Customers have evolved and so should promotion strategies. Gone are the days when marketing was only restricted to ads and one to one client acquisition strategies. With technology seeping so rapidly into our lives, brands need to stay a step ahead to acquire customers before their competition does.
The customer-brand touchpoints have increased multifold, paving way to newer opportunities. The utility of emails and text messages have evolved over the last few years. Being personal and inciting an action better, emails and text messages are the latest playgrounds for marketers to indulge in effective communications with their customers. Email marketing has grown to be a mandatory tool in every brand’s digital marketing arsenal. It is the king of the marketing kingdom with a 3800% ROI and $38 for every $1 spent. And it won’t be surprising to know that about 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices.
On the other hand 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of delivery. While SMS Marketing has definite differences from email marketing it also shares important similarities that make it the perfect tool to complement your email marketing efforts with. Here are a few email campaign types that can benefit heavily supported with SMS.
Text-to-Join campaigns
Typically SMS asking users to join a particular blog or a campaign or choose to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of text message list can be rolled out to acquire customers who really want to be contacted. Being personal in nature, even more than Email, SMS is sure to incite a reaction from the users in the least duration of time. This also lets you filter your customer list better and steer clear of the spam zone.
Event Invite
Send out event confirmation messages which show only the required details of the event and the elaborate details be sent through emails. The messages could read like,
“Hey there! Your tickets for the Corner Café Social Media Gathering have been booked and the details sent on your registered email address. Here’s your confirmation ID – 54930753. Download tickets here (link to download tickets)”
Contests and Sweepstakes
Many brands run limited period contest and sweepstakes to grab attention and earn customers on specific products. Support your email promotions with an SMS directing them to a call to action like early bird registration discount or limited period offer etc.!
Support messages
Customer support can benefit the most with SMS based interaction. Customers love the timely support they receive via SMS making it easier for them to stay tuned. Here are few ways in which messages can boost your email conversations with respect to customer support.
The thumb rule of incorporating SMS with Email Marketing is first to make sure that your customers really want to hear from you. As mentioned before, SMS is a highly personal means of communications and can go wrong if done the wrong way. As a closing remark, here are few tips on getting that SMS campaign right.
1. Seek permission before initiating a conversation with your customer or add an opt-out link to your messages.
2. Keep it short and simple. Write crisp messages that don’t exceed 160 characters.
3. Add a clear and incentivized call to action to incite a positive response.
4. Keep the frequency right. 2-3 messages per week is a healthy frequency as you don’t want to come across as too pushy only to end up losing your customer.
Have you tried integrating SMS with Emails Marketing? What has been your experience so far? Leave your comments below.