Tag Archives: sms marketing

Once upon a time people were under the assumption that email would be replaced by social media and that avoiding spam words in subject lines would be the way to go to encourage readers to open marketing emails. These misconceptions typically come from marketers who tend to spread falsehoods each time a new marketing channel is launched (business texting ).

Well the same rumors about those who use business texting or SMS marketing ring true. Even though the benefits of business texting have proven to be fruitful, there are many brands out there that still haven’t jumped on board. Why you ask? Well, it appears they’re confused about what’s a fact and what is fictional about the platform.

In this post, we’re going to uncover some of the top misconceptions about business texting and SMS marketing.

SMS Marketing Isn’t as Effective as Email

Says who? For those who believe that email is more effective than business texting or that social media is the end all, be all, we have news for you. Not everyone has email set up on their mobile phones, but everyone has text messaging services. Plus, most people have tons of unread emails sitting on their phones “to check later” while everyone checks texts right away. In fact, it’s proven that most text messages are read within minutes of being received.

So, if you were to send out an email to announce a new product or service and at the same time you send out a text with the same announcement, which do you think will be read first? That’s right! Not the email.

With text messages having a higher open rate than emails, there is no way that people will open their email before they would open a text message.

SMS Marketing Isn’t Worth It

We want to assure you that if you’re looking to consider business texting, it’s one of the most valuable forms of marketing you can implement. If you compare it to your other marketing methods, SMS marketing doesn’t entail endless hours of training, costly setups, or even software that requires you to hire a third-party to install it for you.

There are business texting platforms that help you get started right away and offer free training assistance to help you navigate their easy-to-use admin panel to manage your SMS marketing. In other words, it takes very little time to get you setup and is less expensive than any nearly all other marketing tools.

Only the Younger Generations Use Text Messaging

Big mistake! Big, big mistake! This is one of the biggest SMS marketing fictions around and usually it’s a story told by an older marketer. Which is not only deceitful but ends up hurting companies who’s target audience consists of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. Next thing you know, companies who would benefit from business texting services end up throwing away the possibility of opening up a new and fruitful marketing channel.

Truth be told, people over the age of 50 have smartphones just like the other generations and according to the Pew Research Center, over 67% of them use text messaging as a form of communicating.

We get why this piece of fiction is believable since older people are considered less tech savvy but that has nothing to do with their use of text messaging.

People See Business Texting as Spam

What channel do you know of that doesn’t have any spam? Spam is in your email, your browser, your TV, and in some homes, your kitchen cabinet. OK fine, that last one is not the same type of spam but you get our point. SMS marketing isn’t to be blamed for the existence of spam; bad marketers are. A text message from a brand should be humanized and naturally grab your audience’s attention in a way that will make them want to interact with your brand.

Statistics show that 9 out of 10 people welcome text messages from companies, and especially because they want to receive promotional offers. So in essence they’re saying “sure send me spam so long as you include a discount on my next order.” While they’re willing to opt in to receive marketing texts from you, the key in not having them opt out is to keep your messages short, inviting, and personalized. They would much rather read two lines from your business in 15 seconds or less than to watch a long drawn out commercial on television in the middle of their favorite show.

Business Texting is a One-Way Street

Wrong again! This piece of fiction is probably the silliest one mentioned in this article. With the Text My Main Number business texting platform you can text-enable your business phone number to send and receive text messages. So not only can you send marketing texts, but your leads and customers can reply to you as well. SMS marketing isn’t just a read-only tool, it is in fact a two-way street.

You can also use business texting service features to send pictures and videos, notifications, surveys, confirm appointments, send forms, chat, create templates, and invoicing.

Conclusion

Having the ability to decipher fact vs. fiction when it comes to business texting or SMS marketing is the first and most vital step in employing the most effective marketing tool for your business. Don’t let all of the false information out there sway you from taking a step that may change the marketing game in a positive way for your brand.

Remember that business texting is used for way more than marketing, it’s also an excellent way to enhance your customer service practices too. If you deploy the right strategy, you’ll see a vast improvement in your ROI and a higher response rate from your consumers.

We hope we were able to clear some fictional cobwebs in this article so that you can do away with any hesitation you may have about adding the most effective marketing channel to your business marketing strategies. Business texting and SMS marketing can and will boost all areas of your daily operations without a doubt.Start your free business texting trial and launch your first SMS marketing campaign with Text My Main Number.

SMS Mobile Texting Solutions for Your E-Commerce Business

SMS mobile texting can really drive sales to help your e-commerce business grow. So long as you implement the right methods to connect to your target consumers and loyal customers, you will establish a relationship that will not only develop a level of trust between your brand and your audience, but also boost revenue.

