What Is SMS Marketing and How Can Your Sales Team Benefit From It?

SMS marketing is the next big thing for sales teams. Seriously.

Source

Text marketing is an under-utilized tool that marketers need to pay attention to, because, surprise, customers prefer SMS communications from businesses over emails or phone calls.

Want to close more leads? Convert more customers? Make more sales? SMS marketing lets you do all of that. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, you can be sure to see success from SMS marketing.

The train is here, so let’s hop on and take a ride.

What is SMS marketing?

Have you ever received a text message letting you know your order was ready for pickup, your cell phone bill was past due, or hey, remember that hair appointment you booked for Thursday?

Those are all examples of SMS marketing.

But wait, they weren’t trying to sell me something in those messages?

That’s very true, not every business SMS sent out is focused on generating revenue, but it does provide a more personalized way to communicate promotions, contests, appointments, surveys, and more to your customers.

During the research we did for this article, websites across the board even show that SMS has incredibly high open rates compared to emails, with open rates that can reach as high as 98%!

And here’s another statistic: Millennials (typically defined as those born between 1980-1994) are quickly becoming the largest working population in the United States. By 2029, more than 38.5 million millennials will be fully integrated into the U.S. workforce, meaning that they will represent the largest working population.

Millennials being the largest working population is important, because many surveys like this one from Open Market strongly suggest that Millennials much prefer text communication over talking on the phone.

If you’re wanting to reach your customers on their level, SMS marketing is the way to go.

Similar to email marketing, customers opt into receiving SMS marketing communications from your business, either through lead forms on your website or other means.

Which industries use SMS marketing?

SMS marketing can be beneficial for businesses across the board. As one of the fastest-growing marketing tools, businesses are using SMS to reach customers for marketing purposes, transactions, support, reminders, and more.

Text messages can be tracked, managed, automated, and organized using a CRM like Ringy so you can refer to historical messages, see reporting and statistics, or determine SMS marketing performance. With Ringy and other CRMs, the interface for text messaging is built into the softphone software via softphone SMS.

Let’s take a closer look at some examples from 5 industries where SMS marketing can benefit their business.

Hospitality

Booking confirmations

Even if reservations or room bookings are done online or over the phone, an automated text message confirming the details can be very helpful for your customer, as they have all the details they need right on their phone.

You can also take it a step further by allowing responses to the text confirmation in case the customer has questions or changes they would like to make, like adding services or changing dates.

Most marketing SMS services also allow you to send automated reminders (usually a day or so before the booking) so your customers don’t forget their dinner date or hotel check-in. Some hotels also allow guests to check out via SMS.

Special offers and discounts

Have empty rooms that you need to fill quickly, or have a special promotion that you want your customers to take advantage of? Send off an SMS marketing message to your lead list letting them know.

Customer service

Especially with hotels or other accommodations, using SMS marketing to keep in touch with your customers is a great way to provide great customer service by making your service teams more efficient. For example, instead of calling down to the main desk to ask for more towels, the customer can send a quick text which can be sent to the housekeeping manager to notify a team member.

Customers could also order room service, purchase services like massages or spa packages, and ask questions through text messages one day only instead of calling.

Retail

Exclusive discounts and special offers

Similar to email marketing, offers and promotional texts are calls to action that persuade your customer to buy. These can be deals that your customer opts into by signing up on your website or in-store.

Messages can be triggered by a specific marketing campaign, geographical area, and more. One great way to utilize SMS is to offer your SMS subscribers access to exclusive deals that they only receive by subscribing to your company’s messages.

Notifications about sales, new products, etc.

Everyone loves a sale, but nobody loves missing one. Your customers no longer need to experience FOMO about a sale or new product if you tell them about it with SMS marketing. Whether you’re having a one-day-only sale or a hot new product just dropped, your customers will be delighted to be the first to know.

Order confirmation

Order confirmations give customers peace of mind that everything went through correctly, whether they made the order over the phone or online. Order confirmations also provide customers with a convenient way to access their order information, should they need it for later.

Travel

Booking confirmations

SMS is especially convenient if a customer planned an entire trip with multiple destinations. They can have confirmation of all their accommodations, restaurant reservations, and more sent straight to their SMS inbox. Combined with automatic notification reminders, you really can’t beat the convenience of SMS over email.

Link to boarding pass and/or tickets

Imagine a panicked traveler scrolling through their email at the ticket gate trying to find their boarding pass. Not only are they holding up the show, but the whole process also doesn’t have to be that painful. Instead, set up an automated text with a direct link to their boarding pass or tickets to be sent a couple of hours before the customer is supposed to board their plane.

Last-minute deals and travel packages

The spontaneous traveler will thank you for sending them these awesome deals, and you can increase revenue at the same time. It is a win-win situation.

Insurance

According to Call Hub, SMS marketing can help insurance agents overcome big challenges present in their industry, such as:

• High customer acquisition costs (which are apparently 7 to 9 times higher than any other industry)
• Low client retention rate

SMS insurance marketing can help agents build relationships with their customers, increase their response rates, keep their customers in the loop about their insurance policies, and more.

Notifications about insurance policies

Notifications keep the customer updated on what’s happening with their insurance. For instance, sending out an automatic status update on a customer’s insurance claim saves them having to reach out to you, or you have to reach out to them and keeps the process running smoothly.

Appointment reminders

Planned to meet with a client but they forgot to show up? Send out automatic appointment reminders so your clients don’t forget about important meetings. If a meeting needs to be rescheduled or postponed, lots of SMS marketing services allow clients to respond to these automated reminders to change times and dates.

New policy announcements

Like new product and sale announcements for retail, insurance agents can benefit from having SMS marketing messages sent to leads and clients to build sales revenue.

