3 Tips on Making SMS Messaging an Integrated Part of Your Marketing

One of the key takeaways from the Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing Report was that when mobile is integrated into your marketing strategy, everything performs better. That makes sense when you think about it. Mobile is a unique channel that provides you a direct link to your customers. When you’re able to use that channel to help your overall marketing goals across all channels you should see improvement.
But while mobile marketing is viewed as successful on its own too, it’s clear you’ll see more benefits after it’s integrated. But integrating a new marketing channel into your existing strategy isn’t always easy. Here are three tips on how you can start your integration using SMS messaging.
Plan for it. You’re probably pretty practised at looking at your marketing channels and deciding how one can be used to support another. Mobile is just the same way. You may be unfamiliar with it and how SMS messaging works, but if you view it as “just another channel” it makes the process easier. And if you need some ideas and guidelines on how it can work for you and fit in with your other channels, check out our guides or business sector pages for inspiration. Then when your next campaign comes, you’ll be able to integrate SMS into the overall plan and see your improved results.
Start quickly and easily. If you use a CRM system that uses email for communicating with customers, you can get started sending SMS messages using the same system. Our Email to SMS solutions enable you to send text messages to customers without the need to learn new software or the time it takes to integrate directly into an application.
Work towards a complete solution. Chances are whatever software you’re using to manage your marketing enables you to see all your channels (or most of them). The best way to make sure SMS is part of the overall strategy is to ensure it is also part of your processes – and accessible within your existing software. A full integration into your marketing platform also opens up many other possibilities for what you can do with the information you have on your customers. You can use our Application Programming Interface (API) for this type of integration.
What might an integrated campaign look like? Here are just a couple of very simple examples:
- Drive website traffic to a specific promotion with text messages containing links to the mobile versions of the web page. Given nearly 100% of text messages are read you’re likely to see a much improved response over email – meaning more traffic to the promotion page.
- Use emails or print materials displayed in store to promote the SMS opt in campaign by including all the information they need to join via text message (such as a keyword and shortcode). The more channels you use to advertise the opt in campaign, the higher number of subscribers you’re likely to get. You can also offer incentives for sign-ups: special deals, competitions, product reviews, whatever works in your industry sector.
Adding something new to an established marketing routing might seem like a lot of trouble, but in the end the Salesforce survey results prove it’s worth it for mobile marketing.
Related Articles
Why SMS is the Biggest Missed Opportunity for Marketing to Millennials
With the continued rise of different and more diverse technologies in the social and mobile web, it would be easy to dismiss the potential benefits of SMS marketing - and that’s exactly the reason you shouldn’t. An SMS is the unexpected visit of a familiar friend, and there’s one demographic that embraces an old trusted ally in this new, noisy digital world more than anyone else: the millennials.
Advice and Predictions for the Future of SMS Messaging in 2017
SMS messaging took off in 2016. And that’s saying something for a technology that’s been around twenty-five years. Come take a look at the past year and see what we think 2017 will bring to the industry and how you can use it in your business.
Should You Tease Your SMS Marketing List?
Teasing is a tried and true marketing technique. But there’s a lot you can learn from some recent examples in the video game industry. In particular, how you can create the same kind of frenzy in your SMS list – but only if you do it right.
Using SMS to support drive-to-web strategies
5 ways to increase your click through rate
How a Text Marketer can Learn Valuable Lessons from Long-Form Copywriters
In terms of storytelling, SMS text messaging is probably as far removed from long-form, direct-action copywriting as you could be. However, the SMS marketing writer can still learn a lot of lessons here with regard to overall approach, content and composition.
The ONE Thing You Never Want To Do In SMS Marketing
"UK B2C data for SMS marketing" - That was the search result headline I found while researching online. Interesting I thought. It must be relating to SMS marketing statistics for B2C (business to consumer) sales. Since I was searching for some updated information and studies about SMS I decided to click and read.
6 Ways to Get Results, and Not Annoy People, with SMS Marketing
Using SMS marketing is one highly effective way to maintain relationships with mobile users, but there's an incredibly fine line between engaging with someone and annoying them to such an extent that they swiftly delete your marketing messages and never want to hear from you again. Here's 6 things to keep in mind to make sure you don't annoy your subscribers.
SMS Marketing – 4 of the UK’s Best Ever Campaigns
Discover how to come up with an SMS marketing campaign in this article which looks under the surface of some of the UK's most successful ever SMS marketing campaigns. Whether you are looking to boost revenue, improve customer satisfaction or help your brand stand out with a unique and memorable promotion, this article shows how a simple approach to SMS messaging can work wonders for your company.
One Simple Trick Can Boost Your SMS Marketing
SMS marketing offers the ability to send time-sensitive offers to your best customers. But are you missing out on the potential of your own brand in your offers? Read this post to see an example of how a simple trick can potentially boost your results.