Here are some examples of how SMS mobile texting can help you grow your e-commerce business.

Special Events & Sales

Announce exclusive sales and special events using SMS mobile texting. Create a special keyword for your marketing campaign and send a direct message to your subscribers to let them know about the special discount. When your selected audience uses the keyword at checkout, they will instantly receive the allotted markdown.

Order Status & Shipping Information

It is a known fact that SMS is one of the fastest ways to communicate with a customer aside from an actual phone call. With messages being read within 3 minutes of receiving them, you can say this is the most instant way to let customers know about any updates to their order or notify them of any shipping information.

Save Potential Sales from the Abandoned Carts

When a customer adds items to their shopping cart on your website, they have a level of intent to purchase. For whatever reason, many customers leave the items in their cart without completing their purchase. It may be that they’d like to come back later and forget, it could be that they wanted to see what the total would be so that when they’re ready to buy, they’re prepared to spend that amount. Whatever the reason may be, it’s up to you not to let the completed sale escape! You can use mobile texting to remind them or even offer a discount if they click the link you provide via text to complete their order.

Lure Consumers in With Images

Mobile texting isn’t just limited to sending words and links. Since MMS is supported, you can also send images and videos to promote your upcoming sales.

Immediate Feedback

When you’re looking to get immediate feedback from your customers, send them a survey immediately after they’ve purchased items from your online store and include questions about how satisfied they are with their shopping experience.

Instant Customer Service

Customer service plays a major role in how successful your e-commerce business will be. With consumers preferring mobile texting to communicate over making phone calls, it’s a no brainer that more online stores are implementing SMS to enhance their customer’s experience. Text messages are instant and more personalized than an email so allow your customer to text your business phone number for instant customer service.

Tailored Merchandise Ideas

Help your customers decide what to purchase by suggesting merchandise that may interest them. If you’re running low on stock for an item that matches their previous buying history, send them a text to let them know and encourage them to act fast before it’s sold out.

Special Event Texts

An excellent way to change up your mobile marketing approach is to send special events texts to keep your subscribers interested. You don’t want it to seem like you only reach out to promote and get them to buy products. For example, you can offer a special discount for their birthday which comes across as a personalized and exclusive gesture.

Reactivating Customers

Many e-commerce businesses are turning to mobile texting to retain consumers by sending reminders to purchase an item when they haven’t heard from them in a while. This works great for items that would possibly need a refill or reorder like supplements, skin care, pharmaceuticals, or food and beverage items.

Encourage Indecisive Customers

Encourage customers who are on the fence about buying a product. Usually these are the customers that inquire about a product but then drop off the website without completing their purchase. To inspire them to buy, you can send a follow up text message to see if there is anything else you can assist with and personalize the conversation to convert their inquiry into a sale.

Mobile Texting Vs Traditional Marketing

It’s been about 20 years since the internet boom changed the way people browse and shop as we entered the digital era. That in turn changed marketing strategies across all industries since their consumers attention had now shifted into a virtual platform. Competing for people’s attention was now more challenging than ever.

That being said, it was now time to implement a variety of marketing methods in order to keep business booming. Today that means promoting products on social media, sending emails to market your products, using mobile texting, or even cold calling.

The point is, mobile texting can stand alone in your marketing strategy, or you can use it to fortify your existing marketing approaches. You can use mobile texting to:

• Send a text message announcing that you’ve sent an email with an exclusive offer to ensure they don’t delete the email marketing message they received.
• Offer a bonus to your social media followers by posting an image with a promotional code in the caption. You can also make it more exciting by launching a flash sale and include the promotional code on your story which only lasts 24 hours. That will entice your followers to buy now before the sale ends.
• Send surveys using your mobile texting service to boost response rates.

Getting Started with Mobile Texting

The last stage before you start your mobile texting campaign is possibly the most imperative. You have to receive permission to send messages to your customers. It is not legal to send text messages to your customers if they have not permitted you to do so. Sending text messages without permission is forbidden by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and you can be fined a generous amount if you don’t abide by the rules.

Text My Main Number Free Trial

Still not convinced that SMS mobile texting is the best marketing strategy for your e-commerce business? We get it. Especially since once upon a time people thought the idea of combining peanut butter and chocolate was a terrible idea. Ask The Hershey Company how bad of an idea it was to promote Reese’s. The Text My Main Number team is so convinced that mobile texting is the way to go to improve sales for your e-commerce business that we want to help you get started by offering you a free trial!

Before mobile texting services took over as the most used form of connecting with people, do you know what the very first text message ever sent was? “Merry Christmas.” In December of 1992 an Engineer named Neil Papworth typed it on his computer and sent what would be the first SMS to a cellphone.

