Ultimate Guide to Text Marketing

When it comes to reaching customers, keeping them engaged, and converting their interest into revenue, there’s no better strategy than Short Message Service (SMS) marketing. 98% of text messages are opened, nearly half receive a reply, and they can support a wide variety of marketing strategies—from flash sales to live events and more.

With that in mind, let’s explore how SMS marketing can benefit your customer relationships, sales figures, and bottom line. Then, we’ll walk through best practices for establishing your SMS campaign, including how to select an effective texting platform.

Table of Contents

• Key Benefits of Embracing SMS Marketing
• Crafting Your SMS Marketing Message
• SMS Marketing Campaign Examples That Resonate
• Best Practices for SMS Marketing Success
• Choosing a Mass Texting Platform

Key Benefits of Embracing SMS Marketing

96% of marketers say SMS has helped them increase sales, but only about a third have a texting strategy in place for their business. 

This is quickly changing, however. According to Tech Report, three-quarters of companies plan to increase their SMS spend and reach over the coming years. Here’s why countless businesses are hopping on the SMS train:

Immediacy and High Engagement Rates

On average, consumers spend about four and a half hours per day on their phones. When you send them a text, your message will land on their screen in seconds, bridging both physical space and time zones.

Consumers’ consistent phone use combined with texting’s immediacy makes SMS the perfect platform for driving engagement. As mentioned, around half of all messages receive replies. Even better, recipients tend to reply within 90 seconds. And, as per Tech Report, 91% of consumers prefer using SMS to communicate with companies. 

Cost-Effectiveness

SMS rates vary by carrier, but they are generally among the most cost-effective ways to send messages. SMS marketing saves your wallet in a variety of ways:

• It costs very little to send a text message and, if you utilize a trusted texting platform with reasonable rates, it’s even more affordable.

• Unlike phone calls and similar channels, one mass text can reach thousands of recipients at once, saving you valuable time.

• SMS boasts an open rate of 98%, significantly higher than other popular channels, like email, which has an open rate of only 20%. With SMS, you won’t have to send messages multiple times to ensure your customers see them. 

Versatility

SMS marketing can support a variety of campaign objectives, including:

• Promotions – SMS is the quickest way to spread the word about a sale, discount, or offer you’re currently running. Simply send a text and all of your clients will immediately know about your latest promotion.

• Customer service – As mentioned, 91% of consumers prefer interacting with brands via SMS versus other channels—and that includes for customer support purposes. In fact, almost two-thirds of consumers specifically say they prefer SMS for customer support over traditional phone calls.

• Cross-channel integration – SMS is the leading marketing strategy, but it’s not the only one. With the ability to include links, pictures, and key brand information, SMS can drive traffic to your other key channels such as social media, email, your website, or live events. 

Crafting Your SMS Marketing Message

Your marketing messages should embody your brand’s unique voice, resonate with your audience, and drive them to engage with your business. Make sure each text strikes a chord with your customers by using the following tips and tools:

Personalization

71% of consumers expect brands to personalize their marketing communications. Personalizing texts helps your customers feel special and makes them care more about your brand. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy.

Simply customizing each message you send with a warm greeting and the recipient’s name is enough to satisfy this desire for personalization. You can also include personalized product recommendations to show your clients you know their tastes, building trust and boosting sales.

Clarity and Conciseness

Standard SMS messages support 160 characters—for most marketing campaigns, this should suffice. If you need to use more, keep messages below 300 characters to keep your customers interested.

Besides being concise, your messages should also be:

• Clear – Avoid any complicated words, complex sentence structures, or vague phrasing.
  
  
• Free of errors – Proofread every message before sending it. Additionally, use a texting platform that can help you correct spelling and grammar mistakes.
  
  

Timeliness

To maintain legal compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), don’t message any customers between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. in their timezone. Failure to follow these regulations can result in legal consequences—including stiff fines. Your audience usually sleeps during these hours, anyway.

Take your customers’ behaviors into account when determining the ideal times to message them. In general, mornings, midday, and evenings (when people aren’t busy with work) are the best times for promotional messages.

Integrated Call-to-Action (CTA)

A CTA is a set of short, explicit instructions asking your audience to take an action that would benefit your business. They should be direct, concise, and support the goals of your marketing campaign. Some examples of effective SMS CTAs include:

• “Browse our shop’s website”
• “Visit this Monday to take advantage of our exclusive in-store deals”
• “Use this message to receive 20% off your next order”

SMS Marketing Campaign Examples That Resonate

Learn and leverage these proven SMS strategies to optimize your company’s marketing efforts.

The Welcome Message

First impressions are everything in business. 73% of consumers are willing to drop a brand after a single negative experience.

To ensure your customers feel welcomed from the first moment you enter their inbox, send them a message like:

Hey (FIRSTNAME), thanks for signing up for (COMPANY) alerts! We’re so excited to have you aboard and can’t wait to show you all the special offers we have in store! Reply STOP to STOP.

The Special Offer Alert

Special offers are generally the main reason your customers will sign up for promotional SMS texts: 72% of people will agree to receive marketing messages in exchange for future perks and discounts.

