What is SMS Marketing?

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SMS Marketing makes the oldest and simplest channel available to all businesses: SMS . Indeed, thanks to SMS marketing platforms , it is possible to send interactive and personalized messages.

Just like a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign displays ads on the web and a YouTube campaign displays ads on YouTube, an SMS marketing campaign sends text message ads to its target audience on their mobile phone.

While SMS marketing campaign messages are short and text-only (in line with the original 160-character limit of SMS), they often include links to richer content, such as mobile landing pages , interactive content, or other conversational Phone Number List channels like WhatsApp. This is possible thanks to marketing platforms that bring together different channels and allow marketers to send, analyze, and manage campaigns that involve multiple audiences and thousands of people.

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SMS leverages proximity and immediacy. A mobile phone is typically within two metres of its owner at any given time; messages are read within minutes rather than hours. The mobile nature of a phone means that messages can even be sent to customers within a specific geographical area, such as within a few kilometres of a store having a sale. This makes SMS marketing ideal for short-term promotions, real-time updates and offers, as well as upselling and cross-selling campaigns for other products and services.

How does SMS Marketing work?
To use SMS Marketing, marketers need to be able to send a large number of legally compliant text messages to a customer database, with a dashboard that allows them to evaluate KPIs such as successful deliveries, open rates, response rates, etc.

An SMS platform allows you to carry out complete campaigns
These applications allow them to program the sending of SMS messages to different audience segments and adapt them to different legislative environments, for example if the recipient country requires a double opt-in before sending messages. This is the difference between a simple SMS sending and what is needed for a complete campaign.

SMS can be combined with other elements
SMS marketing software also allows you to link SMS messages to other channels. A personalized URL doesn’t just open a mobile web page; it can also open another app (such as WhatsApp) or a chat window to start a one-on-one conversation with the recipient.

Accurate data allows the marketer to improve each campaign
SMS Marketing software allows marketers to view statistics for each campaign in intuitive charts and graphs. Key KPIs include the number of successful deliveries versus failures, the number of opens, and what users did next, such as replying to a message or clicking a link. This information helps marketers plan future campaigns and improve current ones.

       

What are the benefits of SMS Marketing?
SMS is universal
The key advantage of SMS Marketing is universal deliverability. All mobile phones in use today, no matter how old, can receive and respond to SMS messages, thanks to well-established technology and standardized protocols worldwide.

SMS has global reach
It also means the audience is huge: billions of mobile plans are active worldwide, and people from all cultures and income levels have access to a phone. With the right platform, marketers can launch a single campaign for multiple countries and languages, with messages tailored to different segments.

SMS are customizable
The mobile phone is a personal device, and SMS Marketing campaign ads can be personalized to take advantage of this – even across the online-offline divide. Individual ads can contain personalized promo codes that identify the user when they are used; messages can address the user by their first name, which helps increase response rates and strengthen relationships; delivery times can be tailored to the user’s known behavior, for example by only sending after 6 p.m.

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SMS is instant
SMS Marketing can use a variety of proven technologies to enable users to recognize, respond, and take action. Short codes provide an easy-to-remember number to send requests or answer questions; two-way SMS allows for multiple-choice conversation or guided responses (Yes/No, score out of 10); discount codes. All of these SMS services can be used as part of an SMS Marketing campaign.

How to use SMS marketing campaigns?
SMS marketing campaigns work best when they have a known audience, a clear offer, and a time factor, such as a short-term promotion.

Double Opt-In
The first part of any SMS campaign is to remain compliant with the legislation. Most countries require a double opt-in. This means that the user agrees to receive your SMS communications and then confirms their choice by replying to your first message (“Accept Yes/No?”).

Offers and Promotions
Short, easy-to-understand offers (“Get 10% off when you order before 4pm!”) are ideal for SMS Marketing because individual responses can be tracked and controlled. Since many companies use SMS for confirmations (reservations, appointments, etc.), it’s also easy to offer additional promotions to customers who already buy from you, such as a hotel chain offering a free night if you extend your booking by two nights.

Conversations managed with CRM
A true SMS Marketing platform should seamlessly connect to data sources like your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application, so your agents can understand the customer more deeply (including their actions on other channels.) This helps strengthen customer connections by personalizing interactions, and use an SMS message to prompt them to take action on other channels (“Check your inbox for your special offer”).

Combined Email and SMS Marketing
The easy integration of channels offered by an SMS Marketing platform enables true omnichannel communication with the customer. Deliveries and bookings can be confirmed via SMS after emails have been sent; the identity of new registrations can be authenticated via SMS; responses to an online offer can be encouraged through shortcodes and two-way SMS.