Law Firms

Appointment scheduling and reminders

Using SMS to schedule and confirm appointment dates, remind them of court dates, and request important documents are great ways to keep in touch with your client and keep them notified of important events.

Time management and billing

It’s easy for costs and bills to slip client’s minds when they are dealing with a tough legal issue. SMS for law firms can provide invoice breakdowns and billing reminders to keep you and your client on track with payments and helps you maximize your time.

Engage prospective clients

Having a lead fill form on your website with an SMS contact option opens you up to contact potential clients via SMS. Since more people open and read text messages compared to emails, you’ll be sure to gain some new clients.

Common sales challenges that can be solved with SMS marketing

Low open and click-through rates (with email marketing)

So you’ve just spent the last couple of hours optimizing an email that you think will be perfect for your audience, only to get low open and click-through rates. How frustrating! So how can you reach your customers more effectively?

Research from eMarketer shows that SMS marketing messages are generally more well-received than email, have much higher open rates and click-through rates.

Think about it—you have your phone with you all the time, right? It’s only natural that once that text notification pops up, you’re going to check it, and your customers are no different.

Appointment no shows

Appointment no-shows are the worst, especially when that appointment hinged on a possible sale.

Most sources online say SMS reminders reduce appointment no-shows significantly, such as Eztexting which says SMS appointment reminders reduce no-shows by 75%. And the best part is that appointment reminders can be automated, so you simply create the template, set the personalization settings, and carry on with your day.

Low response rates

Did you know that more than half of consumers respond to texts in less than 3 minutes of receiving them, and 78% of consumers respond to texts in 10 minutes or less?

That’s a big incentive for sales and marketing teams to get on the text marketing train and maximize response rates to gather more leads and drive sales.

Low conversion rates

Nobody likes low conversion rates, and it can be difficult to increase them, even though sales and marketing people alike put a lot of time and energy into trying. Email marketing and web optimization efforts are great strategies, but SMS marketing is the unlikely contender to enter the ring.

SMS increases conversion rates across all industries, with conversion rates as high as 9.1% attributed to SMS. That statistic alone should be enough to convince you to create an SMS marketing campaign for your business!

3 Major Benefits of SMS Marketing

Better customer service

Live chat, phone, and email are the standard customer service options, but why is that when more people prefer text messaging?

According to The Local Project, 78% of people wish they could have a text message conversation with a business, and over half of customers would rather text a customer support agent over other options.

Providing the option for customers to text with support agents gives customers a level of customer service that makes them feel more comfortable, and can reduce call fatigue for your customer support team.

Increased customer engagement

It can be difficult to keep customers engaged with your product or service when literally every other business is competing for their attention alongside you.

Thankfully, SMS shows a high level of customer engagement, with 42% of all messages being opened and scanned. So when you send a text to a customer, you can have more confidence you’ll get your message across.

Immediacy

In today’s world, customers want immediate gratification as much as is reasonably possible. If they can choose the option that gets them what they want faster, chances are they’ll go with that.

Texts are sent immediately, and 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of being received. So opting to text your customer means you can fulfill that instant gratification desire with a discount, special offer, or new product information.

5 Effective SMS Marketing Techniques

Contests

Who doesn’t love a good contest? Contests are great for increasing brand awareness and engagement and growing your subscriber list. Plus, contests are exciting and offer an easy way for customers to interact with their favorite brands. SMS contests should be short and sweet to make it easy for the customer to enter.

Typically, you would describe what the customer can win, prompting them to reply with a keyword to enter, then link to the rules. That’s it! There are countless ways you can use SMS to promote your contest. For instance, you can integrate a social media contest with your business SMS strategy to get more entrants.

Automated SMS management takes the work out of keeping track of entrants and winners, so you can focus more on building your lead lists and less on the admin side of running a contest.

Surveys

Customer feedback is an invaluable tool for improving your business. Whether it’s positive or negative, allowing customers to give you feedback via SMS not only makes it easier for them to get in contact with you, but it also allows you to respond directly to really showcase your commitment to customer service.

SMS surveys are short and sweet as well, increasing the chances that your customer will respond. You can even throw in a little incentive (such as a discount code) to help increase response rates.

Have a clear call to action

In a world full of information being thrown at you from all directions, customers can often get frustrated and stop reading when a message is muddy or doesn’t get to the point fast enough. Making sure your SMS marketing messages have a clear call to action, such as encouraging a response (usually for confirming restaurant reservations, room bookings, or appointments), a link to click on or a discount code to use online means your customers will know what they need to do next.

Content engagement

Have a new blog post or article that you want to promote to your audience? Maybe you have an important business announcement that you want as many of your customers to know about as possible. Encourage your customers to engage with the new content by sending them a quick text.

Personalization

When personalization is used messaging for customers, 31% of customers are prompted to act. Most email marketing and business SMS software allow personalization as an automated feature, which means that if you put a placeholder for it in the message, the software will fill in the appropriate recipient’s name before sending.

Summary

SMS marketing is one of the fastest-growing marketing tools and is more likely to help sales teams gain leads, convert customers, and close sales when compared to email marketing. Customers like texting and prefer to communicate with businesses through text rather than phone or email.

When compared to email marketing communications, marketing SMS messages have a higher open and click-through rate, meaning that more customers are engaging with the message and following through with the call to action, leading to more conversions and sales.

Text messages are immediate, are typically read within only a few minutes, and can be used for a ton of different purposes, like appointment reminders, discounts, contests, surveys, and more.

If you’re ready to see what SMS marketing can do for your business, schedule a time to demo Ringy’s software and we’ll take you through the whole process.