Effective marketing meets people where they are and delivers the right messaging at the right time. If you can figure out the secret formula of what works best for your customers, your marketing messages will undoubtedly generate excellent results.
Although many companies don’t know it yet, text marketing is definitely part of that winning formula. With text marketing, you can get your message out instantly and serve timely offers to your customers without disrupting their busy days.
Ready to make that happen? Here’s what you need to know about text marketing for your small business.
What is Text Marketing?
Text marketing centers around sending advertisements to your customers through short message service (aka SMS) channels. These advertisements go straight to their smartphones, where they can review your marketing messages while on the go.
Text marketing is a popular service offered by omnichannel communication solution companies like Mitto. Text is one piece of the puzzle in helping companies create a seamless shopping experience from start to finish.
In recent years, omnichannel messaging brands have leveled up this marketing method by using chat apps to boost engagement and promote conversions. This enables clients to continue the conversation with a brand as they move between devices and digital platforms.
Benefits of Text Marketing for Small Businesses
A small business can easily switch up its marketing approach and enjoy a number of benefits from text marketing. To start, it’s got clickthrough rates that are nearly 10% higher than those of other digital channels. Even a small local concern can achieve true global reach with text marketing messages. Compared to email marketing campaigns, text boosts engagement rates by up to eight times. Plus, a firm can roll out SMS campaigns that achieve conversion rates as high as 30% day after day, and customers tend to stay engaged, as shown by the ultra-low unsubscribe rate of text marketing.
In the end, you really can’t go wrong with text marketing, especially when it’s properly combined with other digital advertising methods.
How To Start Marketing by Text
Text marketing works best when smartly leveraged as part of a holistic omnichannel approach. Unsolicited text messages feel like spam to the recipients — and are illegal under U.S. federal laws — and may harm the reputation of your small business.
Mitto and other leading brands have found that it’s best to first create connections using conversational messaging. Then, as your customers move through the buyer’s journey, you can time your text messages to coincide with each stage of the purchasing process.
Customers often need multiple touch points with a brand before becoming receptive to text-based ads. A potential client’s exact journey depends on their pain points, ideal solutions, and other key demographic information.
Overall, you need to know your customers before leveraging the potential of text marketing. Plan to start that process by performing customer research and looking at how your competitors support the buyer’s journey.
Then, work up to your SMS campaigns by taking an omnichannel approach. You need to ensure that your brand has a notable presence wherever your customers spend their time online.
Text Marketing Best Practices
If you want to move forward with text marketing, there are a number of best practices to keep in mind. One, let the customer lead the way by starting with conversational messaging on your firm’s website and social media channels. Keep the conversation going to help customers feel like they have your ear via conversational messaging. Be mindful of tone: Keep communication wholly conversational to build a true connection with potential clients. And remember that less is more in the world of text marketing, so limit texting frequency and save advertisements for key moments. It’s always wise to test marketing messages to ensure they land well before rolling them out.
If you prefer a hands-off approach, you can always leave the marketing process to a leader in the industry, like Mitto. Your marketing partner will build effective omnichannel campaigns that support your text marketing and help your brand stand out from the crowd.
