7 Benefits of SMS Marketing for Small Business Owners

People have become quite attached to their smartphones, which has led to a rapid increase in sharing text messages since the 21st century. Businesses have realised this as an opportunity and are seeking to leverage the power of SMS Marketing.

Startups and midsize businesses, regardless of the niche they operate in, are benefiting greatly by sending promotional campaigns or transactional messages for marketing through SMS. Taking this into consideration, let’s shed some light on the benefits of SMS marketing and how it enables SMBs to ace their marketing strategy.

7 Ways SMBs Are Benefitting From SMS Marketing in 2021

High open rates and conversion rates.

When it comes to conversion rates, text messages have the edge over the new-age marketing techniques. Despite multiple marketing sources available nowadays, people are more likely to visit the links sent through SMS and act upon the promotional offers shared through text messages. According to research, 98% of the messages sent are opened by users.

Since SMS provide an urgent vibe for many, most people view the text message received within 5 minutes. This is precisely why SMS marketing is preferred by entities aiming to provide efficient and effective customer service and satisfaction.

SMS marketing is cost-effective

Bulk messaging service is available through Cloud messaging services, allowing businesses to reach out to thousands of customers without any hassle in just a few steps. Hence, SMS marketing is more budget-friendly than other forms of marketing such as commercials, social media marketing and digital marketing.

SMS Marketing taps into a wider audience

Regardless of the target audience’s age, gender, or demographic, businesses are able to tap into a wider market due to the fact that several individuals possess a smartphone nowadays. Similarly, a router table has become quite popular these days and is in high demand due to their stability that enables individuals to work efficiently.

SMS marketing also enables businesses to stand out since many employ a multitude of modern marketing techniques like social media marketing, email marketing and digital marketing as well. Therefore, people are more likely to pay attention to promotional texts received through SMS.

Integration with other marketing channels.

Text messages can seamlessly be integrated with other marketing systems. This integration can be immensely useful for collecting valuable information and making the most out of other marketing techniques. For example, when a customer visits an e-commerce website and leaves something in the cart; a follow-up message is sent to them automatically, reminding them to make the purchase.

Personalization and brand loyalty

SMBs can customize SMSs according to their customer’s requirement. Rather than sharing irrelevant content for marketing products, businesses that send personalized messages bring greater results. Moreover, personalization helps build brand loyalty, as the customers begin to believe that the business is legitimate; this shall bring in sales.

Another reason why personalized text messages work is because customers are often used to receiving promotional emails in their inboxes. Email inbox is divided into Primary, Social, and Promotions tabs, which is why many individuals might not bother checking the promotional emails.

At the same time, SMS do not have any such categories. Henceforth, sending customized messages works better for increasing brand loyalty.

Customer engagement and interaction.

As mentioned earlier, the number of smartphone users is increasing exponentially every year. Businesses can make use of this and send out interactive messages to which the customers can reply. Let’s dive straight into a few ways businesses can implement to boost their engagement:

• Exclusive deals: SMBs can offer special discounts or coupons to those subscribed to the messaging services. Exclusive deals make people feel overwhelmed and content.

• Insider information: Businesses can send some exclusive information to your subscribed audience. For instance, there could be some special announcements before the information has been disclosed to everyone else.

• Contests: Running contests is one of the most successful ways to increase customer enthusiasm and satisfaction. Keep the contest simple, like customers merely have to send a message to participate, and the prize should be reasonable to get everyone to participate.

Quick delivery.

Unlike email promotions which are quite lengthy, text messages contain only a few sentences. Generally, these messages also include a link to redirect customers. In the case of long emails, customers may or may not go through them entirely. However, with SMS, people tend to read them completely due to their short length.

And what’s more? Small businesses that generally do not have a lot of workers can also effectively promote themselves through bulk SMS marketing.

Bottom Line

SMS marketing can prove to be extremely effective when executed in a proper manner. Businesses can leverage the power of SMS Marketing to gain an upper edge over their competitors and provide top notch customer service as well. What’s more, The text messages integration with other marketing tactics can prove to return higher sales. Therefore, businesses must utilize SMS marketing to promote themselves effectively using less budget.

Author Bio –

Porter Gale is Editor-in-Chief at Sleepation. She has 7 years of experience in developing data-driven content for brands, SaaS businesses, and agencies. When not writing you can find her playing her guitar or binge-watching time-travel movies.

