The Keys to Creating An Effective SMS Marketing Campaign

SMS is one of the most ubiquitous forms of communication today – so it’s no surprise that implementing an SMS marketing campaign is on the rise as more businesses realize the benefits of targeting customers via their preferred channels.

The case for using SMS as a primary marketing channel is a strong one. For a start, it’s a trusted channel and available on every mobile phone, no matter the network provider, region or operating system. SMS notifications appear right on a phone’s screen, and in many cases, the recipient can see who the message is from and understand its intent without having to unlock their phone.

And if we compare the effectiveness of SMS to email, another popular marketing channel, the difference is stark. There are over a third of a trillion emails sent each day across the globe, but many of those are filtered into subfolders or junk mail and never read. Read rates for email – even legitimate ones – sit at around 20% and are falling every day because many people can’t deal with the sheer volume they receive.

Conversely, SMS achieves open rates of around 95% and replies take an average of 90 seconds – 60 times faster than email.

Simply put, SMS marketing campaigns can be one of the most impactful tactics a business can take. But as with any marketing strategy, the right approach is key.

How to implement a successful SMS marketing campaign

Although the exact approach will differ depending on the business and its customers, there are some essential best practices to follow to ensure you’re getting the most out of every SMS marketing campaign:

Keep your SMS marketing campaign concise

Because it has such a rapid response rate, SMS tends to be most effective for campaigns where you are trying to get immediate engagement. To that end, one of the most important considerations when crafting an SMS marketing campaign is to think about how to capture the attention of the recipient quickly and use fewer words to get your message across.

Keep your messages simple and actionable, and make sure to embed a way for the recipient to engage with you directly. This could be through a customized URL within the message that takes them to a specific site, or an inbound keyword the recipient can use to trigger the next activity.

Consider SMS at every touchpoint

When you are designing your customer experience journeys, SMS should be considered at every communication touchpoint. Ask yourself the question: is this message bringing value to the customer at this touchpoint, and is it moving them along in the customer experience journey? Allowing customers to opt-in to SMS communications at those touchpoints helps ensure you’re not badgering them, but rather are providing them with the information they want.

Don’t overdo it

If you shift too much of your communication with a customer to SMS without getting opt-in permission from them, you run the risk of being seen as spam and having your number blocked by the recipient.

Recipients have much more control over who can send them a text – most phones allow users to block phone numbers – so you really need to make sure that the communications you are sending via mobile are seen as valuable and not as an intrusion or nuisance.

Leverage visual elements

Using rich media channels such as RCS, you can design mobile campaigns using visuals and interactivity to rapidly engage recipients. With RCS, you can create SMS marketing campaigns with branding, images, carousels and buttons to take an action, such as navigating to other products or confirming an appointment. All of this can be done without the need to switch to another app.

Learn more: What Is RCS Messaging All About?

How Soprano can help boost your SMS marketing campaign

Soprano helps marketers integrate mobile messaging with their existing customer relationship systems to make sure they are sending the right message, at the right time, to the right person, in the right channel.

Because Soprano integrates with most existing and proprietary IT systems, you can design a customer experience journey where you integrate SMS communications at the right touchpoints for maximum customer engagement.

Head here to learn more about how Soprano’s solutions enable effective SMS marketing campaigns.