SMS marketing is the distribution of advertising messages via SMS. Using SMS, a company can inform its audience about new products or services, promotions, special offers, and provide customers with information on actions such as making an appointment or placing an order. SMS marketing has been around for two decades and, despite the development of other promotion channels, this advertising method remains effective and relevant.
Unlike many other types of advertising, launching SMS marketing does not require special knowledge. There are special SMS mailing services that make it easy to launch promotions. Sometimes this service is provided by mobile operators themselves, which makes launching a mailing even easier — the company will consult you on all issues. From you, first of all, it is necessary to collect a database of contacts for the mailing. To make the mailing legal, it is important to obtain consent from customers to use their phone number, for example, when the customer places an order.
SMS marketing is actively used by companies, and there are several reasons for this. The advantages of SMS marketing include:
- wide coverage — most people have a phone that they constantly use, and this is the easiest way to reach them.;
- high open rate — people read almost all SMS messages they receive, so your message is unlikely to go unnoticed;
- conciseness — the SMS format implies short messages, and this allows people to immediately understand the essence of your offer;
- no need for the Internet — to receive SMS, only mobile communication is needed, which is now available almost everywhere in the world;
- automation capability — SMS marketing can be used in conjunction with accounting systems, such as CRM, to send customers trigger messages that are automatically generated after certain actions are taken;
- always reaches the addressee — even if the customer is out of range or their phone is turned off, the SMS will still reach its target when the subscriber becomes available.
SMS marketing cannot be called an ideal promotion tool. Like other advertising methods, it has its problems. The disadvantages of SMS marketing include:
- only text is used — modern marketing is usually based on visual content and the widespread use of banners, which is impossible in the SMS format;
- price — the cost of an SMS distribution may be higher than that of an email analog, so it is necessary to carefully choose distribution services and compare the effectiveness of the tools;
- limited text size — the company cannot always fit its theses into one SMS, and increasing the size of the text will lead to a significant increase in the price;
- lack of analytics — it is quite difficult to track the effectiveness of an SMS distribution, as it does not imply the tools that exist, for example, in web analytics.