Bulk SMS Marketing or Media Marketing

Marketing is a crucial function of any business as it helps define the brand, promote, and carve out a niche in the marketplace. That is why companies, big and small, put a lot of their resources into the marketing department. There are many methods of marketing, with the most popular being bulk SMS marketing and media marketing.

We are in an era where mobile phones are probably more than people. So businesses need to invest in marketing software that is operable on phones to give them a wider reach. So like when you’re reviewing Dating Rating apps, businesses need to research the various marketing software and be well informed of the pros and cons before committing. But before that, let us understand why SMS marketing works and how.

What is Bulk SMS Marketing?

Bulk SMS marketing is a marketing technique that requires a business to send text messages to their clients. The upside of this method is that you can communicate with clients who don’t have a phone.

SMS marketing tool is an effective marketing and communication technology as the recipient will never leave their messages unread, so you are assured that the message will be read.

What are the Benefits of Using Text Message Marketing

Text messaging is a powerful marketing tool that helps businesses reach all people irrespective of smartphones. So how does bulk SMS marketing benefit your businesses?

Wider Reach

Text messaging marketing is viewed as one of the most effective modes of interacting with customers, as many people do not love to have unread messages on their phones.

Furthermore, you can contact customers who don’t have your mobile application and reach out to not active customers.

Immediate Notifications

SMS marketing is the best method of communicating with customers in case of an emergency. That’s why you’ll find that most people have their phone numbers connected to their banks so that they can get a notification any time a transaction happens.

Furthermore, most people can’t spend more than three minutes without checking their phones. And you do not need to download an app to receive text messages.

Customization

We are in an era where customers want messages to be tailored to them. And using bulk text messaging, the marketing department can send personalized messages to many customers at once using SMS marketing software.

Convenient

The development of mobile wallets and revolutionized marketing as now people can make purchases. And when it is paired with SMS marketing, it makes it convenient for customers to shop, redeem coupons, purchase tickets and scan their boarding passes.

You do not need an app to receive text messages.

How Do Businesses Use Bulk Text Messaging

Banks, online shops, and other service-based businesses use SMS text to send transactional messages to their customers. These can include order confirmation alerts, order tracking numbers, reservations, and appointments.

Businesses also use bulk text marketing to send promotion and campaign messages to their customer base. This includes sale alerts, promotions, new products launch, or any other offers they might be interested in.

Businesses also use visual appeal to hook their customers by attaching a GIF or an image to the text message by sending an MMS message. Businesses can also leverage customers’ in-store experience to motivate them to sign up for their SMS service. This can inspire loyalty resulting in more sales because if they love your brand chance of them recommending you to family and friends is high.

Media Marketing

Media marketing is also referred to as digital marketing as it uses digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and emails to market a company’s products.

Although it helps with global reach, media marketing is limited to people with smartphones. And unlike SMS marketing, where people can’t ignore the text messages, people can bypass ads on their apps or even delete emails without reading.

Between Bulk SMS Marketing and Media Marketing, Which is More Effective?

Although digital marketing has a global reach, it is not as effective as SMS marketing because you will not read emails or access social media channels if you do not have a smartphone. Besides, you will be required to download social media applications which is not the case with SMS marketing.

With media marketing, people can go weeks or even months without seeing your messages, and others may end up deleting your emails without reading them. But with text message marketing, your messages will never remain unread because people check their phones every few minutes, and no one likes to have unread messages.

Therefore, bulk SMS marketing tool is the most effective in terms of reach, engagement, personalization, and promptness compared to media marketing.

Final Thoughts

If your business, small or big, is looking for effective communication and marketing tools, SMS marketing should be your go-to option. This is because SMS marketing grants a wider reach, prompt notifications, and it is easy to tailor the messages compared to media marketing.

Have you ever used SMS marketing in your business? Would you please share in the comment section how it helped your business?

Author’s bio:

Robert Cowart student of Kirkwood Community College from Iowa, and a freelance writer. Loves to explore and study new products. Not a single new invention, new start-up goes past his attention. In his free time, he is fond of sports and books.

5 Ways to Win Customers By SMS in 2021

Are you looking for ways to utilize SMS messaging to increase your ecommerce sales?

Don’t worry if you have not figured how to go about and start text message marketing.

In this blog post, I will show you 5 bulletproof SMS marketing strategies that you can put to work today.

