Tuesday, May 15, 2012
By Ryann T, Follow me on Google+
SMS text marketing has quickly become the leader in the mobile marketing advertising medium for good reason. While traditional marketing such as print and direct mail is costly and often lacks the results businesses need, SMS marketing offers unique advantages for small businesses and organizations needing to increase sales, without increasing their advertising budget. Let’s take a look at the top SMS text marketing advantages: 1. Open Rate. SMS text messages are able to break the clutter of marketing material that are vying for your customer’s attention. This is reflected in the extremely high open rates. In fact your message is being read by 95% of recipients within 15 minutes of being sent. This is in contrast to email, which has an open rate that averages less than 20%. 2. Redemption Rates: SMS text marketing has average redemption rates of 20% or higher. This is in contrast with traditional media such as coupons, newspaper ads, radio, or direct mail which average at 2%. 3. Speed. SMS text messaging allows for near instant deliveries of message. On slow sales days, text marketing allows you to reach your customers with your message within minutes. It does not take weeks like traditional media. 4. Cost. On a per customer acquisition model, text marketing is the cheapest and most effective way to reach your customers and increase sales. The cost of one small newspaper ad is more than a month of SMS marketing and will not be nearly as effective in bringing you the customers you need. 5. Permission Based: With SMS marketing campaigns customers must opt-in to receive messages from you. These are active buyers who want to receive more information, coupons and special offers so they may spend more money with your business. 6. ROI. With monthly costs lower than $30 to send 1000 text messages and redemption rates of 20% or more; it costs less than .30 cents per customer in your door. With these low costs, your return on investment will be better than any traditional marketing method. 7. Flexibility. SMS text marketing can be used to send an assortment of notifications. If it’s less than 160 characters the message can be sent. They can be used to send one time offers, specials and sales, buy one get one free details, critical updates or announcements. 8. Waste Free. No paper to waste, coupons to throw out. As long as your customers have cell phones your offer is completely waste free. 9. Reach. Mobile phones are becoming quite ubiquitous. In comparison to the percentage of your customers that read the newspaper, and also receive direct mail or listen to the radio, the number of mobile phone users makes it a great medium to target your marketing efforts. 10. Targeting. Your offers only go out to customers who want it. Targeted marketing efforts will increase ROI, redemption rates, and sales. In addition, you can cut lists specifically for different specials, product lines or announcements to be sure your message is crafted to the people who opted-in to your list. The SMS text marketing advantages over traditional marketing are clear. If you have tried and tried every marketing medium out there with little success, this may be your answer.