There are tons of ways to do mobile marketing. When you mix and match all the different strategies, the number of possible combinations is endless. But one mobile marketing strategy that should have a place in every mobile marketing campaign is text message marketing. It’s flexible enough to be useful no matter what your mobile marketing aims are. It’s inexpensive enough to fit in any budget. And best of all, it works very well. Here’s a look at a few reasons your mobile marketing campaign needs texting.
The text messaging advantage
While other forms of mobile marketing are valuable, they aren’t push-based. In other words, no matter how much effort you put into your mobile marketing, at the end of the day you still have to cross your fingers and hope that your customers will initiate the communication with you. So whether you’ve designed a mobile website or created a mobile app, you’re waiting for customers to view it or download it.
The advantage to text message marketing is you initiate the conversation with them. The only thing your customer needs to do is opt in to receive texts from your business and then you have the freedom to control the conversation by sending them the information you want them to know.
Another advantage to mass text messaging is that it can bind together all your marketing efforts. For instance, if you’ve got a text message marketing strategy and a mobile app, you can use your text messaging service’s device detection program to know what mobile devices your customers are using and then send the appropriate link to your app.
Perhaps the most popular use of mass text messaging is for advertising promotions. With open rates at about 99%, there’s no better way to ensure that your customers will get the message. To make your text messaging efforts especially effective, give your customers who’ve opted in for texts extra incentives. For example, give your subscribers early access to a promotion. If customers perceive value in receiving your text messages, you’ll quickly build your texting list.
Keep it interesting
Just as with any mobile marketing strategy, text messaging does have some inherent weaknesses. A major one is being limited to 160 characters. Sometimes, what you want to say just can’t fit into 160 characters. One option is to send a two or three part text. But since that is annoying to some people, a better option is MMS or multimedia messaging service. MMS allows you to include images, videos, audio, and links to your text messages. This is a creative solution for getting around the 160 character limit.
Another way to keep your text messages interesting is by experimenting with the different uses of SMS marketing. As mentioned, the most common use is for advertising promotions. You can also use text messaging to conduct sweepstakes or customer satisfaction surveys. You can use it to send shipping notifications and appointment reminders or even to send mobile coupons. Find what works and use it.
