SMS Campaign
An SMS campaign is a targeted marketing strategy that involves sending promotional or informational messages to a group of recipients via Short Message Service (SMS).
SMS campaigns capitalize on the widespread use of mobile phones, as nearly everyone carries a smartphone wherever they go. With 91% of the world’s population owning a mobile phone, SMS presents an unparalleled opportunity for businesses to reach customers in real-time and deliver their message straight to their fingertips.
By crafting thoughtful and engaging SMS content and employing smart segmentation strategies, businesses can capture their customers’ attention and build long-lasting relationships that lead to increased brand loyalty and higher conversion rates.
What is an SMS campaign?
The primary goal of an SMS campaign is to engage the audience, deliver relevant content, and drive specific actions, such as promoting a product or service, or sharing exclusive offers. These campaigns are often used with other marketing channels to create a holistic and integrated marketing approach.
SMS campaigns offer several advantages, making them an attractive option for businesses, such as:
- High open rates: SMS messages have significantly higher open rates than emails, making the recipients more likely to see the content promptly.
- Immediate delivery: SMS messages are usually delivered instantly, ensuring time-sensitive information reaches the recipients quickly.
- Direct and personal: SMS offers a direct and personal communication channel, allowing businesses to engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.
- Opt-in/opt-out: SMS campaigns typically require recipients to opt-in before receiving messages, ensuring compliance with regulations and respecting users’ preferences. Recipients can also easily opt-out if they no longer wish to receive messages.
However, businesses must be mindful of certain considerations when running SMS campaigns. It’s a legal obligation to get user consent before sending marketing SMS. Follow regulations and privacy laws, avoid spam-like behavior, and craft concise and valuable content to keep recipients engaged.
When executed thoughtfully and focused on delivering relevant and meaningful content, SMS campaigns can be a powerful tool for businesses to reach customers on one of their favorite platforms.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing, or text message marketing, is a form of mobile marketing via SMS. It’s a direct communication channel that allows businesses and organizations to engage with their customers, subscribers, or members directly on their mobile phones.
SMS marketing is a permission-based strategy, meaning recipients have opted in to receive messages from the sender. Users typically subscribe to SMS marketing campaigns by providing their phone numbers through other channels, such as website sign-ups, mobile apps, or keyword-based opt-ins.
The main features of SMS marketing
- Personalized messages
SMS marketing enables businesses to address recipients by their first names, creating a sense of personalization and fostering a more intimate connection.
- Time-sensitive promotions
As SMS messages have high open rates and are delivered instantly, businesses can use SMS marketing for time-sensitive promotions, limited-time offers, and flash sales.
- Customer engagement
SMS campaigns can encourage two-way communication, where recipients can respond to messages, provide feedback, or participate in surveys.
- Offers and discounts
SMS marketing often includes the distribution of mobile coupons or discount codes, making it easy for recipients to redeem offers in-store or online.
- Event reminders and notifications
SMS is an effective tool for sending event reminders, appointment confirmations, delivery notifications, and other time-critical information.
- Customer support
Businesses can use SMS marketing to provide quick customer support, such as order updates or answers to frequently asked questions.
How to create an SMS Campaign
So, you want to build an SMS campaign? First, you’ll need to choose an SMS marketing platform. It’s important to find a reliable platform that suits your needs and integrates seamlessly with additional channels or wider strategies.
Once you’ve determined the platform, follow these steps to build out your first SMS campaign:
- Define your campaign goals
Determine your specific objectives: are you trying to increase sales, drive website traffic, promote an event, or enhance brand awareness? Clear goals will help shape the rest of your campaign strategy.
- Obtain consent and build/import your contact list
Before sending any SMS messages, ensure you have explicit permission from recipients to contact them via SMS. Implement an opt-in process where users willingly subscribe to receive messages from your brand. This could be through keyword displays across web and mobile, or lead collection gamification. If you already have a subscriber list, make sure to import it to your SMS marketing platform.
- Craft and schedule compelling SMS messages
Write concise and engaging SMS messages. Keep the content clear, include a call-to-action, and personalize the messages with the recipient’s name for a more personalized touch.
- Segment your audience
If you have a comprehensive SMS marketing platform like Insider, make sure to segment your audience based on demographics, behavior, or preferences. With Insider, you can also build out segments and automate campaigns based on your subscriber behaviors across other channels.
- Test and launch your campaign
Before sending messages to your entire list, run tests with a small group of recipients. Check for issues, review the message’s appearance, and ensure all links and CTAs work correctly. Once you’re sure it’s ready, it’s time to launch!
- Monitor performance
After sending the messages, monitor the campaign’s performance using analytics and reporting tools provided by your SMS marketing platform. Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to assess the campaign’s effectiveness.
How to track SMS campaigns
While every platform is different, if you choose Insider as your SMS marketing platform, its simple interface and dashboard make creating SMS campaigns quick and easy.
To track your campaign performance, you need to define what goals you have for the campaign. Do you want a higher AOV? Is the goal product awareness? Do you want to reduce cart abandonment? Once this is determined, you can closely monitor the campaign’s delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates using Insider’s reporting and analytics dashboard.
It’s also worth conducting A/B tests to experiment with different elements of the SMS campaign, such as message content, CTAs, and sending times, leveraging Insider’s A/B testing capabilities. Regularly analyze the campaign’s performance to identify successful strategies and areas for improvement, enabling you to optimize future SMS campaigns to hit key goals.
Why SMS marketing?
Most of us are attached to our phones, so it’s no secret that SMS has the highest open rates of any marketing channel at 98%. This means your messages are almost guaranteed to be read. With instant delivery, businesses can swiftly deliver time-sensitive offers, promotions, or important updates to their audience in real-time.
Additionally, 80% of consumers prefer personalized offers based on their purchase history and behaviors. By investing in a comprehensive cross-channel marketing platform, businesses can meet these expectations on consumers’ favorite devices.
By leveraging SMS marketing’s direct and immediate approach alongside personalization, businesses can efficiently reach their target audience, increase engagement, and achieve better overall marketing results.
Start building your SMS campaigns
Ready to experience the power of SMS campaigns firsthand? Start leveraging Insider’s intuitive SMS marketing platform to effortlessly create personalized, timely, and impactful SMS campaigns that resonate with your target audience. Book a demo with our customer success team today.
