11 Benefits of Using SMS Messages in Your Network Marketing Strategy

Network marketing has become one of the hottest business models in recent years. Often known as multi-level marketing (MLM), referral marketing or direct sales, it works on a pyramid-shaped marketing strategy. Although pyramid selling is often considered illegal and controversial, networking marketing is indeed a legal business opportunity that many find fits around their flexible lifestyle – for example, if they’ve got young children or another part-time role.

This model of selling works in two ways – firstly through the individual selling products direct to customers and secondly, through a commission model based on recruiting other team members and encouraging them to sell also. It has seen great acceleration thanks to technology and social media which has seen customer and seller become more connected than ever.

Given that this way of marketing is very much dependent on communication, there are also ways in which SMS marketing can be used to help increase recruitment, improve retention rates, create effective discussion, boost sales and motivate teams. Here’s how…

Using a cloud-based platform such as FastSMS, allows you to reach people quickly and easily for a price per message – but without messy contracts or commitments. You are also able to get a virtual mobile number, meaning you won’t need to buy a new phone in order to reach people from a special business number.

Everyone has a mobile phone. In fact, according to Time Magazine, the average individual looks at their phone at least 46 times every day. Chances are there are many more individuals who look at their devices even more frequently. These results came as part of a study released by Deloitte who also found, on a collective basis, Americans check their smartphones more than 8 billion times each day, a statistic that can easily be transferred to the rest of the western world.

As a result of our handset addiction, reaching people via SMS messaging means you have an active audience who you can reach directly and instantly. Text messages have high open rates; it’ll be hard for the recipients to not spot your message pop up or be able to read and digest the required call to action.

Even if they’re not interested at the point in time when they receive your SMS, it’ll keep you on their radar and continue to boost awareness in a cost-effective way.

By sending SMS messages to customers reminding them when you’re placing an order or when new products launch, chances are you’ll see an increase in sales. It’s important to stay in constant communication and, by sending texts, you’ll help increase the sense of a personal and tailored one-to-one service for your customers.

This can help improve their desire to participate and interact with you, but it also means when they have any questions, they know that they can come to you directly.

Sending text messages about new products is a great way to get as much information as you can into an SMS whilst also keeping it short and to the point. This means you’ll only pick out the most relevant and key details – essentially, the core USP of each product – which is the exact thing that will help push sales.

Sending SMS messages to customers is also a key way of finding out if they’re still engaged and interested in what you’re selling. If they’re not, it’ll also be an easy way to get chatting to them to find out what they’re not sure on or where their concerns are and trying to find fixes.

When you’re messaging customers, sending out discounts and offers is a great way to further incentivise them. Think about how it will feature as part of your overall sales strategy. Perhaps you can create a campaign surrounding the discount that will include more than one product. Or maybe you have an introductory offer for every time someone joins up.

A great way of increasing your network is including an offer that encourages the recipient to recommend a friend. For example, a 20% discount on the first order for the person joining and a free product for the person who sends them your way.

The best driver of sales is always word of mouth, so if you find a customer this way, chances are they will be much more interested and engaged. They’ll also purchase at much higher prices and will repeat custom too.

It was forecast in 2016 by Statista that 2.1 billion mobile phone users globally have smartphones. It is thought that this number will go beyond 5 billion by 2019. Why does this matter? Well, one of the great benefits of smartphone SMS messaging is that you can add direct links into your text that can then be tapped by the recipient through to a web page – remember to use a short URL to save characters.

This is a great way for you to add links to new products through which the customer can buy them directly yet still using your account/seller ID. It also gives them the chance to find out more information about products and helps to add validity to your claims.

This can help to improve order retention and increase how committed people are with their buying decisions.

Once you’ve started recruiting and adding to your team, it is important to stay in constant contact with them in order to encourage, motivate and advise where required. Your team will have lots of questions and, initially, will need a lot of guidance. Helping them grow in confidence will lead to more sales, and therefore more commission.

Running events is a great way to get people trying your products, talking to you and meeting other like-minded individuals. By using SMS marketing, you can remind them about what’s happening, encourage them to attend and let others know, give them updates before the event about the types of things to expect and follow up afterwards for feedback and orders.

When using a cloud-based SMS messaging platform such as FastSMS, you are also able to get reports on your messaging in order to build up a picture of your activity and how to further improve your marketing.

For example, you are able to find out which keywords people used when replying, who unsubscribed from your text messages and you can keep a record of all the messages you have sent. You’re able to easily keep an online record that you can access wherever you are in the world.

You are also able to reach a wider audience when you use an online SMS messaging service. As it stands, we’re able to support more than 500 mobile networks spanning over 200 countries, and this is constantly increasing. The world is your oyster – build your network with it.

Interested to find out more about our SMS services and how business text messaging can help your network marketing company? We’re the SMS provider for you. Get in touch today.