Exclusive offers can pique your base’s interest, get them in your doors, and drive sales to new heights. To amp up your audience over your latest offer, send them a text such as:

Hey (FIRSTNAME), we’ve got a sizzling hot deal ready for you! Until Friday, you can save 15% on (COMPANY) online store with code (CODE) at checkout. Shop our full collection at (LINK). Reply STOP to STOP.

The Engagement Booster

When you want to drum up interest in your business, you can use a series of engagement boosters to connect with your clientele. These messages encourage your audience to interact with your brand through:

• Promotional campaigns that require customer action, such as posting photos or leaving reviews on your page
• Polls
• Surveys

To entice your audience to take part in your engagement boosters, use a message like:

Hi, (FIRSTNAME)! If you have a quick minute, we’d love it if you'd take (COMPANY)'s speedy five-question survey—it’ll help us improve your unique user experience. Thanks!

Best Practices for SMS Marketing Success

As mentioned, nearly three-quarters of marketers plan on ramping up their texting campaigns in the coming years, but only a third currently have an SMS plan in place. To utilize SMS to its full potential and achieve long-term marketing success, follow these best practices:

Obtaining Permission and Maintaining Trust

Messaging customers during nighttime hours defies the TCPA—texting them without their permission does, too. To maintain strict legal compliance, you must obtain express consent before sending a marketing message to any number.

Besides maintaining legal compliance, this measure upholds your customers’ trust. Be clear and straightforward with your messages, keep communications strictly business-related, and don’t sell contact information to any third parties. 

Targeting and Segmentation

After collecting your customers' contact data, sort them into similar groups through the process of segmentation. Segmenting your audience allows you to craft targeted messages that uniquely resonate with each customer. For effective segmentation, consider sorting your audience based on:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Past purchasing history

Analytics and Optimization

To refine and optimize your campaign, start tracking essential analytical data immediately after you launch. This crucial information provides insight into which parts of your campaign are performing as you’d hoped and which require some reworking.

To track your campaign’s health, keep tabs on essential Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as:

• Return on Investment (ROI)
• Total sales figures
• Click Through Rate (CTR)
• Open Rate
• Engagement Rate

Choosing a Mass Texting Platform

Sending messages from your cell phone works well for participating in friendly group chats and keeping up with friends. When you have a business to run, however, it’s essential to leverage a robust texting platform that can expedite the bulk of SMS marketing. When deciding what solution to use for your next campaign, consider these factors:

Compliance and Security Features

TCPA establishes the rules and regulations for SMS campaigns. Besides obtaining consent and messaging during daytime hours, you must also offer recipients the option to opt out with every message. If you don’t follow these laws, your company may incur fines and face other legal issues. 

It’s essential to choose a texting platform that maintains strict TCPA compliance. Likewise, opt for a solution with robust security features to keep your customers’ data—and their trust in your company—safe and secure.

Integration Capabilities

Your texting platform generally isn’t the only digital tool you use to run your business. Aside from other marketing solutions, nearly 90% of businesses use a client relationship manager (CRM). 

Your CRM contains invaluable client information that can help optimize your texting campaigns. Thus, it’s key to select an SMS platform that seamlessly integrates with your CRM and any other digital solutions you use.

Scalability and Reliability

Whether you’re launching your first product or you’ve been established for years, every business has room for growth. And, when you do expand, you’ll want to have an SMS solution that can scale alongside you.

When choosing a texting platform, ensure it’s as reliable when sending one message as it is sending a thousand. You won’t want to switch platforms mid-operations. 

User-Friendly Interface and Support

A quality texting platform makes mass messaging and SMS marketing easier than a regular cell phone—it should be user-friendly. 

When narrowing down your platform options, take them for a test run and consider factors like:

• How easy it is to navigate to your desired pages
• How responsive the interface is, how fast it loads, and how often (if ever) it glitches
• How quickly and effectively customer service handles your inquiries

Analytics and Reporting Tools

As mentioned, it’s important to track a variety of KPIs to ensure your SMS campaigns are performing up to your standard. You could tally these metrics the old-school way—by hand with receipts, calculators, and a lot of brain power— or your texting platform could do it for you.

Find out which KPIs your desired SMS solution keeps tabs on. Consider how it reports these figures to you and if you can use them to benefit your business. A worthwhile texting platform should clearly display analytical metrics to accurately indicate your campaign’s ongoing health. 

Cost vs. Feature Balance

Texting solutions are an investment in your business and, like any time you commit capital, you’ll want to know you’re getting a solid bang for your buck. Weigh how much you spend on a solution with the feature it provides to decide on the smartest investment. Often, the most effective solutions come at a lower price than you originally thought. 

Grow Your Business with Mozeo

SMS marketing is your key to connecting with customers, boosting engagement, and bolstering your sales figures. When deciding on a digital texting platform, look for a solution that maintains TCPA compliance, scales alongside your company’s growth, and analyzes your campaign performance with clear, actionable insights.

Mozeo is the texting platform you need to facilitate successful, profitable SMS campaigns. Aside from ticking all the boxes above, Mozeo makes writing attention-grabbing messages in a flash simple. With Mozeo, you’ll reach more customers quicker with more insightful messages—plus, it’s free to try.

Start your Mozeo free trial today to seamlessly integrate SMS into your marketing strategy.