Official work always calls for modes of communication through emails, social media platforms, and other methods that are more impersonal. Texting one’s number or calling them can be the most personal form of communication right after talking to them face to face. Getting a person’s phone number to strike up a unique or informative conversation is the most potent way after direct communication.
This is mainly because of the frequency of usage by a user of their phone. One of the oldest ways of message texting that still exists today is SMS. SMS stands for ”Short Message Service”. This is how people used to talk to each other using text close to over two decades back.
SMS was a revolutionary mode of communication that let you communicate short but urgent messages in a second to people worldwide. But has SMS been used for more than personal reasons? Yes. SMS is widely used in marketing by businesses. Even today, if you want to know more about telemarketing, visit here to learn more about it.
Businesses have used and still use SMS for marketing, although the scales have varied drastically. Companies obtain numbers of users on a massive scale to put their adverts through. These can be related to both sales messages or initiating a formal relationship to avail the company’s services.
Yes, SMS has been an exceptional service leading up to the present day. But the main question is, is it worth paying a lot of money for bulk SMS marketing in a world where social media and chat services are widely available?
How does SMS marketing work?
SMS marketing was a very effective mode of marketing when it was first initiated. This was because there was an enormous surge of users availing of the SMS back in the day. Third-party data providers, for example, Verizon, found the exponential increase in users and found an opportunity to make more money off of it.
As effective SMS marketing can be for businesses, it can be a slightly irritating thing for mobile phone users to keep seeing adverts on their phones. You’veYou’ve wondered how others you do not know or have not shared your number with getting it in the first place.
The answer is, businesses need to make a substantial investment by purchasing user numbers from your network providers, who are the third-party service providers as stated above. In exchange for money, they hand out your numbers which telemarketers use for advertising. This is how companies get your numbers.
The Potency Of SMS Marketing in 2024
SMS, as we know, has proven to be very effective in the past. In the present day, though, can the very same reasons why SMS was so successful stand out now? Well, let’s take a look, why don’t we?
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A straight line of communication
As stated previously, SMS is a direct form of communication where it is used highly for a personal touch. You can also use emails for personal communication. Still, in the past, emails were only available on desktops.
Hence, only the mobile phones were carried everywhere, which gave the SMS a slighter edge in communicating short and precise messages. People usually opened emails for work-related things, but they used SMS for both personal and work. The SMS was used as a more upgraded version of a beeper that did not only state numbers but also stated text messages, which was a lot more valuable.
Therefore, telemarketers use SMS marketing to bypass various communication barriers and get a straight line to the potential customer.
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Complimenting other channels
SMS marketing isn’t only used for its own sake. I mean, let’s be realistic, just how much can you convey about your product or service in a few words. It becomes slightly more complicated as prospects can lose interest in your offers if you are not smart about it.
Due to the limited capability of phones, telemarketers used SMS as a service to directly attract customers to their showrooms and shops. With millions of businesses operating digitally only, which means some of them do not even have a physical presence in the real world, they persuade potential customers through SMS marketing to avail their services on their website.
And how do they do it? They use the entire SMS to catch the eye of the prospect to have them click on a link in the SMS, redirecting them to the website from the phone. This was something that was not possible in the past due to the limited capabilities of a phone.
Today, though, smartphones that the public owns are ten times faster and more powerful than computers that existed two decades back.
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Reception
The SMS has had a gargantuan success compared to the email. Emails, as stated previously, are more work-oriented and have lower engagement rates than the SMS. The engagement rates of SMS shot up tremendously when it was first introduced.
The reception of SMS is a lot more welcome than for emails as the electronic mailing service has many more spammers and useless incoming mails than SMS. Of course, SMS also has spammers called bots that are software availed by certain businesses to increase their chances of generating leads.
But presently, smartphones are used a lot more than desktop computers and laptops, so it makes sense for SMS to have the upper hand. So currently, in the present world, SMS marketing is still highly successful.
Conclusion
SMS is a force of nature in the recent history of communication. It changed the face of communication all around the world. It has been an incredible tool to add to one’s marketing mix. It not only achieves results by itself but compliments other services in the process as well.
Yes, it doesn’t take away that SMS is a lot lower in engagement due to increased social media platforms and chat software such as Whatsapp, telegram, and signal. Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms are an excellent arena for marketers to advertise their products. Therefore, although not as potent, you should add SMS to your marketing mix to get the edge over your competitors in 2024.
