SMS Marketing or text messaging is an ideal way to communicate with your customers when you’re on the move because it’s rapid, direct, and two-way media. When used together, SMS and your surviving superhero email marketing campaigns can prove to be a prevailing combination.

You can use SMS to promote your emails and can use email to aware of your new Text Messaging channel. SMS Marketing can complement your email marketing by creating brand awareness, leads generation, and presenting as a new and ideal communication channel.

Like you, your customers don’t have the time. If you own a business, a majority of the people walking through your door each day will do so with a Mobile phone in their pocket.

Mobile Marketing Timeline

Let’s have a look at Mobile Timeline by Mobile & Digital Strategies to understand the contribution of SMS in previous years to enhance their marketing techniques

1876 – Town criers are used to spreading messages

1973 - First Telephone Introduced by Alexander Graham Bell

1992 – First mobile portable handset invented

1993 - First text message sent from computer to mobile phone

1998 - First mobile phone that both sends and receives texts introduced

2003 – The term “spam” officially added to the dictionary to mean unwanted, junk emails

2005 - First commercial mobile SMS launches. Shortcodes introduced for use with text message marketing

2007 - Nike and Pontiac launch SMS campaigns

2010 - 2.4 billion SMS users worldwide

           - Apple iPhone is released in the U.S.

           - Texting is embraced: Average monthly texts (218) outnumber calls (213)

2011 - Quick response (QR) codes start being used in mobile marketing

           - Cambridge dictionary adds “text” as a verb

2013 - Mobile marketing becomes a $14 billion+ industry, including $9.3 billion worth of music

Why SMS Should Be Added To Marketing Trend??

One of the techniques that businesses both experienced and novice are tasting advantage of the recent growth in mobile activity is because of adding SMS into their marketing techniques.

I know what must be thinking, “SMS … really?”

But SMS isn’t merely something being used amongst teenagers or college kids. Today, a majority of people are actively using SMS Marketing to remain in contact with their friends, relatives, and colleagues.

These are the people who are mostly engaged in the content which they receive. Today, 90% of SMS are read within three minutes of delivery. 

Still, have some confusion or doubts? Well, what if I told you that SMS also fits thoroughly into the stuff you may be already using to do marketing in your small business?

How To Grow Email Marketing Through SMS Marketing??

While SMS Marketing has many differences from email marketing, at the same time it also has some important similarities that make it the best complement to your email marketing techniques and even both the channels offer two-way communication.

You can use SMS for short, rapid, and sensitive communications which means everything from saying thanks for being a subscriber, appointment reminders to last-minute sale message. And at the same time, you can use can use email to send broad content and information to the place where your customers are going every day: their inbox.

With 43% of consumers now accessing emails via a mobile device, the mixture of SMS marketing and email marketing could be exactly what you need to adjust the needs of your growing mobile audience.

How to Gamble SMS Marketing To Complement Email Marketing

1. In-Person Events

Till Now: “Thanks for coming to our event today. If you would like to receive our free News and signup for our ongoing email newsletters, please take the time to provide your contact information. ”

Issue: It requires someone to write in all those email addresses by hand. How many email addresses would be lost due to bad handwriting?

Solution: Thanks for coming to our event today. If you’d like to receive our free News and signup for our ongoing email newsletters, just take out your phone and text SUBSCRIBE to 12345.”

This method is not only faster and easier for the customer, it nearly avoids all risk of capturing an incorrect email address.

2. Earlier Medium (Television, Radio, OutDoor )

Till Now: The radio guy says, “If you’re interested in this product, you can visit our website where you can signup for our email list and receive up to 80% off on your purchases.”

Issue: The guy expects from the listener to remember a complete website address and visit it in the near future.  I mean seriously? This approach not only makes the audience forget easily, even it doesn’t help the company to gain new sign-ups.

Solution: If you’re interested in this product, signup for our newsletters and we’ll send you up to 80% off coupon for your first purchase. Text OFFEr to 12345 now.” The listener texts, provide their email address and receives the coupon.  

3. On-Site Signups

Now: The Pamphlet says, “Thanks for coming today. We believe you enjoyed our facility. Be Ready to win a $50  gift  voucher for your further visit when you sign up for our email list.”

Issue: Few people go and  ask someone for a sign-up paper, and the issue of “lost emails due to bad handwriting” still persists

Solution: “Thanks for coming today. We believe you enjoyed our facility. Be ready to win a $50 gift voucher, sign up for our email list by texting FREE to 12345.” The visitor texts in, with their email address, and is instantly emailed a listing of the further month’s events.

How To Make SMS A Perfect Fit For Email Marketing

If you are not sure how your SMS Marketing can be a perfect fit for Email Marketing, then follow these 5 rules to make SMS Marketing the best complement to email marketing.

1. Make Your SMS permission-based as your Emails

Take permission before you text someone. Knocking the door before entering a room shows your etiquette, not your incapability. The most common way people will give permission to receive text messages from your business is by sending a keyword to your personalized shortcode. (A Short Code is a five or sometimes six-digit number that can send and receive SMSs.)

2. Limit It To 160 Characters

You can mix up multiple texts together but it’s never advised. The grace of a 160 character limit is that it compels you to be to the point, saving your and your customers’ time. If you have a short story for your emails, then your marketing texts should carry a killer sentence.

3. Provide A Call To Action Button To Promote Your Keyword

A perfect example for it can be –

“Text Pizza To 313131 To Receive 30% Off In Your Next Order Or Reply STOP Pizza 2 opt-out!!”

You can also provide your email link to let your customers read more regarding the offer, if your customer is curious to read the whole story then by clicking to the link it will take them to open their email and check the story.

4. It’ll take no time to approach your customers through SMS

The easiest way to boost your bottom line and make customers happy through SMS marketing is to offer a deal like ‘show this text to avail happy hour to 9pm’ send at 6pm on a slow and silent evening.

5. Maintain the Time Period

Short, valuable, and concise texts can be sent more easily than emails, but as a decorum, you probably not supposed to be texting your customers more than 1 – 2 times per week.

Hopefully, you can now judge value SMS Marketing could add to your existing email marketing efforts. But how can you quickly start it?

If you’ve grabbed a good no. of phone numbers and have taken the permission from the customers to text them, getting ready to text those customers would take even less than five minutes.