Is 2019 the Year for Mobile Engagement?

With the rise of mobile use, SMS and text messaging channels are now among the most effective marketing tools. The average smartphone user spends over four hours per day on their mobile device. Open rates for SMS are almost 98% - nearly five times the response rate of email, which continues to reign as the most favored direct digital marketing tool among businesses and marketers. Here’s how to start your journey into mobile engagement.

(Source: Are You On Your Phone Too Much? The Average Person Spends This Many Hours On It Every Day, Inc.Com, 10/30/2018)

(Source: ROI Showdown: SMS Marketing vs. Email Marketing, Campaign Monitor, 01/18/2019)

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Bulk Text Messaging - connect with your audience at scale

Text marketing tools allow you to send mass texts just like emails - but customers are much more likely to read a text. Mobile usage statistics suggest that about 99% of texts are read, and recipients respond to 90% of texts in just 90 seconds. Emails, on the other hand, are only even opened around 21% of the time.

(Source: ROI Showdown: SMS Marketing vs. Email Marketing, Campaign Monitor, 01/18/2019)

(Source: Email Marketing Benchmarks, MailChimp, March 2018)

Traditional advertising channels are usually cost prohibitive for small businesses and startups. Bulk SMS marketing has much lower set-up and running costs, which can allow small businesses to launch and execute campaigns at only a fraction of the cost compared to other marketing channels. With SMS marketing, you can reach 1000 customers in a matter of seconds for as little as $20 with a conversion rate of 32%.

Considering the level of cost-effectiveness and returns from investment, global text marketing tools should be a major part of any startup or small business’ marketing strategy.

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Text marketing automation - personalize and customize

Another key benefit of text message marketing is automation. Businesses are increasingly looking to run their marketing campaigns on auto-pilot to reduce time, effort, and (most importantly) cost. Like email, you can automate your text marketing campaigns using messaging platforms so you can spend more time designing better campaigns and doing what you do best.

With a text marketing solution, you can also leverage data from past campaigns from your CRM, app, or website to design new campaigns or optimize ongoing ones for better outcomes. You can then use SMS to consistently engage customers with targeted and personalized messages with offers, discounts, updates on new products, etc. Using the analytics capabilities of their existing marketing management systems, you can extract insight on customer engagement to further optimize various elements of an SMS campaign, such as the timing, length, and frequency of the messages.

You can also create more detailed protocols for how you communicate with your customers. By categorizing the levels of engagement with customers based on factors such as the frequency or recency of their interaction with the brand, transaction value, and customer lifetime value, you can ensure that you’re targeting your customers appropriately.

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SMS APIs

An SMS API is a software integration interface that you can use to build a personalized SMS channel for a business. The API can be seamlessly integrated with your existing digital channels to create a centralized control center for all marketing, allowing you to:

• Send hundreds of SMS messages instantaneously in various formats
• Receive text messages
• Conduct surveys among customers
• Access real-time status reports on campaigns and texts

Businesses that sell their products or services online can integrate SMS APIs with their websites or sales platforms to use existing customer data to personalize messages. These messages could include order notifications, delivery status updates, and receipts.

Start your journey into text marketing with Voyage SMS and get a demo today.