SMS marketing is a highly effective way for a business to instantly communicate with its’ customer base. A well thought out SMS messaging campaign is not limited to just marketing functions; it can be used in every function of your business. Renewals, retention, accounts, operations and HR can all benefit from SMS platforms with Email to SMS and Web SMS. With more than a billion smart phone users world-wide, it’s pretty clear consumers are using their phones for far more than just calling and messaging these days. Social media use on mobile phones is about to take over from the phones original purpose, of person to person communication.
For marketers, Social media is just another way of reaching consumers on their mobile or cell phones. Social media allows for not only well written and text rich offers, but colourful images and call to actions to accompany the marketing message.
So are your customers becoming immune to triggered messages from your SMS campaign? After all, an SMS message goes out when the sender decides, generally a social media message will be viewed when the consumer chooses to view it. Maybe the audience behaviour is more like ‘I chose to receive marketing when I want’; if so then traditional bombardment tactics of SMS and email marketing have a challenge to overcome.
I guess the role of these two different customer communication channels should be kept in mind. Social media is a two-way customer communication, a customer can even respond publicly to your marketed offer. But sometimes you don’t want your customers to talk back. You might want to send them a personalised ‘high value member’ offer for example. Also a marketing message received in isolation via SMS, does not risk mob scrutiny and backlash. Social media does not allow you to pick and choose what message goes to which customer cohort, quite as much as Email to SMS marketing. If a customer you are targeting with a social media message doesn’t have ‘Push’ notifications switched on, your response to the campaign might be delayed, or even missed.
On the other hand, an SMS campaign has almost immediate cut-through. SMS has the highest average open rate of all direct marketing methods. It’s very rare you receive a text message and delete it before opening. An SMS is almost guaranteed to make it straight to your customer or prospect, whereas a social media message relies on the customer being within mobile internet area, and it relies on them actually checking the social media at the right time.
From a B2C marketing perspective, SMS messaging offers a more official means of communication than social media activities. An SMS message is more of a shout to a customer, a social message is conversation your customer may (or may not) overhear.
Without a doubt, SMS marketing and Social Media both have their place in customer base communication. SMS messaging is an established and reliable means of communication that is seeing constant improvements on the delivery platform side of things, like web sms and email to sms. Social Media marketing has a fantastic way of creeping into customers heads, without banging down the door. Ultimately, if it’s an immediate response you are after SMS should always be part of your plan; and Social media can continue to spruik your brand from a PR perspective, and bring customers back in a more round-about way.
Agus is the Marketing Manager (or Capocha as she calls herself) at SMS Central, so always has an excuse to be texting at the office. A marketing nerd all the way from Argentina, Agus has worked previously in tech for Paycycle.com.au as well as for consumer brands such as Unilever. Agus believes in balancing hardcore number crunching with airy-fairy, go with your gut style creative thinking and so far it is working out well.
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