SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is hugely effective, even though many believe that it is outdated. It is however true that the unintelligent form of SMS marketing, where messages are being aimlessly sent out, will be perceived as SPAM by the recipients. SMS is a kind of alert, it is loud and pops up on most people’s devices, and should therefore be used with caution.
SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is hugely effective, even though many believe that it is outdated. It is however true that the unintelligent form of SMS marketing, where messages are being aimlessly sent out, will be perceived as SPAM by the recipients. SMS is a kind of alert, it is loud and pops up on most people’s devices, and should therefore be used with caution.
SMS as a confirmation
“Thank you for signing up for our newsletter, click here to confirm your registration”. This kind of message is also called a double-opt-in message, and works extremely efficiently on SMS. Several customers delay the SMS autoresponder – an automatic broadcast function in MarketingPlatform, an hour or two, and lets the first confirmation message be sent as email.
Anyone who does not confirm their registration from the mail will X hours after receive an SMS with the same message. By sending out the message intelligently, delayed with a filter, your business avoids disturbing anyone who confirms the subscription immediately by email.
SMS as a follow-up on email newsletters
SMS and email are connected seamlessly in MarketingPlatform.
It is therefore possible to send SMS messages automatically based on actions or missing actions in email newsletters. An action can be to open the email or not to open the email. It can also be to click or not to click – or to click on a specific link or vice versa.
That kind of intelligence gives a great opportunity for targeting, and therefore optimizing the investment by sending out SMS messages.
Let us look at an example: A service-oriented company. which is nationwide. uses MarketingPlatform for sending calls. They intelligently filter in their data and have a flow of automated campaigns, that are send based on a specific date. When that date is very close, usually the day before and during the day, the flow changes to SMS messages which contain merged information to be used when the recipient shows up at the company. The SMS messages are sent as a trigger campaign, which is limited in time to only send between 07.30 and 20.30. This way they do not disturb their customers in the middle of the night.
SMS autoresponders
Earlier in this article we mentioned SMS confirmation messages. Technically, they are sent out as an SMS autoresponder. But this functionality offers many more options.
By making the autoresponder messages dependent on each other, either as a flow or by only sending the next message, if the first one is opened or not opened after X time, a very effective multi-channel marketing effect can be created.
First autoresponder is an email. If it is not opened after 2 days, a follow-up SMS will be sent. If the person does not click on anything more than SMS message, a new email is sent as a follow-up within a few hours. This email is opened, so the next messages are also sent by email. This is how a combined flow looks like. It is therefore possible to ‘’learn’’ from the recipient’s behaviour along the way and to adjust the chosen channel continuously.
SMS triggers messages
A trigger message can respond on time, actions and behaviour. The messages can be send out both as email campaigns and SMS campaigns.
The common way of using SMS in trigger campaigns is as thank you for buying messages and win-back messages if the customer has not purchased for a long time. How much time will depend a lot on your industry. In some industries one month is a long time – while in others, 6 months is more appropriate frequency.
MarketingPlatform can send all kinds of trigger campaigns as SMS messages. It can be birthday greetings, follow-up on a particular behaviour or actions.
A customer who runs a nationwide retail chain uses SMS triggers as a follow-up on email campaigns. For them, the physical presence is crucial for the choice of media. The customer usually sends a follow-up SMS campaign two days after their newsletter, which is usually sent on Wednesday. Therefore, the SMS hits the message recipients before the weekend, where most people visit their physical stores. But they filter the broadcast. All recipients who have opened the mail sent, receive a message. Everybody else receives a longer SMS that usually consists of two messages (2×160 characters).
Within the catering industry, several of our customers have great success with SMS marketing as a follow-up on newsletters. Special offers, reminders as well as unused bonus points, have great effect. It’s no coincidence that these messages always are sent out 30-45 minutes before normal eating time.
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