The key to selling any product is excellent marketing. The same goes for services as well. If you want to get your product or service out there for the world to see, or even just your local community, you need to have a good marketing strategy in place.
Marketing is what can give a brand visibility. If you have the best product in your industry sector, but poor marketing, it’s unlikely to reach out to customers and grab their attention. The same also works in reverse. If you have the worst product in your industry sector, but excellent marketing, it’s going to become a brand that people know.
It may not seem like the fairest way, but marketing opens doors that just having a great product can’t. When it comes down to marketing strategies, there are a lot of options open to your business. From door to door marketing to a full online campaign, there are a thousand and one ways that can get your product or service out there.
Not all marketing strategies are going to be successful though. That’s why its so important to target your unique audience and find a strategy that is going to work for your business.
We’re going to be taking a look at one of the most effective marketing strategies available, SMS marketing, and your ability to get a return on investment (ROI). This innovative marketing strategy may not quite be as well-known as it’s email-marketing counterpart, but if you get SMS marketing right, it can really PACK A PUNCH.
What Businesses Can Benefit from SMS Marketing?
The great thing about text message marketing is that it’s an incredibly diverse marketing campaign that can fit into all manner of marketing strategies. With text marketing, you can target customers of local businesses and meet the demands of larger companies. From high-street shops and local garages to media agencies and artists, SMS marketing can fit the bill.
If you’re trying to connect with customers near your business premises, then text marketing provides a viable way to send a personal message. For larger companies that aren’t so focused on local business, SMS presents an opportunity to get your message and brand across in a way that is going to be seen.
Of course, however diverse a marketing strategy may be, if it doesn’t deliver a return, then it’s not going to be worth the investment.
Getting a Return on Investment with SMS Marketing
There are two ways to look at ROI and your marketing strategy; immediate returns and long-term returns. It’s very beneficial to see how much your conversions and returns are going to change after a campaign with a comprehensive software package; what is hard to pinpoint, is the ongoing influence that it’s going to have.
Word of mouth is a powerful thing, even if your marketing only encourages a few additional people to sit up and pay attention to your brand, that’s often all it takes to get the ball rolling. SMS marketing is a great method for delivering both forms of interest; especially those immediate results. Why? Because SMS marketing is one of the fastest ways to get your message to your customers.
This gives it an edge in immediate return on investment, allowing you to host promotions or get exposure on a new product or service within a limited frame of time. The immediate channel of communication that SMS marketing delivers sets it apart from the crowd, but how does this translate fully into a good ROI?
A good marketing strategy will deliver an initial ROI and lead to business growth. While there are many variables that go into calculating the ROI of a marketing strategy, there are three big factors that can help to determine whether a positive ROI will be the outcome; expense, reach, and engagement.
Expense
The lower the initial cost of the campaign, the higher margin there is for a good ROI. However, lower cost definitely doesn’t always translate into a higher return. SMS marketing has some initial expense, and there are costs to get started. This is where reach and engagement come into the equation.
Marketing Reach
The further the reach, the better the potential of return. Reach is determined by your target audience. SMS marketing is one of the best marketing strategies for reach. Research has shown that texting is one of the most common activities on a phone, with about 18.7 billion texts sent every day, according to research performed by Statistic Brain.
Customer Engagement
Any good marketing campaign needs to engage the target audience and provide them with valuable information. A study by eMarketer in 2015, showed that around 22% of time spent on a mobile phone is spent texting. This shows that SMS is already capturing a key engagement from phone users. The value of the content, is then down to what your business is offering.
If you focus on reach and engagement, SMS is well-established to deliver a good ROI, despite the initial cost of setting up the campaign. Through SMS marketing, you can establish a cross-channel strategy that targets the kind of audience that matters to your business.
How Can You Maximize Returns with SMS Marketing?
A great marketing strategy starts with taking the right approach. With SMS marketing, you open the door to a high open-rate through direct marketing, but this is only going to deliver a return if opening the message is going to be a positive experience.
A repetitive texting strategy that delivers messages far too regularly and that doesn’t provide useful information or an incentive for opening, it’s unlikely to lead to the conversion rate needed to get a return nor the benefit of brand establishment and growth.
There are three key things to bear in mind when launching a SMS marketing campaign:
- Make sure that you have full permission to send messages (few people react well to unexpected messages)
- Provide real value in your message (getting disrupted by information you know or don’t need is not going to lead to a conversion)
- Keep messages to a minimum (a couple texts a month can be much more effective than one every couple of days)
Adding SMS to your marketing strategy can significantly enhance your business marketing. It provides direct access to customers in a way that is going to be noticed. Through reach and engagement, SMS marketing is well designed to provide a return on investment that can help your business, no matter the size, to get a message out there.
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