Send drip campaigns through text

Drip SMS campaigns, also referred as drip texting, drip marketing, automated SMS campaigns, lifecycle messaging and marketing automation. The concept is the same: a set of automated marketing text messages are sent out on a schedule or based on triggering events.

A triggering event can be: –

– Welcome & onboard customers

– Transactions through the store

– Changes regarding a user’s account

– Personal events by your user for e.g. Birthday month

The drip campaigns are of crucial importance for keeping your active customers engaged while you continue providing them with relevant and valuable content.

Send exclusive offers & deals through text

For many consumers, SMS remains the most convenient way for getting promotion and sales from a specific service provider as well as businesses.

Reaching out proactively and engaging with prospects is powerful instead of waiting for people to chat with you on your ecommerce store.

Youcan use SMS for sending sales and promotions since it’s a cost-effective and engaging way to engage with your prospects and customers. This a powerful method of text message marketing. You can also use a business SMS tools which help you to keep track of customer information, so you can push promotions to clients who haven’t made a purchase in a while.

Run a “Text to Win” contest

Text to win sweepstakes are an excellent way to engage with your customers and target audience. Everyone loves the opportunity to win something and running it all through a simple texting contest makes it even more fun.

For this to work customers need to sign up by texting a particular keyword to be in the run for sweepstakes contest.

Either select some winners randomly from everyone who opts in or you can also leave everyone a smaller prize who put the effort of texting the keyword.

Brands using SMS marketing choose to run contests as they are a great way to grow subscriber lists because each person who opts in for this contest can be marketed for future promotions which makes these sweepstakes a great way to boost list sizes.

Convert Leads into SMS subscribers using Live Chat

I am sure you already have customer support live chat embedded in your ecommerce store, but it doesn’t have to stop there. You can turn your ecommerce website into a lead generation system by asking customers to connect on SMS via live chat.

When customers use live chat to seek real-time response to their questions, the business can remove obstacles from conversions.

So you can generate SMS subscribers from your website visitors by using a chatbot and opt-in widget.

Gather Data & Feedback

I recommend ending the drip sequence or welcome message with a poll or survey, giving your business the opportunity to receive real-time feedback from your customers or prospects. Surveys will help you in learning more about your audience members as well as their needs and desires which in turn will help craft your offerings to your customer.

This works best if you can frame the feedback in the form of simple yes or no questions or ask customers to score the performance of your company. SMS is better suited for short and sweet messages and questions; if you try to get the client to write you back long paragraphs of feedback, you can expect a much lower engagement rate.

Author Bio

Mainul Quader is the owner of Skripts, content generation tool for ecommerce business to help generate product descriptions for their store.Check out https://skripts.co/ if you need help with writing your own product descriptions, marketing copy and even sms messaging.

10 Mass Text Messaging Statistics That Will Leave You Speechless

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly transformed the business realm and has forced brands to reconstruct their marketing strategies to keep in line with the current times. Despite such massive changes taking place in the business world, one marketing strategy that has managed to remain unshakable is mass text messaging. There is no denying that SMS has allowed businesses to reach out to their customers without spending too much money.

10 Interesting Mass Texting Facts

Over the years, businesses have constantly employed different marketing strategies for their brand development. However, mass text messaging has remained one of the most effective strategies to date, given the ease it process involves.

Here are a few mass text messaging statistics that prove how powerful SMS can be when it comes to business growth:

1. Sharp rise in user screen time

In the pandemic, mobile phone usage has witnessed a sharp rise. With every industry embracing online services, the chances of potential customers reading SMS promotions is higher than ever.

In the United States alone, an average consumer’s daily screen time rose 50% during the pandemic from the year 2019 to 2021.

Well, if you are considering kicking off your SMS marketing campaign, go ahead as now is the time to make the most of it!

2. Nearly 3.8 billion people own smartphones

Yes, you read it right! Imagine how fast you can reach out to potential customers considering how much of the world population owns a smartphone.

3. Text messages have high opening rates

People tend to open SMS quickly compared to emails and other promotional tools. Text message marketing is considered the most preferable method of advertising as 98% of consumers open the messages as soon as they pop up on the screen or within a few minutes of receiving them.

4. Text messages have higher reply rates

When compared to emails, text messages have been shown to have significant reply rates. About 60% of customers reply back within 2 minutes to promotional text messages compared to emails; known to have a reply time of about an hour.

5. 75% of customers are open to receiving business updates via SMS

If a business manages to make an impact on its audience the customers would naturally want to know more about it. There’s no better way of communicating to your customers than by reaching out to them with all the business updates on their phones.

