mig's guide to sms marketing
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A guide to SMS covering the benefits of using SMS marketing, the statistics and ideas for campaignsTRANSCRIPT
Why SMS Marketing?A guide by Mobile Interactive Group
Integrated mobile and digital communications
Why SMS Marketing?With a large percentage of brands and organisations now investing in a mobile website, how do you channel customers to your site, engage with them on a personal level and drive additional revenue?
Our experience has proven that consumers respond best to relevant, timely and personalised marketing. Companies that treat the customer as a unique individual and not just a target areachieving exceptional results.
This is where the humble SMS adds significant value to your marketing strategy and really dominates the market in terms of response rates. The adoption of SMS marketing continues to grow across the globe as consumer spending slows and marketing departments are forced to become more creative and cost effective.
Read on to discover the benefits of using SMS marketing, the statistics and ideas for campaigns.
SMS Marketing Stats
77% of the world’s population own a mobile
98% of SMS messagesare opened
83% of SMS messagesare opened within3 minutes
Just 6%of marketing emails are responded to
SMS clients have seen up to 45%campaign response rates
SMS has a higher direct response rate than telemarketing, email and direct mail
Put simply, there is no other technology or delivery method that is more personal, timely and immediate – making SMS a no brainer for delivering marketing campaigns.
5 Reasons Why SMS Marketing Delivers Results
SMS delivery is virtually instant. SMS messages can be sent and received within a few seconds, regardless of where in the world the recipient is.
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1. Delivery
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There is almost no limit to the type of marketing messages that can be sent or received. The flexibility of SMS means messages can be used to deliver text alerts, subscriptions, broadcast advertising, customer loyalty campaigns, competitions, customer profiling, reminders, cross-selling and more.
2. Versatility
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Response rates can be as high as 45% via SMS campaigns, mainly due to the fact that replying to SMS messages is quick and convenient.
3. Response
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SMS messages can also be tailored to be relevant to the customer’s age sex, preferences, location and needs.
4. Personalisation
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The cost benefits of using SMS are clear. With SMS messages costing as little at 2.5p each, nothing else matches up and delivers a more compelling ROI.
5. Cost
SMS Mobile Marketing Ideas
CRM and Customer ProfilingData is key to any marketing strategy. If you already own your own customer data, why not start with a simple profiling campaign to improve its effectiveness and increase the amount of data you hold on your customers. Send out an interactive competition and ask for key information in return such as contact information or personal preferences. Good incentives could range from free concert tickets, ipad giveaways, meal vouchers or ‘clothes for a year’.
Promos & Discount CouponsDemonstrate your generosity to your customers by offering promotional coupons and discounts via mobile marketing. Drive peripheral sales by offering discounts based on previous purchases and drive them online or instore.
Reverse Auctions Give away something valuable via SMS reverse auction.Thanks to the auction mechanic, customers are asked to make a lowest unique bid for the item. Unsuccessful entries are prompted to bid again, resulting in numerous entries per person.
Geo-fencing OffersLocation-based mobile marketing is new, simple and very powerful. Imagine when your customers walk past a store or place of relevance, they automatically get sent a discount via SMS if they purchase that day. MIG can immediately enable you to reach over one million opted-in consumers on their mobile phones when they are in a mind-set to make a purchase.
SMS ReceiptsFor every purchase your customers make, send them a receipt via SMS. These receipts can then contain details for entering competitions, cross sell promotions and surveys.
Integrate Social MediaAround 50% of social networking comes via mobile so utilise this to your advantage – integrate social media updates into your delivery mechanic and start offering your customers real choice. Don’t have a mobile site? Why not send mobile users to your Facebook mobile page (now an automatic redirect).
4 Easy Steps to Success To deliver an effective mobile marketing campaign via SMS, you need to get some basics right first.
Here are 4 simple steps to help you on your way to a killer campaign….
Create and manage a contact list
If you don’t already have a database, the good news is that there are a million ways to acquire one. Ask new customers to register for alerts online, complete surveys, or run a competition that requires customer details in return. MIG has a market first and unique integration with Experian, enabling the profiling of our powerful consumer opt-in database to segment and engage your ideal customer profile match. It’s also important to give your current customers a reason to join your distribution list. Discounts, access to premium content and special offers are all good ways to persuade them to part with their information. Convince customers they are joining an exclusive ‘text club’ rather than just another mailing list. Best practice permission: On any online form, always make sure there is a checkbox present that enables customers to ‘opt-out’ from receiving promotional messages.
Be personal: Segment your data and create different distribution lists that are categorised by age, gender, purchase history, personal preferences, financial profile etc. This is really worth doing and will ensure your campaign gets a higher response rate and is relevant. There is nothing worse than receiving an irrelevant SMS message from your favourite brand.
Create campaign copy
You’re limited to 160 characters per message so make them count. Don’t try and be clever, just get the message or promotion across clearly. The main benefit of SMS is its simplicity not its technical superiority. Don’t forget to include an unsubscibe.
CTA: Include a clear call to action within your 160 characters. What do you want your recipient to do next? Is it to phone in, visit a store or click a link? Make sure your CTA is clear and if possible, add a timeframe - so there is a sense of urgency. A good, basic example is something like: “Treat yourself today with 20% off all orders over £50! Visit http://bit.ly/rtc1U3 or your nearest store. To unsubscribe txt STOP to 88888”
Treat yourself today with 20% off all orders
over £50! Visit http://bit.ly/rtc1U3 or your
nearest store. To unsubscribe txt STOP
to 88888
Fashion Store
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4 Easy Steps to Success Cont’d’... Deliver campaign via intelligent tools
We are experts in the build and delivery of inbound and outbound mobile marketing campaigns.
Our mVoy Communicate platform is a flexible, web based platform that allows you to build and manage campaigns yourself or we can deliver it for you as part of a managed service.
Whether it’s a one off promotion or a series of complex, multistep campaigns, mVoy Communicate allows you to produce quick and simple SMS, email or social media campaigns.
Measure success and learn
Tracking and reporting on the results of your campaign is key if you want to measure success and improve on the next one. Before you send your campaign, ensure you are clear on what metrics are important to you and monitor them throughout the delivery of the campaign.
Typical metrics to monitor include how many recipients received your campaign and how many responded? If you are using a multistep delivery (dynamic messages driven by customer responses), monitor at what point people are dropping off and tweak or tailor the message accordingly.
Image: Screenshot of campaign set up
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Case StudyASOS / The Princes Trust
OverviewMIG worked with ASOS and The Princes Trust to maximise the auction of Cheryl Cole’s dress collection.
StrategyMIG put in place a dedicated shortcode that allowed ASOS customers to make a lowest unique bid for the dress of their choice. The reverse auction mechanics meant that users could be knocked off the winning slot and were prompted to bid again.
Results The auction was available for 10 days and attracted over 70,000 unique bids during this time. Press coverage was excellent - driving further revenue for The Princes Trust.
Case StudyNew Look Mobile Marketing
OverviewMIG work with New Look across the entire mobile marketing mix.
StrategyMIG has delivered an award winning mCommerce site, a transactional iPhone app and supporting SMS mobile marketing campaigns.
Results In the first 3 months the mCommerce site delivered:An increase in mobile sales of over 500%An increase in orders of over 60%An increase in revenue of over 45%
To learn more about mobile marketing or to speak to one of our friendly experts, please email [email protected] or call +44 (0)207 921 5599
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