consider the average Brit spends 4 hours and 14 minutes a day on their smartphones and checks them every 12 minutes – using SMS to communicate with customers seems like an obvious choice.

SMS is the only marketing channel with up to a 98 percent open rate, and with an average response time of just 90 seconds, it’s the most effective way to send time critical messages, promotions and alerts.

It also allows you to communicate with your customers in the place where they are already gathering information and interacting; in-fact recent research highlights that 33% of SMS recipients react to CTAs in SMS marketing messages, and 47% of them end up making a purchase.

SMS complements existing marketing communications, such as social media, email, WhatsApp Business Platform, direct mail and search advertising to support a unified message and voice for your brand.

SMS can help businesses in a wide variety of ways, from sending notifications, or alerts about sales/discounts, sending order/ shipping updates, to sending appointment reminders, conducting polls/surveys, or even sending thank you messages to customers.

So here’s how to maximise the use of SMS to get the best results:

Timing is everything

You don’t want to miss the mark when it comes to the timing of your message. Don’t like Mondays? Neither do your customers, or the weekend for that matter. SMS campaigns statistically perform best mid-week. Aim for between 9am and 12pm during business hours or between 5pm and 8pm for online browsing and shopping.

Place your call to action at the start

It’s a good idea to put your most important details at the start of the message so that they can be seen in the preview text on your customer’s phone. Customers are far less likely to hit delete if they read something they can relate to.

Don’t over communicate

Sending too many messages will make your audience tune out, and not sending enough will mean messages lose impact - finding the sweet spot will help with higher engagement rates.

Get the message structure right

Stand out from the crowd by structuring your message and adding elements of humour, empathy and personality. Doing so can go a long way to engaging your audience. Make sure you have a clear sender ID so there’s no confusion who the message is from and always check grammar and spelling.

Get personal

Recent research highlights that a personalised advert converts 10 times better than a non-personalised one.

Personalisation goes beyond adding a customer’s name to the top of an advert. By using relevant and up to date data, businesses can make product recommendations, add context, cross sell, and tailor promotions to customers’ needs. Anything from ‘Thank you’ or ‘We miss you’ messages, to birthday or purchase anniversary promotions to VIP offers and back in stock alerts – will let your customers know that you value them and are thinking of them.