6. Mass texting and business growth go hand-in-hand

According to a recent survey, 57% of business owners plan to invest in the SMS marketing arena in 2021.

7. SMS subscribers are expected to increase by 2023

Statistics reveal that a spike is expected in the number of SMS subscribers by 2023. With constantly growing digital marketing, businesses are utilizing SMS marketing widely. This is a direct result of the ever-increasing numbers of phone users interacting with their favorite businesses online.

62% of consumers revealed that they subscribed to receiving text messages from at least one brand in the last year alone.

8. Text messages are read instantly

With unbeatable opening rates, about 60% of customers read text messages within 1-3 minutes of receiving them. These statistics naturally allow greater access to your customers, hence making mass text messaging a favorable means for business promotion.

9. People appreciate businesses that use text message marketing

About 53% of customers value brands that adopt SMS text marketing for promotional communication. This type of communication between the customers and brands is easy yet impactful.

10. Increase in SMS volume

With brands being eager to establish a direct channel of communication with their customers, SMS volume has increased around 40% in the year 2021.

Final Thoughts

Looking at all these statistics, it is evident how mass text messaging can create significant brand awareness while bringing you greater business!

Communication is the key when it comes to business development as a customer will only approach a brand when it appears intriguing enough to them.

In a nutshell, with mass text messaging you can successfully capture your target audience’s interest by sending them appealing updates.

Why Is Bulk SMS Marketing A Must For Modern Companies?

In an ever-changing digital world, companies of all sizes and from all over the world are constantly looking for new ways to market effectively to their audiences. This is why such underrated techniques as bulk SMS marketing are coming to the forefront yet again.

Indeed, when used correctly, bulk SMS marketing can be incredibly effective and can help you achieve your marketing goals at a relatively low cost. Hence, here’s why bulk SMS marketing is a must for modern companies and how you can use it successfully.

What Is Bulk SMS Marketing?

To put it simply, bulk SMS marketing is a marketing technique that uses mass communication via SMS or mobile messaging apps to deliver marketing materials to its audience. To use bulk SMS marketing, you will need to have a database of phone numbers of your current or potential customers.

Bulk SMS marketing used to be about only using SMS, but nowadays, many people use different mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram that can also be used for similar campaigns. However, this article will focus only on SMS marketing (which, compared to mobile messaging apps, can help you reach even those who don’t use the said apps).

1. It Is A Cost-Effective Marketing Technique

First and foremost, bulk SMS marketing is a very cost-effective marketing technique. It is relatively affordable and can be incredibly efficient when used correctly. At its core, bulk SMS marketing is similar to email marketing which also uses the approach of mass communication.

Because of the similarities between bulk SMS marketing and email marketing, the transition from one to another will be relatively easy for a company. Moreover, bulk SMS marketing lets you collect valuable data (e.g. messages that failed to send, which texts were read by how many people, who responded to the CTA) that further helps you maximize the results you get from bulk SMS marketing while using the same budget for your campaigns.

2. It Has A High Return on Investment

Speaking of the effectiveness of bulk SMS marketing campaigns, this marketing technique is also known for having a high return on investment. This is especially true if you are using an established bulk SMS marketing service that guarantees great results for the fee you are paying them.

In other words, you know exactly what you are investing in and you know that your ROI will be at a particularly high level. This is because bulk SMS marketing usually generates high-quality leads which means you could be also growing your customer base with loyal clients.

3. It Easily Connects You with Your Audience

And, of course, one of the biggest benefits of bulk SMS marketing is that it easily connects you with your audience. Even if the person has never heard of you before, they might get interested and this will raise your brand awareness or at least give you more exposure. It’s the perfect way to improve your brand image as well.

Because your customers are always keeping their phones with them, they are bound to receive your message the moment you send it out. This means that your marketing materials will definitely be delivered to your audience and seen almost instantly. Your potential customer could be using public transport or working at the office or doing virtually anything else – and they would still get your message.

Best Practices of Bulk SMS Marketing

So, what exactly are some good tactics to use with bulk SMS marketing? Here are some of the best practices for this marketing technique to help you get started with it:

Always use a clear call to action. SMS messages are instantly delivered to your potential customers and you will likely want to get an instant response. A CTA is what will urge the person to act and to complete particular tasks you want them to perform (e.g. visit your website, call your customer service).