Here we are 27 years later where mobile texting services have become prominent in facilitating communication between brands and their customers for a multitude of reasons. Out of the billions of text messages sent each day throughout the United States, “merry Christmas” is amongst the slightest reasons to send a message. Now, there is a plentitude of information that is shared across this multipurpose digital platform.

What was once a form of sending a quick message to your closest friends and family members is now the way we connect with mostly everyone we know, including business around the globe. Messaging is also used on applications like Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Instagram direct messages, just to name a few of the growing list of apps we use each day.

Mobile texting services have advanced beyond sending a simple and quick message. SMS is now one of the most resourceful tools to share information.

At Text My Main Number, we’ve taken strides in building a multifunctional SMS platform that provides mobile texting services that help companies and organizations enhance their communication methods. If there is one thing that research has taught us, it’s that texting is still on the rise and here to stay.

Why Mobile Texting Services Are Rising

What did SMS bring to the table that has kept it rising? We know why mobile texting services work, but the true reason why it has stuck around is what we’re going to get into below. Industry experts feel strongly about the power of SMS for good reason.

Embedded Functionality

One of the downfalls of modern technology is the additional hardware it requires to function properly. However, with SMS you’re using an embedded functionality within cell phones, mobile devices, and PCs. Even with many devices going “smart,” people who still use older devices can send and receive text messages. The best part is that you don’t really need to download anything to use text messaging unless you’re looking to use messaging services provided by app giants like Skype or messaging functions on social media platforms.

SMS for Business Phone Numbers

You can easily enable your business phone number to receive and send text messages using a variety of approaches. Any route you select will give you an edge in your industry. You can create a catchy short code that’s easy to remember. It’s a fast and easy way for your audience to stay in touch with you, especially by using a keyword. If you’re looking to build a community of subscribers, you can ask your existing and potential customers to simply text your business phone number to opt-in to receive and send messages with your business.

Timeless Demand

Not all products or services are multi-generational, but the use of SMS just so happens to be. Not all technologies are easily adaptable to each age range, but texting has become “the norm” for everyone and is still on the rise. Mobile texting services flourished alongside the Millennials and was then adopted by the baby boomer. By the time Gen X and Gen Z came around, flip phones and pay phones were a thing of the past, and texting is all they knew. That means that SMS is probably one of the only methods of communication used by just about anyone, no matter what their age is. SMS is also not constituted by a specific lifestyle or stage in life so when Pew Research demonstrated mobile activity statistics and how it’s been adopted by all generations, it was of no surprise to us. Here’s what the stats show:

• People aged 18-24 send and receive approximately 128 text messages a day
• People aged 25-34 send and receive approximately 75 text messages a day
• People aged 35-44 send and receive approximately 52 text messages a day
• People aged 45-54 send and receive approximately 33 text messages a day
• People aged 55+ send and receive approximately 16 text messages a day

Impressive Sales Conversion Rates

A team of Psychologists revealed in a study that consumers are spending double the time on their mobile devices as they think they do.

How many times per day do you think people touch their phones? If you had to guess, would you say it’s 10, 20, 50, or event 100 times per day? What if we told you that the average person touches their phone 2,617 a day? Now, of course, that includes scrolling, tapping, and typing but what we want you to focus on is the vast opportunity that exists in terms of interaction.

Not only do mobile texting services assert a 45% response rate (in comparison to emails which have an unimpressive 8%), but text messages are read within a minute and 1/2 of being received.

Talk about a perfect window of opportunity to insert calls-to-action! With the right promotion and a tap, a potential sale easily converts into an actual sale. Now, we’re not taking about a possible 20% of text messages sent by a brand can convert into a sale, we’re talking more than 50% will. A case study conducted by Kiehl’s Skin Care demonstrated that approximately 73% of their customers purchased items directly after every SMS campaign.

Technology Minus the Internet

Text message marketing is the best thing since sliced bread even though it falls into a tech category. It doesn’t require any internet because so long as you have cellphone service, people can receive a text message. That means that you don’t have to solely depend on your message reaching your audience via WiFi. That’s right, you can send it at any time, from anywhere, and you will be able to connect with them with no wires attached

Customers Prefer Mobile Texting Services

As we stated early on in this article, text messaging capabilities started over two decades ago and has continuously expanded it’s userbase (approximately 5 billion and growing). Despite the fact that many people use Whatsapp or social media messengers, text messaging is still in the lead when it comes to SMS. According to a data report from last year, texting is still the most commonly used form of communication. To learn more about Text My Main Number’s mobile texting services, sign up for our free trial. Or if you’re looking to get started as soon as possible, you can simply check our pricing page before you sign up. Have any questions? Just visit our contact page and we’ll be more than happy to answer them!