Every business out there needs one form of marketing or the other to thrive amongst its ever-growing competition. It’s a necessity you cannot do without, mainly because your competitors are fierce, to convert the customers who need the same products or services you offer.
One of the things businesses in your industry are doing right is leveraging the power of SMS. Yes! Same ol’ SMS. SMS marketing, when done right, is as powerful as any other type of digital marketing service out there? And the good thing is. You can begin seeing results in a short time. Yes, we’re talking about hundreds of conversions in minutes. In this article, You’ll learn everything you need to know about SMS marketing, some of which are its perks, how to harness it for your business, as well as the best SMS marketing tools for small businesses that are on a small budget.
Got a few minutes? Read along!
What is SMS Marketing?
To begin with, we must scratch the surface of SMS marketing to help you understand why you should and how you can employ it for your business.
SMS marketing, to put it mildly, is a form of digital marketing that involves creating awareness for and getting leads engaged with the products or services you offer via SMS. It’s not something alien to you; you certainly get occasional text messages from your network provider asking you to text some keyword to a number to get an ongoing offer. As annoying as these types of text may be, we cannot deny that they’re informative, and they help us get the best value for our money, especially when there is an ongoing promo.
The good news is, you can do more than just informing your existing customers on new products and services; you can send hundreds of texts to thousands of leads at a click and get real-time engagement in a matter of minutes.
Most importantly, if you’re running a small-scale business, you will undoubtedly get more conversations with SMS marketing as opposed to email marketing.
But these aren’t mere claims; with robust business management tools such as Calendesk, you can send custom, mobile-optimized SMS to your customers. More details on that later!
Still, wondering why you might need an SMS marketing system to engage your customers? Let’s take a sneak peek at the perks of this type of marketing.
How SMS Marketing Will Benefit Your Business: The Perks
Did you know that the intended recipients open less than 30% of emails sent daily? Now compare that to over 90% rate with SMS. Why is this so? It’s simple: an average person checks their phone 160 times, and since SMSes are presumed to be more personal messages, they are more likely to be opened during those number of times a person unlocks their device.
And need I say that you don’t need internet access to open an SMS. Pretty much explains why it gets checked more often than an email.
That said, without mincing words, here’s why you should consider SMS marketing for your business.
It Is Trackable
You can track your conversion process with SMS marketing, from the point of initial outbound to the point where the messages are opened. You can employ many applications to do this, but one that is specifically tailored to serve small businesses is Calendesk. It allows you to send hundreds of SMS on the go and track their conversion process in real-time.
Allows You to Infuse Interactive Content
With SMS, you can request your customers to text a simple keyword (e.g. cheap train tickets UK) for more content or insert a link that will direct them to your website. Of course, you have to keep the message short and simple. Take this for example:
“Get free delivery and 80% off on your first order of a box of pizza. Tap “link” to get this amazing offer. Text “Quit” to stop receiving this message. Text “Help” for more info on this service.”
As seen in the SMS, the main purpose is to get your customers to click on the link embedded therein. The texts are short yet informative.
High Engagement Rate
As deliberated earlier, your message is more likely to be read with SMS marketing than any other type of digital marketing out there. Therefore, for a small business with a decent customer target, SMS marketing should be your best bet. On the other hand, email is more suitable for sales copies, given that it is ideal for longer texts.
How to Get SMS Marketing for Your Business with Calendesk
There are many online tools to use when it comes to SMS marketing. Calendesk is an easy-to-use program that equips you with a powerful SMS marketing tool.
How do you set up Calendesk for your business? To get started, you only need to set up an account by providing your email address and a password. The process is pretty much hassle-free, and the good news is Calendesk offers a 14-day free trial for you to access all features provided on the program. The free trial is an opportunity for you to appraise the intuitive tools on Calendesk and harness them for your business.
Intuitive Management of Your Customer with Calendesk
Once you’ve set up an account and have provided the required information about your business, Calendesk will provide you with a dashboard that gives you an intuitive view of your customers. You can specifically list a customer and add information peculiar to them.
The fun part of it all is that you can view all your customers on a single dashboard and send them an SMS, newsletter, or email. Talking about SMS, the best way to make them readable is to keep them short. The primary aim of sending one is to inform or remind your customers about an ongoing service. Embedding a link that redirects them to your website should work just fine.
All in all, SMS marketing, albeit old-fashioned, still works, and as a small business looking to bring your customers closer than ever, you shouldn’t hesitate to engage your customers with it and then expand it with a virtual call center. Calendesk is a powerful tool that will help you realize this, and you can register with the link below.