Segment your audience. Instead of blindly sending out messages to all the numbers in your database, try to tie these numbers to the different segments of your target audience. For instance, some of the numbers you have might be of your current customers who will be more interested in special offers and discounts rather than simply getting acquainted with your brand.

Track your campaign performance. Much like with any other marketing tactic you use, you will need to track the performance of your campaigns. If something isn’t working as well as it should, you probably need to improve it or get rid of it completely. If certain numbers don’t respond to your messages at all, you probably just have to stop messaging them completely.

Send out messages at the right time. One thing many marketers will definitely know about is that timing matters – and that’s true for bulk SMS marketing too. The time when you send out your messages can impact how well they perform, so it’s best to try different approaches before deciding when the best time is for you. The same goes for the frequency of your messages.

Keep your messages short. It’s been said a million times and it’s still true. If your message is too long, the recipient might not even want to read it and will simply delete it. Always assume that the person is busy, so you need to get to the point straight away and offer them what you have before they get bored and stop reading.

Allow people to opt out. While it’s sad that someone may want to opt out of your messaging campaigns, it’s still a choice you need to offer. Nobody wants to be annoyed by a brand they have absolutely no interest in. And this needs to be respected by businesses.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, bulk SMS marketing is a great way to achieve your marketing goals and connect with your target audience even when they are on the go. Use the tips in this article to help you create your own bulk SMS marketing strategy and start using this technique effectively.

Author Bio:

Paul Gotcher is an experienced writer who has been working as an author at Topwritingreviews. He believes that words have power and shares his passion for writing with readers. Paul has a long history of working in the educational management industry. He is a professional writing expert in the Creation of Web-Content and Self-Education.

Why SMS Reminders Should be Leveraged by Every Business

In India, a straightforward SMS reminder blast is all it takes to enhance vaccination coverage and even decrease rates of preventable childhood infections. This study by Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Indian nonprofit child health organization Bal Umang Drishya Sanstha (BUDS) proves the ability of SMS reminders — when used right.

It’s easy to forget the small things you scheduled through the week in your planner unless you set reminders for them. From healthcare to recruiters — message reminders are often easily leveraged as a cost and time-saving exercise, for both the business owner and the end-user.

What are SMS reminders?

SMS reminders are alert messages conveyed to a customer using SMS as the communication channel. They’re utilized by businesses to make sure that their customers don’t forget their existing appointments or ones that they have to schedule in the near future. This also ensures that there are a lesser number of missed slots — allowing the business to carry on its functions without being suffering from the loss of appointments.

In a dental clinic: most appointments are taken by patients at least a week in advance, one of them missing it results in the slot going vacant. The dentist cannot ask another patient for that specific slot as it could be inconvenient for them. This leads to losing some business for the day, or worse, reflecting poorly on the brand’s identity.

A fairly common challenge, it is often easily resolved using an automatic reminder message system. The business team sends an alert message to its customers for upcoming or scheduled events or even personalized messages based on prior interactions.

Types of message reminders

1. Upcoming Appointment Reminders

It is a busy world we live in— unless everything is on the planner, there’s a high chance that we’ll remember the next appointment. The appointment would have been taken a week before, as per the convenience of the customer. A reminder message ensures that customers don’t forget what’s important for them, creates brand loyalty, and at the same time, ensures that you simply don’t lose your time and money.

2. Event Reminders

A reminder SMS is often sent to promote upcoming events at your business. this could be a customer event that you’re hosting or simply the launch of the latest products or services that are useful to the customer. a fast message reminds them of the same and creates the impression that you simply truly care about their changing needs.

3. Recurring Appointment Reminders

Just like a monthly subscription, you’ll be able to actually set recurring appointments with your customers. Using appointment reminders, you can rest assured that their appointments are less likely to be missed.

4. Scheduling Appointments

Don’t just ask customers to schedule their next appointment on their way out. Follow it up with SMS reminders to do a similar. Thanks to widespread text messaging usage, your customers will thank you for giving them a neater answer.

5. Follow-up Reminders

You can also use SMS reminders to follow up with your customers after a meeting and ask for their feedback too. Doing so within 24 hours of their visit will make sure that you get first-hand reviews from the customer to form your business better.

Advantages of text message reminders

The benefit of using an alert SMS vary for businesses, depending on their respective industry. Here some common advantages of sending text SMS reminders to customers.

