Businesses nowadays have evolved to using text messages for businesses owing to its convenience. To put this into perspective, all that is needed is a text-enabled mobile device which truth be told is pretty much any mobile phone.
In business, however, the simplicity of text messages can be a tad limiting. This is because while using a personal mobile device, it is impossible to send a text from your computer or send a group text without the “reply all” feature.
A text messaging service provider remedies this by basically opening up the capabilities of SMSs.
SMS Message Provider
A text messaging service provider develops software that opens up the SMS capabilities of a mobile device opening them up to a desktop.
It allows for the sending of a single text message to as many customers as one desires at once while also being able to reply to each individual from your inbox.
With businesses constantly looking for ways to minimize expenses and maximize profits, text messaging marketing is always a viable marketing method.
Text Message Marketing
SMS marketing generally refers to sending transactional and promotional messages to market products or general business promotions through text messages.
In case you were thinking of moving to text message marketing, here is a little something to move things along;
Higher opening rates
I am sure you agree that you open text messages almost as soon as you receive them vis a vis all the unread emails in your inbox.
Flexible and cheap
All that is needed to get messages to customers is a general working mobile phone which is just about any mobile phone on the face of the earth regardless of internet connectivity and what not.
Immediate delivery
As soon as you hit that send button, customers receive the message. This could come in handy for time-sensitive messages like offers valid till some time.
Assuming you do not know that much about SMS marketing, here is a simple guide on how to do it right;
Introduce yourself
It is public knowledge how annoying receiving text messages from some random number is. Most customers would just label your message as spam and not give two thoughts about it.
Engineer short clear messages
Try as much as possible to craft short clear messages without droning on to avoid boring your audience.
Ask for consent
Always ask for consent from customers before sending them messages simply because the opposite is illegal. You could send them an email or online forms asking for both their consent and mobile number.
Use text message marketing software and tools
Specially made SMS marketing tools can help smoothen the entire process. Said marketing tools can help you with bulk SMS campaigns or help you track your results.
A decent example of text message marketing software is smart messaging software.
Smart SMS
Business SMSs have been made better by the invention of smart messaging software. Smart messaging generally can be referred to as multimedia messaging – multimedia in the sense that it supports multimedia elements like audio and video.
This software fixes some of the problems associated with plain old text messages for SMS marketing. For instance, business SMSs have a limit of 160 characters. This limits the amount of information and content you can get through in a single message.
Smart messaging software allows you to create and embed a short bit.ly link within the message being sent. Customers with smartphones or access to the internet can click on the link and will be redirected to a disposable webpage that was set up specifically for whatever campaign you were running. This particular web page will allow customers to see more of the message, including any accompanying videos and images.
