Top 5 Tactics To Engage Customers with SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing is changing the way customers view businesses and vice versa. In this new age of Cloud Connectivity, IoT, and AI-learning revolution, SMS Marketing is being creatively used to grow businesses and market various innovations.

Did you know that over 22 Billion texts are sent every day? Yes, you read that right.

And here's another mindblowing fact: SMS or text messages have an opening rate of 99% when compared to other marketing strategies. There are tons of SMS marketing strategies when it comes to generating leads, retaining customers, or making those events a success. But we believe in the timeless classics and if your goal is to be tech-savvy, and marketing-savvy at the same time, read on.

The 5 Strategies of SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to connecting with your audiences. There are different tactics you can adapt depending on the context or campaign. Let's dive into the different tactics employed in SMS Marketing when it comes to engaging your customers.

Sneak Peeks and Early Bird Deals

How would you like to make a customer feel special? Now, multiply that by a trillion and you have sales revenues shooting through the roof. Using the power of SMS, you can show your audiences a sneak peek or a behind-the-scenes-look into your brand. People love getting the latest scoop before everybody else and you'll be promoting brand awareness and generating customer appreciation at the same time.

Early bird deals include special discounts and the latest offers before your campaign or product gets launched to the public. You could give your customers VIP Access to your services or an early bird deal to engage and retain their interest. For first-time users, this will prompt many sign-ups as well.

Shipping Information And Delivery Updates

If you're in an industry that relies on delivery products to your customers' doorsteps, SMS marketing will be your sidekick. Nobody has the time to check emails or their spam folders these days and customers grow anxious when customer support takes their time. Using SMS marketing in your arsenal, you can send your customers delivery updates and the tracking ID links via Tag SMS. This will save a lot of time on both sides and syncs with your logistics and order fulfillment workflow too.

A good example of this is the Kirusa Konnect SnapCall feature which lets customers flash a call and get updates from the business. Another use-case is the Konnect IVR Response where a customer can dial in and connect with the delivery partner or logistics and find out what's wrong or if their order is on schedule as expected.

Customer Feedback Surveys

An awesome SMS marketing tactic is using it as a vehicle for acquiring customer feedback. You could send a short and clear text with a link to your polls or surveys. As your customer visits the link and drops in suggestions, make sure to follow up later with an SMS saying that their responses have been recorded. Another follow-up promotional SMS showing how their participation helped with links or special invites to events will make your business memorable. In short, through customer feedback via poll and surveys, you make your clients feel personally invested and connected to your business. They feel as if their opinions matter and that's what counts. And before you know it, they start showing up more and more.

Invite Your Customers

Hosting a product launch event or opening a new restaurant? Invite your customers by sending them an SMS. Personalize the message and tell them how their appearance would make your day. And before you know it, your crowd will reach out to you and meet in-person. We're not sugar-coating, but rather stating that people are social creatures. Everybody loves to interact and go out and what better way to engage your customers than by promoting off-screen experiences?

Send Reminders

Did a customer leave food in the cart in your app and forget to check out? It happens.

Leverage SMS marketing and send a gentle reminder to your customer to finish the order. You could nudge your prospects by providing coupons, discounts, or mini-incentives for completing the order. This concept extends to shopping websites too where customers load up their carts and forget to check out. Sending reminders also applies to business use-cases where you're hosting special events and you let your customers know a week or 3 days early that the event is close to being launched.

Maybe even put up a countdown timer on your website and send the link to it via SMS tagging services. That's just as effective. Provide your customers options for reminders, campaigns, and links to offers via a ShortCode SMS Service.

Conclusion

Numbers don't lie and if you're not convinced, you'd be surprised to learn that popular brands like CocaCola spent 70% of their marketing budget on SMS marketing services. A OneReach report also showed that students preferred SMS over other forms of communication for information, insider scoops, and the latest offers. A FunMobile survey revealed that their previous SMS marketing campaign recorded a CTR of a whopping 36% versus the 3.4% they generated via email marketing.

Here's a bonus idea: Another way you could use SMS marketing is to provide your customers technical help and support. Instead of arranging a callback or forcing them to wait in long calling queues, you can connect them with customer support agents through SMS chat.

The Kirusa Konnect Portal gives you features like buying shortcodes, numbers, and star codes for your campaign. Plus, you can configure the campaigns according to your specifics, making reaching out to your target groups a breeze. WebHooks are another feature which extends interconnectivity by connecting with web servers which trigger SMS delivery to callers who leave a SnapCall.

Want to tap into the power of SMS Marketing today? Try out the Kirusa Konnect suite and watch your campaigns come to life.

Hi, I’m Amilia. I am a Digital marketing enthusiast, passionate about productivity.My three favourite things include marketing, psychology and design. Currently a marketer at Kirusa, Inc.