As email marketers, we tend to solely focus on email being the one true key to successful marketing. And while it remains the highest average ROI channel in marketing, a well-rounded marketing approach helps you reach your audience to your company's fullest potential. It's true that email is essential for consumers and businesses alike, but if there's one thing that shares importance with email, it's a mobile phone. Delivra has text-message (known commonly as short-message-service, or SMS) marketing capabilities to help you diversify how you connect with your audience. But before you jump into this marketing strategy, it's worth reviewing what SMS marketing is and determining if it's right for your organization.
Is SMS right for you?
SMS marketing can have extraordinary engagement rates and can be hard to ignore. But high engagement doesn't just magically happen. It requires permissions and an opted in audience that has requested these alerts. After having permission from your audience to send SMS messages, you also should have clear, intentional reasons for this channel. Make sure your subscribers know what they're getting into, otherwise you could annoy them and push them away from not only your text messages but other marketing channels as well.
How do you grow a SMS list?
The primary way to grow your SMS audience through Delivra is through your signup forms. Each signup form has the option for you to include a phone number on the form. Note that SMS marketing comes with very strict permission requirements, so in order to add a contact to your SMS audience, you will need to add an authorization checkbox to your forms. Along with your forms, if you have an existing opted-in SMS send list, you can import them into your audience. While going through these permission steps may seem like a hassle, it's actually a major advantage as opted-in subscribers are much more accepting of your communication.
Common SMS campaign types
Date-based Messages
Similarly to triggered campaigns, SMS campaigns can be scheduled to send on relevant dates you know about your subscribers. For instance, you may want to share a happy birthday message with a coupon. Holidays and membership anniversaries are another set of dates that may make sense for a text campaign. Quick responses If you’re sending an email about a flash-sale, or taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity, you might not see the immediate results you’re hoping for with an email campaign. An SMS campaign can help drive quick awareness and lead to a faster action from your audience. Follow-ups and Surveys Chat messaging can be paired with surveys to encourage your customers to take the time to actually respond by linking your survey to something of value. For example, a simple post-purchase survey can be done via a messaging app. The reward is a nice coupon for completing the survey delivered to the customer’s email.
Combining SMS into your Email strategies
An either-or approach to email or SMS marketing may not be the best way to address this situation. Using email and messaging communication in combination gives your business the best of both worlds. It allows you to send printable coupons and more in-depth content like newsletters via email. Done right, these tools can be used together in ways that make them both more effective. With Delivra's automation, you can combine the power of timely, relevant email campaigns with SMS messages. This pairing ensures your SMS messages are reaching your interested and engaged audience members. It can reinforce a longer, more detailed email campaign with a shortened, easier-to-read message. On the other hand, you can schedule SMS messages to reach out to those who aren't engaging with your email. You may find that certain parts of your audience are more likely to engage on a mobile device than an email campaign.
Wrap up
As long as you're engaging with proper opt-in permissions, SMS is an excellent extension of your content marketing strategy. SMS campaigns can expand your reach and call-to-actions in a more digestible formation, or used to reinforce the messaging you have through traditional marketing channels. But ultimately, it's up to your unique audience to help you understand how they prefer to get their content. Experiment with including SMS into your marketing to see if it works with your audience.