1. Reduces no-shows

Every missed appointment is lost revenue. To plan your time and allocate resources better, make sure that your pipeline is full and moving along the defined user journey in a timely manner by leveraging a reminder system to communicate with your customers. After receiving a reminder SMS, automatically lesser people left the scheduled event/ appointment.

2. Reduces defaulters

By sending SMS alerts to customers for payments, you keep down bad debts with your business. This helps customers remind them about their dues, and even saves them the additional charges that they may incur from delays.

For instance, insurance companies send automated reminder messages about premium payments that a customer has to make. A simple alert SMS make sure savings for both the customer and the company, while also evolve greater brand adherence.

3. Better customer experience

Reminder messages not only ensure sales for the business but also create a greater customer experience. By ensuring that the customer needs are met on time, and are available on the mobile phone, the reminder message act as the much-needed bridge for communication between the business and the customer.

For instance, regular check-up reminders help doctors stay in-tuned with their patients. This ensures the correct treatment on an ongoing basis, helping them stay within the better of their health.

4. Saves costs

Message reminders are often used to let customers track their orders or the status of any application. Since text messages are cheaper than emails and outbound calls, they assist businesses to save costs. Nowadays shipment services use a reminder message to send the status of a shipment.

Why should businesses use SMS reminders?

The growth of mobile phone usage has resulted in enabling businesses to stay in-tuned with their customers. A recent study has proven that the primary thing that individuals do after awakening is checking their phone.

But with the growth of mobile, the one channel that’s surpassing even Facebook in being the foremost frequently used data service is a text message. Most of the text messages are opened within the first three minutes of being received, while almost two-thirds of emails are never even opened!

Yes, texting is really 10 xs more efficient than even reaching your customers via phone calls.

That is why SMS reminders are being increasingly used by businesses to remain connected with their existing customers to make sure brand loyalty.

How can you use it?

Text messages can actually serve as a good addition to your marketing and sales campaigns. Apart from advanced scheduling and alerts, you can use them as a medium to regularly nurture your customers. Here are a couple of ways different industries use SMS reminder system:

1. Healthcare

It’s vital for the healthcare industry to remain in-tuned with the patients. this is often done to ensure their well-being and offer timely treatments that improve patient care. A message can be used to remind the customers or patients to schedule their next visit or apprise them of an upcoming one, or even alert them about self-examination.

2. Automotive

The sole way an automotive brand can ensure an excellent driving experience for their customers is through the timely service of their vehicles. From oil changes to tire rotation, businesses can use SMS reminders to reduce missed appointments that require to be scheduled on a recurring basis. or even use it as a channel to let customers know when their vehicle is ready after the service.

3. Education

Establishing a relationship between parents and teachers is extremely important for a student’s growth. to make sure high attendance rates during meetings and events, the academic institutions can use reminder messages that let everyone plan their days in advance. They also let you communicate any last-minute changes — be it declaring a vacation or rescheduling examinations.

4. Beauty

Cut down on no-shows for your salon by sending customers message reminders for their scheduled appointments, or even alert them about discounts. You can also send them an SMS about the newest trends that they might be interested in.

5. Hotels

Hotels can use a reminder message to send a booking confirmation text to guests. This lets them allocate rooms based on confirmation and also as a technique to carry reservations.

6. Travel agencies

It’s practically impossible for travel agents to follow up with customers through phone calls to remind them of their upcoming travel or the documents they could need for an equivalent. In fixing an automatic reminder message will make sure that the customer is ready for the travel and has everything in place before the scheduled departure.

7. Airlines

Using an alert SMS, the airline sends all information about check-in times, flight delays, flight cancellations, and more. This helps their customers plan their travel better and ensures an excellent experience in any given scenario.

Reminder messages are an excellent way to stay connected with your customers and at the same time, save your business time and money. Want to form reminding your customers about their upcoming appointments easier? The Datagenit reminder system can assist you set up automated messages to remain in-tuned with your customers which make further good and prosper relation with client.

Author Bio

Vikram Dixit is a seasoned marketer and a sales expert. He is the Manager of Datagenit, a leading digital marketing company that offers Bulk SMS service Or IVR solution, Internet research, email & chat support, and more.

The Role of SMS Marketing in Ecommerce

The new competitive standard in eCommerce is to reach consumers across channels. Brands are making every effort to meet consumers “where they’re at” (whether searching for products on Amazon or idly scrolling through social feeds), and also to better use key channels of communication to build deeper relationships.

