We’ve all received text messages from brands promoting their new products or from our doctor reminding us of an upcoming appointment. SMS marketing has been around for a long time, but it hasn’t always been used effectively. So how do you use SMS marketing effectively? We asked social media strategist, Azad Yakatally. Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Azad Yakatally
Topic: Nailing SMS marketing
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
SMS marketing refers to the Short Messaging Service that we all know and (sometimes) get annoyed by. It includes regular text messages of 160 characters and photo/video messages (Media Messaging Service – MMS).
A1: When we say SMS marketing, we're talking about sending text messages that are up to 160 characters, including plain text, numbers, and emojis (and MMS).
But SMS marketing is more than just marketing; it’s a personalized communication tool for brands. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
What’s so unique about SMS, though, is that it’s a great way to personalize your marketing communication. What’s more, it’s a two-way communication medium that allows you to drive traffic and give your audience a sense of being personally cared for.
A2: What’s unique to SMS marketing is that it allows brands to connect one-on-one with customers through personalized, two-way messaging.
It’s a great tool to drive revenue, deliver personalized experiences, and build loyalty. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
As Christine put it, SMS is also extremely direct. It’s only too common nowadays to receive emails from brands you didn’t really sign up for. However, with SMS, there seems to be an extra filter—at least for now. Often, the brands that are messaging you are the ones that you really wanted to hear from.
A2.
Direct communication.
Also, I feel like text messaging is a bit more protected from “lists.” I’m pretty sure the only real (not nonsense or spam) brands that are texting me are ones that I directly signed up for.
♥️#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/B5HOGMNpBj— Christine Gritmon ❤️ #ChatAboutBrand (@cgritmon) December 8, 2022
Pretty much everyone. What’s important to remember, however, is that SMS shouldn’t be treated as a broadcasting medium. Use it as a way to communicate with your audience. Whether it’s sending them reminders or updates about a package they’ve ordered, use SMS to drive meaningful customer engagement and support.
A3. Every brand. SMS marketing shouldn’t be viewed as a straightforward marketing tool. Yes, it drives revenue, but ultimately it’s a comms tool.
Brands can use SMS for live support via text messaging, sharing shipping updates, etc. The use cases are plentiful. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
Our friends from GiveWP gave us a particular use case for nonprofit organizations. During fundraising campaigns, SMS can become a great way to share your progress with supporters and engage with them one-on-one.
A3: Mainly B2C brands! In our case, we definitely advocate for NPOs and other organizations to use SMS for multiple reasons – like text-to-give, to keep supporters informed of fundraising campaigns, and to keep them engaged. #TwitterSmarter
— GiveWP 💚 (@GiveWP) December 8, 2022
David pointed out how online clothing brands tend to use SMS marketing to remind customers of products they’ve looked at or added to their carts. This is a good tactic to re-engage an audience that’s gone cold.
A3: Clothing brands, those that see their customer baskets full yet unclaimed. A reminder and subsequent price reduction sees conversions successful. #twittersmarter
— David J Wing (@djwing_wing) December 8, 2022
You’ll likely have received campaign messages: Things like Cyber Monday discounts or ‘Your order is being delivered today’. These are usually automated mass-messages that are triggered at a specific time period or based on your action.
While these are all good use cases for SMS marketing, as our guest pointed out, you can also use SMS to send transactional messages and have a proper conversation with your audience. Check out Attentive, an SMS marketing tool our guest suggested, to try it out for your brand.
A4: The most common texts brands send are one-time campaigns and automated messages triggered by subscriber behavior.
But if you’re working with an SMS marketing platform like @attentiveHQ, you may also have access to transactional and conversational messages. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
Jim suggested that brands that intend to use SMS marketing should allow their audience to choose what they want to receive—like many email newsletters do. He also told us about community.com, an SMS marketing platform that allows you to send messages to people based on their interests. Check it out.
