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
What You Can Learn About SMS Marketing from These 7 Companies
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued seven monetary penalties against companies this year. We’ve read through them all – so you don’t have to – and discovered two lessons every company should learn about SMS marketing if they want to be successful.
3 Ingredients for Successful SMS Marketing
Is SMS Marketing Like Social Media?
Is SMS marketing like social media? While there are similarities and both can be considered mobile marketing, the short answer is no. However when using a multi-channel marketing strategy it's important to know when to use a text message and when to use a social media channel.
12 Great Quotes to Start Your 2018 SMS Marketing Campaign
SMS Marketing and Shopify – a Perfect Partnership
With its out-of-the-box functionality, powerful designs and endless opportunities for customisation, it is no surprise that Shopify has become one of the most popular platforms for online stores. However, the key to success for any online store is getting customers to visit your website - and SMS Marketing is a simple and highly effective way to do this. Read on to learn how you can take advantage of SMS Marketing to help build your Shopify business and increase your profits.
Work 24/7 Without Being in The Office! The Benefits of SMS Scheduling
In our demanding, 24/7 world it is difficult to stay on top of your SMS marketing campaign but with scheduling you can ensure you are getting your message to your audience whatever the time.
Do Your SMS Marketing Messages Sound Spammy?
If you aren’t seeing a positive response from your SMS marketing then your list may be thinking of it as spam and just ignoring it like they do much of their email. So take your latest marketing messages and examine them again with these four questions in mind.
5 SMS stats to excite any business about SMS
Email and SMS Marketing are a Perfect Pair
Businesses with limited staff or budgets might ask themselves whether they should use email or SMS marketing. Both are relatively low cost. Both offer the ability to reach many people at the same time, yet provide personal interaction. Both have a long history of being used for marketing.
Double Conversion Rates with SMS Marketing
According to Internet Retailer, data conversion rates for text messages are double that of email when the link goes to a mobile responsive landing page. Even with a small list, this can result in a huge increase in sales, signups, lead generation, contest entries or whatever the goal of your campaign is.