Two of the longest-standing forms of business-to-consumer communication, which continue to be the most effective, are email and SMS. Email communications in eCommerce average a 16% open rate, while SMS messages are opened 99% of the time. In other words, the more personal and in-hand communications are always those that get more views.

Does SMS play a role in ecommerce? Yes—and on every level of the sales funnel. Big-scale sales online have to be automated as much as possible, and SMS bulk messaging provides an invaluable tool to automate messaging that still feels personal. The experience for consumers is similar to the live chat interfaces that have become even more popular recently, but is still perceived as more “human” than the anonymous interactions with AI-powered chatbots.

Another added benefit of using SMS in ecommerce is that not many businesses are doing it.

People are acutely conditioned to respond to the vibrations and chimes of their cellphones. As a result, there are multiple roles that SMS marketing can play in ecommerce funnels, though the use does change from the top of the funnel to the bottom. Keep reading to see what role SMS can play each step of the way!

SMS for Top of Funnel

The top of the funnel is where leads come in. Naturally, brands won’t have those users’ mobile numbers to send direct messages just yet, but the potential for personalized SMS technology in this stage of the sales process still exists.

One of the first interactions users tend to have with a brand comes in the form of questions. Whether they type a search string into the search bar on your site or open a chat feature to ask you something, these are actions that require immediate response for the user to proceed with the purchase. Added SMS capabilities at this stage of interaction have a huge impact on conversions and abandoned carts.

SMS helps you cast a wider net to capture leads, too. There are still those consumers who aren’t using smartphones, although they’re the minority now. Having the option to reach out through SMS gives brands a competitive advantage over those who aren’t SMS enabled, because just about every consumer can be reached (including those without smartphones).

With push notifications, geofencing, and other technologies, there are even more ways you can reach consumers at the top of the funnel with SMS. Just be sure to brush up on SMS best practices so that your messages never look like SPAM.

Possibilities with SMS for top-of-funnel interactions include:

• Broadcasting to audiences through geofencing
• Personalized event-based notifications
• Two-way conversations and customer service

Keep brainstorming, and you’ll see even more opportunities. SMS messaging at this stage of the funnel feels so hyper-personalized that you can bring your leads that much faster from top to bottom.

SMS for Middle of Funnel

The ad practice of remarketing is what helps re-engage the 98% of users who don’t convert when they first discover a product or service online. Most of those users are simply browsing options, or simply happened upon a page idly. Conversion on the first visit to an eCommerce site makes up the minority by a long shot.

Of those users who trigger remarketing display ads once they navigate away, three of five users notice the ads and remember them. Then, a quarter of those users even say they enjoy seeing personalized content based on products they’ve viewed previously.

While those numbers are encouraging (and make the case quite clear for remarketing efforts), SMS can be an even more effective channel to achieve the same thing. While 99% of SMS are seen within 24 hours, 97% are seen within the first 15 minutes of delivery. This means that as soon as a user navigates away and abandons a cart, immediate feedback can be sent through the one channel where they’re bound to read the message right away.

While conversions through SMS are high (especially when sending offers and immediate-action incentives), an eCommerce brand also has to make sure that the user experience (UX) on their site and marketplace listings are optimized. Otherwise, people will open the SMS almost immediately but then navigate to a page that’s unattractive or frustrating to use, and the benefits of the SMS push are immediately lost. Learn what unique control eCommerce sales enable in optimized UX (from web design to how you manage your product data), even on those marketplaces where you aren’t the owner of the site.

The middle of the funnel is where potential customers are qualified. The utility of SMS at this stage of the sales process include:

• Greater value out of latent, “just-looking” traffic through real-time offers
• More interactive and personalized customer support
• Prevention of shopping cart abandonment
• Marketing for special occasions

SMS for Bottom of Funnel

Here is where consumers arrive at that final “buy” button.

The role SMS plays at the bottom of the sales funnel is inherently linked to superior customer service. If you don’t like picking the phone up to call a business, you’ll understand, because that’s the trend in consumer behavior, too. SMS is what your customers want. They’re on their phones but want the distance and ease of a simple message, and this is where eCommerce businesses need to be.