A4. I think brands should give you options of what you want to receive. I like how https://t.co/biRn1XmJ3r gives you those options#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/D2GkODrLjJ
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #AgencySummit (@FuhsionMktg) December 8, 2022
It’s quite similar to building your email list. If you have a loyal following on social media, try and get them to sign up for your SMS list. Do this by engaging with your audience, understanding what they want from you, and providing genuinely valuable information.
A5: Use social media to help build your SMS subscriber list. If someone is following your brand on social media, they have some affinity towards it.
Running a social campaign to build your subscriber list will help you find the loyalist and open them up to texts #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
Grant gave us an excellent use case as well: He has set up an auto responder to everyone who signs up on a landing page. Then, when they reply to the message, a chatbot ‘converses’ with them to identify their needs and schedule an appointment. Once an appointment is scheduled, the lead is then passed onto the sales team. What’s great about this flow is that people may land on the website from social media content, and as soon as they fill up a form, there’s someone (or something, in this case), to follow up with them. If done well, this makes for an excellent experience for the customer.
A5 I've used SMS to autorespond to leads generated from a landing page, and then hook it into a chatbot flow to have an automated validation of customer needs leading to appointment booking. It gets immediate results which are fed to the sales team. Great CX too #twittersmarter
— Grant Crawley – Digital Workplace Consultant (@grantcrawley) December 8, 2022
Start by trying to grow your SMS subscriber list. A good and a common way to do this is to offer a bit of a discount or incentive to your website visitors if they sign up for your SMS list.
A6: Your first campaign should be an attempt to build a subscriber list. A great start is offering a %-off to new subscribers via website pop-up, social media, or email.
From there, you can start having fun with SMS. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
As Pavel said, get some of the basics sorted out. Have a clear plan for how and what you want to communicate with your audience. Then find a provider that you can trust with your audience’s personal information with.
A6: Plan and strategize. Know what your target audience wants. Also, you can't simply send SMS using your mobile number alone. Find a trusted provider that can send those messages to you. #TwitterSmarter
— Pavel Stepanov (@pavelStepanov77) December 8, 2022
Success looks different for each brand. Generally, though, you can assess how successful your campaigns are based on open rates that directly lead to purchases or conversions.
A7: It depends on your goals as a company, but ROI and open rates are probably the two most important.
You want people to read your texts, and you want purchases to be made from them. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
As Mlee reminded us, though, have a clear goal and look at the metric most closely associated with your goals. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on unsubscribes, too.
A7
Multiple ways such as customer acquisition rate, unsubscription rate, list growth and main ROI depending on the goal on your SMS marketing campaign #TwitterSmarter— Mlee 🐈⬛ (@maith2009) December 8, 2022
If you have a social media or community manager, they’ll likely be best placed to run your SMS campaigns as well. They know how to engage with a digital audience and how to frame a message to get the optimum results. If you don’t have a dedicated person for this, you can always hire a digital marketing agency to give you some advice and even run your campaigns.
A8: We see a lot of digital, brand, loyalty, and retention or email marketing managers overseeing their brand’s SMS channel.
Another option is working with a digital marketing agency to support your SMS strategy. #TwitterSmarter
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 8, 2022
That said, as our friends from Social Media Pulse pointed out, make sure that whoever’s running your SMS campaigns knows the difference between other social channels and SMS. Ideally, you want them to craft a separate strategy, complete with goals, content, and methods.
A8.
Make sure whoever’s running your SMS campaigns understands how SMS differs from other marketing channels–though also make sure they’re not silod off from them. SMS should have its own distinct goals, but also fit into (and enhance!) overall marketing mix.
🚀#TwitterSmarter— Social Media Pulse (@SMP_Community) December 8, 2022
Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Azad, have a look at this Twitter thread. If you like this summary, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us next Thursday at 1 pm ET for #TwitterSmarter. We also have an after-chat on Twitter Spaces at 5 pm ET. See you there!
About me, Narmadhaa:
I write all the things—marketing stuff to pay the bills; haiku and short stories so I feel wholesome. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.
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