How SMS Marketing Can Grow Your Business
Daniel Flynn
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To most business owners, SMS marketing is an abstract, unnecessary, or unattainable method of communicating with customers. If you fall into one of these groups of skeptics, I wrote the rest of this article to tell you how powerful and practical SMS marketing can be.
Offering support to my claims are some statistics.
- 71.4% of consumers over the age of 18 own a smartphone. That figure only increases in younger age brackets. For instance, 85% of consumers between the ages of 18-24 own smartphones. In the 25-34 age group, 86.2% own smartphones. (Nielsen)
- 78% of millennials are a member of a loyalty program and 78% of that group joined for the discounts. (GeoMarketing)
If you do not believe that this is relevant to you, then you are failing to notice an important opportunity for your business.
Younger generations are the consumers of tomorrow. In order to stay relevant, you must interact with them through their preferred method of communication. In addition, you should propose incentives that are attractive to them. Younger generations, millennials specifically, enjoy loyalty programs with discounts. After all, who doesn’t want to save money? That desire is constant and transgenerational.
With that being said, SMS marketing is an effective method of connecting customers with your brand, incenting them to come back to your business (and spend more), and delighting them with ongoing communication post-visit. The rest of this article outlines how SMS marketing can grow your business.
Connect your customers with your brand
Facilitating a connection between customers and a brand is the name of the game in marketing and advertising. Luckily for you, SMS marketing does just that. By nature, a text message is more personal than email. Therefore, by sending a personalized text message to a customer, you are fostering a personal connection between them and your brand. Furthermore, text message open rates are at 98% (Campaign Monitor) so, unlike other communication methods, you can rest assured in knowing that your message will almost definitely be seen by its recipient.
Incentivize customers to come back (and spend more)
Since you can be almost completely sure that a text message from your business will be seen by a customer, SMS marketing is a great method of offering discounts. Discounts do not necessarily mean less money for you either. If the average purchase of a regular customer is $20, you can increase that customer’s value to your business by texting him a 10% discount on any purchase over $30. Of course, there is an optimal discount for your business’ average ticket size, but you get the gist. In other words, you should reward customers for being loyal. If incentives are in line with a customer’s spending, then your offer has the potential to be financially beneficial.
Delight customers with ongoing communication
If you leverage the personal touch of a text message from your business to communicate with customers after a visit, they will feel a connection to your brand. Whether you are sending a receipt, discount, or birthday message, the customer will feel as if he or she is in contact with the people that provided him or her a product or service at your business. As a result, he or she will begin to view your brand as a living being.
Through SMS marketing, your customers will reciprocate
SMS marketing makes your brand more relatable and humanlike. It also shows that you value a relationship with them. As a result, your customers will feel a responsibility to reciprocate. One way to reciprocate is through repeat business. Another method of reciprocation is writing a positive review of your business online, which will have a big impact on your ability to attract new customers. Therefore, SMS marketing gives you the opportunity to entice happy customers to write positive reviews of your business.
Hopefully, this article has given you a sufficient understanding of the power of SMS marketing.
How We Can Help
Luckily for you, TAPLocal Text, our integrated SMS marketing and online review generation system, allows you to start leveraging SMS marketing in your SMB marketing toolbox. It automates the process of fostering relationships with your customers via text message and subsequently enticing them to leave positive online reviews for your business.
For more articles on SMB marketing and payment processing, visit our blog or go to our homepage to schedule a free marketing consultation today.
Next Step?
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