While SMS has been around since 1992, it’s still the most reliable way to communicate daily. It’s easy to use, and the fundamentals have not changed, no matter how advance our devices becomes. But today, businesses have been taking advantage of its familiarity and user-friendliness for their marketing efforts.
Below are the reasons why you should utilize SMS messaging:
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Urgent
Sending text messages is as easy as you want it to be. Your device won’t ask you to preview or layout your content before sending them first. You can create your message as short as you want it to be. It doesn’t take a long text to inform your customers about sales or a new product coming up.
Sending SMS doesn’t take long as well. It only takes up to three minutes to forward your message to hundreds of your customers. Business texting services may also allow you to get a toll-free number if your customers want to reach you through phone calls. Companies like Kall8 offer extensive services that include bulk text messaging and customer hotlines.
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Customer-Friendly
It’s not easy to please every customer, and business owners must find means to make things convenient. Utilizing technology in your business can go a long way, especially in giving customers a say on how they want to communicate with you. Since most of the population are using smartphones, SMS messaging isn’t alien to anyone anymore, even with older consumers. If the business allows it, the customers can also message them back for inquiries.
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Affordable
If you’re thinking about marketing efforts, there’s a tendency to dread costs because advertising isn’t cheap. Print ads, TV, and radio commercials can cost a substantial amount of money, and it’s not practical if you’re a small business owner still starting. SMS offers a cheap alternative to acquiring and retaining customers compared to the mentioned options. You can order bulk messaging from a service provider. Plus, you can get a sizeable ROI just by sending affordable SMS messages to your customers.
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Personal
Customers like to feel special. Appealing to their emotions can get the sales growth going. Even newsletters with content that pitches products can mostly go a long way just by personalizing the message. You can customize notifications by including the names of people and other businesses. By making it sound conversational, you can connect to your customers better.
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Fast Delivery
Another advantage of SMS messages? Emails trump over snail mails, and text messages win hearts faster than emails. Why? SMS messages don’t need WiFi to arrive at one’s inbox. They can get to your smartphone in seconds to a few minutes on the spot. Your customers can immediately read your message without logging onto a computer. They will receive it wherever and whenever they are. How great would it be if they can reach your store shortly after sending out a message on sales and discounts?
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Get Quick Feedback
As far as communication channels go, you’d want to have many so that your customers have options as to where they can reach you. You can also use these channels to solicit feedback on your business. SMS messaging provides and a quick and on-the-spot solution for getting opinions and suggestions from your customers. It’s fast, and the dedicated channel allows you to read the replies immediately without delay. It’s also less likely that you will miss anything.
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Less Invasive
It used to be that people had to pay for the text message they received, which can be a problem. But today, there’s also a solution. This generation of consumers also choose SMS messaging as a primary communication tool, and they have more patience with incoming text adverts. And because it stays in the phone unless they decide to delete it, there’s a likelihood for consumers to view the SMS message once more and be reminded of sales or events happening in your business soon.
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Targeting
Text messages are the easiest to configure and a no-brainer way to communicate, so much so that even children know how to do it. It’s also an advantage that businesses can use to send text messages to a specific demographic group. It’s easier to reach out to your target market no matter the age group as long as they have smartphones.
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Opt-In
Customers feel more empowered when they have a choice on whether to receive notifications or not. When customers buy from your store, they can opt-in or register to receive messages on promotions and deals. That means they have more awareness to receive your notifications, and you get more opportunities to keep them coming back for more. Customers who opt-in are also likely familiar with your brand and heavily invested in what you can offer.
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Time-Saving
When you have a lot of product planning and development to do, plus managing your business’s operations, it may feel overwhelming if you have a limited workforce to help you. Marketing is another aspect that you should make an effort to do that can also be difficult if you have a lot in your hands. SMS messaging is so easy and fast to do and allows you to make the most out of the marketing efforts that you don’t have to spend an insane amount of time planning how you’ll market your brand. You have 160 characters at your disposal to create a short but direct message to inform people about your promotions.
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Trackable
Some business text services are offering different features for your needs. Some also provide tracking and delivery reports for monitoring the performance of your campaigns. If you have analytics, you’ll see which areas you need to improve on and which ones work best.
In Conclusion
SMS is an efficient, fast, and affordable way to message your customers. Businesses continue to thrive because of such an easy-to-use way to keep customers updated and engaged with the business brand. SMS messaging is also fast and wide-reaching, that you don’t need the Internet for it. Anyone can receive a business text no matter where they are, giving your business leverage even over email marketing.
