Of course, to implement an effective text marketing campaign, businesses should look into some of the best text message marketing practices. Today, social impact marketers recognize three major SMS marketing strategies as the most effective in reaching customers, boosting sales, and building a loyal customer base. With a text marketing platform like launch.ai, companies can ensure they have the best resources and means to maximize the return on their SMS marketing investment. 

What Is SMS Text Message Marketing?

SMS text message marketing is a form of direct marketing that takes advantage of Short Messaging Service (SMS) apps on mobile phones and devices. An SMS marketing strategy will involve sending promotions, sales, company news, and other relevant bits of information directly to a person’s phone via a text message. 

In this sense, SMS text message marketing follows similar strategies to older email and snail email-based marketing campaigns. But SMS text message marketing offers a more direct and effective path to getting in touch with potential customers. 

How an SMS text message marketing campaign can boost marketing outcomes

SMS text marketing is ultimately more effective than email or snail mail marketing because of the much higher connection rate of text messages compared to emails or mailed promotional materials. Today, around 97% of the population has either a smartphone or another type of cell phone capable of receiving SMS texts. 

What’s more, studies have found that around 98% of text messages get opened within three minutes of being received. This is about five times the rate emails get opened and read. So, SMS text marketing campaigns have a much higher likelihood of connecting with potential customers. 

Additionally, SMS text message campaigns can help businesses forge better relationships with their existing customer base. In addition to promotional and education marketing, SMS text messages can be a great way to handle customer service, provide company news, and otherwise engage with customers in a fun and effective way. 

Of course, effective SMS text message marketing needs to come in conjunction with other complementary marketing and promotional strategies. Businesses still need to build a contact list, engage with multichannel marketing approaches, and address customer pain points to see meaningful returns. But still, impactive SMS text marketing approaches can be a major asset to a broader promotional strategy. 

The Most Impactful SMS Text Message Marketing Strategies

Companies can use SMS text message marketing in several ways. The most effective approaches for an individual company may vary somewhat depending on that company’s customer base, product, budget, and so on. But in general, social impact marketers have identified three particularly impactful ways to use SMS marketing. 

Promotional SMS messaging

As the name suggests, promotional SMS message marketing involves sending promotional materials directly to potential customers via text messages. Promotional message marketing often works as a follow-up with potential customers following initial contact. This strategy can provide potential customers with information on new products, sales, upcoming events, relevant customer services, and other types of promotional material that may pique their interest. 

Transactional SMS messaging

In contrast to promotional SMS marketing, transactional SMS marketing serves to complete a customer’s journey to purchasing a product or service. In many cases, transactional SMS messaging works as a two-step authentication process for customers to confirm their purchase or create a new account. 

Transactional SMS messaging can be a great way to keep a customer engaged during the entire sales process. For example, a company can use transactional SMS messaging to update a customer on the shipment of a product they ordered. Companies can also use it to confirm a transaction, reset passwords, or confirm updates to a customer’s profile. 

Many companies use transactional SMS messaging to get customer feedback, either through mobile surveys or single questions. This gives companies better information on customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction and lets the customers know they value their opinions. 

Though transactional SMS messages serve a practical purpose, they can also be a great way to let a customer feel valued and engaged during the process of marking a transaction. This can help build positive feelings towards the company and increase the chances that the customer buys more products or services from that company in the future. 

Informational SMS messaging

Finally, SMS marketing can be useful for informing customers of information that technically falls outside the realm of “promotion” but still holds value in engaging and retaining their interest. For example, a company could send existing customers informational text messages on when certain popular products are back in stock. 

Or, a company might let customers know about updates to shipping policy, new partnerships, charitable activities, and so on. While this information is not tied directly to sales or promotions, it keeps customers engaged with the company during times when they might not be making a direct transaction. 

How to Increase Your Sales in 2023 with launch.ai SMS Marketing

No matter what strategy or strategies a company decides to use when working with SMS text message marketing, it needs to have access to the best text marketing platform. launch.ai is the leading text message marketing platform for companies across all industries to provide promotional, transactional, and information text messages to their customer base in an efficient, affordable medium. 

Launch.ai’s unsurpassed efficacy and quality performance ensure that companies can get the best return on their investment when using a comprehensive SMS marketing strategy. So if your business is looking to start an SMS text message marketing strategy or if you would like to improve your existing SMS marketing strategy, get in touch with launch.ai today to get started.