One of the most difficult aspects of marketing is getting the attention of your potential customers.
Many marketers suggest to focus on conversions, which is excellent, but I would argue that the first and most essential task is to get as many people to see your marketing message as possible, and only then should you begin to optimise your offer for conversions.
Online SMS allows marketers to obtain the most exposure possible for any marketing message; in fact, I’m not aware of any other advertising medium that can help business owners and marketers achieve as much exposure.
According to smspapa.com.au, greater exposure equals higher sales conversions.
I’ll explain why I believe organisations (particularly small and mid-sized enterprises) should use online SMS as part of their entire consumer interaction strategy in this post.
What Is Online SMS and How Does It Work?
Online SMS is just mass text messaging but typically utilised via an online web interface.
The exciting thing about using an online-enabled text messaging platform is that you can extend your capabilities into the online world, such as sending SMS messages from your favourite email platform with online SMS or integrating it into your ecommerce platform so that you can send an SMS to shoppers who still have items in their cart.
Here are six reasons why organisations should use online SMS to increase lead and sales generation.
Jaw-dropping open rates
It doesn’t matter how fantastic your offer is if your marketing doesn’t get opened, which is why marketers place such a high importance on open rates.
While email lags behind, with an average open rate of only 20%, SMS may earn you anywhere from 82 to 98 percent open rates — and that’s with no flashy visuals, just plain old text.
It’s simple to send Online SMS
If you’ve ever sent a text message to many people at once, you already know 90% of what you need to know about using SMS online. The majority of SMS portals are quite basic; however, more “sophisticated” online SMS portals will allow you to include an imager with your text.
All you have to do to get started is upload your cell phone contacts and start sending texts.
If you don’t have any mobile contacts, you may start collecting data by setting up a text message campaign, which is something that every online SMS platform allows you to accomplish.
Click Through Rates are Extremely High
You still need to obtain that click-through after your message has been viewed and read; this is the next vital stage in the conversion process.
Email marketers should expect a click-through rate of 3-5 percent, whereas SMS response rates can reach 30 percent or more.
When you combine super high open rates with high click through rates, you’re looking at some serious income possibilities.
There are no SP
AM filters installed
Question: have you ever though about why so few of your emails ever get through (i.e. read by your subscribers)?
Here’s something you probably didn’t know, are you aware that there are over 400+ keyword terms (most of which are common ones) that might cause the spam bot to mark your email as SPAM?
Because SMS is not an internet tool, there are no SPAM algorithms to stop it, resulting in a near-perfect delivery rate!
You side-step ad-blockers
Running sponsored advertising is a difficult game; it’s a continual struggle to get the most bang for your buck while attempting to catch the most attention, and it’s all for nought if consumers use ad blockers integrated into their browsers.
Apart from a person actively blocking your cell number, there is presently no blocking technology for SMS, which means you will get 100% of your messages.
There are no high ad costs to deal with
Every year, a tsunami of businesses try their hand at online advertising, reducing ad inventory availability and driving up expenses, making acquiring a new consumer more expensive every year.
Because SMS has no inventory restrictions, expenses have actually decreased, making it one of the most cost-effective advertising channels accessible to business owners and marketers.
You have complete control over your SMS list
When it comes to promoting on social media or through advertising networks, it’s important to remember that you don’t own the channel. This means that policy changes can occur at any time, affecting the performance of your campaign – and they do. Remember when Facebook reduced organic reach to just 1% overnight? Many companies were obliged to pay to play after losing a crucial marketing outlet.
An ad network can suspend your account at any moment and will typically give you a canned response which means it can take weeks to get your account up and running again giving you know real clue as to what you did wrong so you can fix it.
SMS.TO provides a bulk SMS service that is perfect for businesses who want to keep their customers updated on events or special offers. By sending out a bulk SMS, businesses can encourage repeat sales and keep their customers coming back for more.
If you’re running Facebook advertisements, this might entail weeks or months of sending emails in an attempt to get your account banned lifted, all while losing revenues.
You effectively control the platform with SMS; there are no tight ad regulations or SPAM folders, and you have complete access to everyone on your list — the only condition is that every message include an opt-out option for users to unsubscribe.
Low levels of competition
Because most firms utilise the same advertising channels (increasing expenses for everyone), online SMS is used by just a tiny number of enterprises, meaning you have little to no direct competition.
Also, new SMS providers are popping up all the time, bringing SMS pricing down for everyone, making it a significant gain for those who do use it.
Conclusion
Online SMS technology offers a number of advantages right out of the box, including high engagement rates and internet capabilities such as email to SMS and API integration.
It’s also an offline marketing channel, so it’s immune to things like algorithm upgrades, ad blockers, SPAM filters, reputation ratings, and overnight policy changes, all of which have a detrimental influence on the performance of advertising campaigns.
Furthermore, online SMS is really simple to use, and most people can utilise it straight away.
With the growing usage of mobile phones and SMS as one of the most popular social media platforms, internet text messaging will continue to exist for some time.
