How SMS Marketing Can Benefit Your Business?

Written by Christos Lygouriatis on May 5, 2012 2:14 pm

What Is SMS Marketing and How Can It Benefit Your Business?

If you want an effective form of advertising that people will respond to, you cannot afford to ignore SMS marketing .

This type of marketing relies on the popularity of mobile phones and is a great way to build and retain your customer base. It is time to discover the benefits of SMS marketing.

SMS marketing is also known as text message marketing. SMS stands for short message service, and refers to short text messages that are sent between mobile phones. You are probably already familiar with texting. SMS marketing is a popular way to interact with customers by building lists of numbers, and then sending text messages to those lists. This type of advertising has a number of benefits. Because the recipient is alerted immediately when they receive the message, it has a high level of trust and readability. In fact, some studies have shown that people read 95 to 98% of the texts that they receive. This is in stark contrast to e-mail, were only 2 to 5% of marketing e-mails are read. In addition to being exceedingly cost-effective compared to other forms of advertising, SMS marketing also allows targeted and relevant offers to be sent immediately to customers. With SMS, you can send the most relevant offers to a specific group. For example, you can offer incentives for people to make purchases on slower business days. While SMS marketing is more effective and responsive than e-mail, it does have some similarities. Like e-mail marketing, the first step is to collect the contact information, in this case mobile phone numbers. Getting permission is essential. Sending spam or unsolicited messages may be illegal depending on where you live, and is also a good way to alienate your customer base. A few of the more popular ways to have people join your SMS list is by having an opt in box on your website. People join your list by texting a short word back to a specific number, or short code that you've provided. An SMS service would setup the application necessary for the messaging to work, and also provide you with the number and keyword. By promoting your keyword and short code, people will text back and consent to join your list. The best way to get people to join your list is to provide some type of incentive. Many businesses are successful with offering specific coupons or discounts upon sign up. Other popular methods include running a survey and having people text in with their opinion, or even having a sweepstakes or competition. Once you have people on your list, it's important to keep them there. Because SMS marketing is such an immediate and personal way to communicate, you want to make sure you are sending them relevant messages. Do not text them too often, or send them only blatant advertising messages. By sending only targeted offers and useful information, you will keep people on your list. SMS or text marketing is currently the most popular form of mobile marketing. It is an inexpensive way to create a loyal and responsive customer base. As more and more people rely on their mobile phones for daily tasks and activities, this type of advertising will become even more relevant. If you are just getting started with mobile advertising, SMS marketing is a good place to start. Keep Marketing, keep making money, keep empowering others and stay tuned for future trainings Please do me a favor to share,retweet & comment. The key to success is how well you learn to market yourself and your company by connecting with quality people on a daily basis.