According to the Statistics Portal Statista, active internet users as of April 2019 are roughly 4.4 billion or 58% of the global population. In light of these statistics, it is evident that there is a great percentage of the world’s population who are not using the internet actively. So what do you do if some of your target groups fall in that category? There are a couple of channels you can use to market to non-digital audiences and one of them is SMS marketing.
Contents
SMS Marketing Definition
What is SMS marketing? Just as the name suggests, this is a form of marketing where short messages are sent directly to the customers’ mobile phones. You can use these channel to deliver different types of messages including sales offers, promotions, new product alerts and event reminders among others.
How SMS Marketing Works
As a business, you will have to invest in marketing software that allows you to send messages to customers’ mobile phones. Your customers have to opt-in to receive text messages from your business.
Benefits of SMS Marketing
One of the key benefits of using this channel for communication is that messages sent through mobile phones rarely get ignored. People take their mobile phones everywhere and will check messages immediately they hear the notification sound. For the marketer, it is easy and fast to send messages to a large group of people when you have messaging software. Basically, messages are sent fast and most are read immediately. And just like other marketing channels, you can program your software so that SMSs are sent at a specific time.
Compared to other marketing channels, this one is very cheap and has good chances of success because not many companies are using text messages for marketing. Finally, text messages will not go to spam like emails do. Your subscribers will always receive their messages unless they have misplaced their phone.
SMS Marketing Best Practices
There are six key things you should remember when sending text messages to your customers. One, send text messages only to customers who subscribe to that service. Sending without authorization is not only annoying but it could also land you in trouble. This is because in some states it is illegal to send promotional messages to someone who has not authorized you to do so. Two, just like emails, you should avoid sending too many text messages if you don’t want your customers to leave. Three, don’t forget to include a call to action for the readers and ensure it is clear. Four, avoid sending promotional messages at odd hours. Choose your timing well to avoid annoying your customers. Five, create good content and don’t forget to mention your brand name. Finally, let your customers know that they can opt out at any time and make it easy for them to do so.
In addition to marketing to your non-digital audience, you can use SMS marketing to boost the success of your digital marketing campaigns. For instance, you can send messages to your digital audience notifying them of a discount on your website with a call to action to visit the website.