Over the past eight-and-a-half years since the first iPhone was released, we’ve grown addicted to our smartphones. When you consider Facebook addiction and viral games such as Angry Birds or Candy Crush, it’s clear that the smartphone is an attention vacuum—an interesting device for marketers to think about.
But we don’t respond to any notification quite as quickly or with as much urgency as the old-fashioned text message. Data shows that 97 percent of people who receive an SMS will read it—much higher than emails or tweets.
If you own a business, that probably sounds like an incredible opportunity to get your message out there. And it is. Imagine sending a message to 10,000 people knowing that 9,700 people were going to see it.
If you have any experience marketing via social media or email, you’ll understand how uniquely potent SMS marketing can be. Traditional open rates for marketing emails sit at just above 20 percent—meaning that if you sent that same message to 10,000 people via email as opposed to SMS, less than 3,000 people would see it.
But before you think about calling up your marketing director (or your clients) and setting up the next viral SMS extravaganza, you should consider how to handle this kind of potentially invasive marketing delicately.
First of all, people are expecting to be sold to via email, social media and banner / Google ads. These are familiar parts of the online experience by now, while something like SMS marketing is still new enough to cross the line if overdone or poorly executed.
But fundamentally, the answer to this potential problem is the same as it is for email, content, banner ads and social media posts…
Get permission first, then provide value.
If you’re going to utilise a potentially invasive medium like SMS marketing, you need to make sure that your prospects have agreed to receive (and are expecting) your messages, and you need to make sure your messages provide value.
Some of the more successful SMS marketing messages provide details that customers need such as ticketing and scheduling information (saving them the hassle of needing to do their own research), special time-bound offers exclusive to people on the SMS list and the opportunity to provide feedback (it’s a natural urge to respond to text messages—make your audience feel heard!)
Will YOU experiment with SMS marketing and do it right? If you’re leaning towards a yes but you’re still a little nervous, contact us today and let us help you out!
