Use SMS messaging to Improve your Marketing Strategies in 2022

With the advent of 2022, the dominance of digital tools and media increases and its hold over businesses and marketing has strengthened further. If you’re part of a start-up or an established business, a digital presence is a prerequisite before moving into the market further. Ecommerce has thus several strides and newer tools and strategies are being brought up as the world of business advances. SMS messaging, one of the main tools used today to establish an online presence and connect with customers, can lead you forward this year with strong ecommerce strategies that will put your business ahead of the rest.

Text messaging has now been proven through research and customer surveys as highly preferred over the previously dominant mode of email marketing. Email communication reigned the previous decade, with many businesses shifting to it from cold calling, and several using emails as primary mode of contact with company representatives as well as customers. However, its approach is now seen as less accessible, straightforward as well as time-consuming, compared to SMS.

                

SMS messaging has picked up pace over the latter half of the last decade and is growing tremendously. Since it has the biggest advantage of being accessible to a user of any kind of mobile phone, your potential customer base immensely increases already because of the wider reach that SMS messaging guarantees. It also has a higher rate of being opened compared to emails, as high as 98%. Studies also state that SMS has a response rate of 45%, which is again much higher than emails. Considering these statistics, it is no wonder that SMS is now leading the market.

How can SMS messaging help you up you game?

·        Create external engagement

While customers may directly connect with you through text messaging, feedback forms and physical communication, since the digital world is gaining more power through various platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, it would be useful to make use of them. Build a profile for your company on these platforms and help customers connect with you there. You can use SMS Gateway to let your customers know of special events, such as a picture event that can result in a photo sent by a particular customer being featured on your account.

This can be an appealing way for many people actively using Instagram, and can increase engagement. Through profiling on Instagram and other popular platforms, your brand continues to stay relevant and can also gather the attention of other potential customers. Using SMS to invite customers to participate in such events is a good strategy to stay connected in a manner that suits them.

·         Define your target audience and their interests

If you sell a variety of products and services, they can be appealing to a varying group of customers. Knowing the customers who buy a specified range of products can help you classify their interests and branch out with messaging. Use specific interests of customers and create separate messaging lists for each common interest. This can be useful when you want to send out offers or event notifications that may appeal to a certain group of people more than the general clientele.

For instance, there may be a group of customers who frequently buy your collection of bags and clutches from your boutique. When there are special offers for these products, contacting these customers in particular can ensure that you send the message to people who are fond of your bags and may be interested in buying some during offers. Sending it to your entire customer base can result in some customers losing interest if they do not usually buy your bags. They may start dismissing your messages as mere promotional texts, rather than beneficial notifications.

·         Use MMS to your advantage!

MMS is often forgotten as an integral feature of Text messaging. Particularly in the digital world, the visual culture is widespread and more popular. Using graphics to communicate your brand image can boost the relevance and appeal of your company. For instance, use graphics to highlight the products or services that set you apart from other brands. Images are more instantly perceived compared to words, and even if SMS messages are generally short anyway, images still make a bigger impact. Use images to communicate your personal brand value, what makes you unique, and your primary defining point. For many customers, an MMS can be the starting point to their relationship with you, where an image forces them to check your website and other products because of how enticing the image was. Hence, use MMS to connect differently with your customers. Text messages are not always the best mode to present your company.

 

The digital world moves at a much faster pace than we are accustomed to, and trends and growth scales keep changing for this reason. Keeping track of these changes and ensuring that your business is up-to-date with them thus becomes extremely essential.