Of course, you’re past the questions and customer service phase once you reach the bottom of the funnel. This is the step where traffic turns into actual customers. As a result, the kinds of campaigns using SMS change, too. Specific applications of SMS at the bottom of the funnel include:

• Getting more customer feedback and reviews
• Giving real-time updates on order status
• Providing onboarding and welcome messages
• Providing other post-purchase updates

Overall, use of SMS improves customer approval at the bottom of the funnel. Customers feel taken care of and get greater satisfaction from their purchases. SMS can also bring you a bigger return on each purchase because the power of “social proof” and the constant flow of positive reviews can be automated with SMS triggers that give customers the one-click satisfaction of leaving you five stars.

Beyond the Funnel…

Sales don’t stop at the bottom of the funnel. You want to continue marketing to existing customers so that they come back for more, too. They’ve already proven that they’re interested. You even have all their contact information. The most natural next step is to make that relationship even deeper.

Further developing the relationships you have is more efficient through SMS due to message open rates plus the name recognition your brand already has with the audience. In the face of the “new normal” and the trends that have recently impacted eCommerce, customer acquisition has become less about price and more about ease of communication. This positions brands using SMS well ahead of the curve.

Adding SMS to your marketing quiver starts with choosing which service to enlist. There are plenty to choose from, so you can shop for the SMS provider who is best equipped to partner with you for a strategy specific to your brand. Start with a consultation with HSPSMS today.

Author Bio

The following blog was written by guest author Alex Borzo, a content contributor at Amber Engine, a software company passionate about eCommerce. The company’s fast and simple PIM software gets sellers, distributors and brands to Amazon and other online marketplaces in weeks instead of months.

How To Increase Your Business Through Digital Marketing

Small-company individuals own it started from the digital age. They are using a vast width of choices to get your name around via email advertisements and digital marketing programs. The possibilities and mixtures will be virtually infinite. While that’s a massive benefit to this present entrepreneur, it might also be overwhelming. Listed below are several old digital advertisements and promotion strategies to get you all started.

Before dive right into, you’ll discover a couple of fundamental questions that need to be answered. Your electronic advertising program should ultimately pave the way to your long- term and – temporary small business objectives. Answer the questions before start:

Who is my audience?

Concentrate on creating client personas. They need to encircle each one of the features that you wish to get in your ideal customer, such as:

● Age
● Gender
● Geographical location
● Motivations
● Challenges
● Private interests
● Shopping preferences

Yet another valuable exercise would be to recognize the sort of customer that you don’t require and provide a wide berth to promotion content that may inadvertently attract them.

What is my ultimate aim?

Assessing your objectives before creating your electronic marketing strategy guarantees that you won’t be barking up the wrong tree. Are you currently searching to boost site traffic? Decrease cart abandonment? Build your email list, Boost average cost quantity? Create higher customer loyalty, increase brand awareness?

As you can see, one electronic approach wouldn’t hit every one of these regions, so plan accordingly. Which tools do not have? Assess the automated means you have already spent in and ascertain if they are viable, require tweaking, or ought to be retired.

By this time, you have probably already established some automated campaigns and lost cash on the resources to achieve that. It is not unusual to forget that you have got some subscription support for, for instance, email blasts. Assessing the cobwebs away and ascertain if it is still fulfilling your demands. Odds are, together with your new digital approach, you can revamp your usage of previous advertising tools and begin getting a return on your investment.

Primary Digital-marketing Channels:

1) Marketing with Email

Email communication is among the most straightforward approaches to stay before one’s customer base. Send purposeful company upgrades and promotions, and request customer testimonials, and remind a client they have left items within their online shopping cart software, etc.

Strategies for email advertising:

● Personalize using receiver’s title time suitably.

● The ideal time to ship your email is from the day or on weekends if people are not around the clock.

● Incorporate topic lines over 70 characters Long.

2) Social Networking

Having the capability to pinpoint target audience associates. Social networking provides powerful tools to strengthen your digital marketing and advertising campaigns. The drills we suggested earlier in the day play a role here.

For instance, if your perfect customer is a business professional, you will wish to concentrate on LinkedIn. Should they are millennial, and then Twitter and Instagram are more appropriate. Meet with your clientele at which they are at. For more help pinpointing the perfect social-media stations for the company, visit this article.

Try one of these Hints on the next social Networking Effort:

● Cross-promote using a Free Company.

● Host a Competition.

● Survive Facebook or Instagram Stories and Produce a Set.

● Re-post user-generated content.

● Article ‘Label a Buddy’ content comprising it into a promotion, event or holiday.

● Poll your followers.

3) Content marketing

Including valuable and relevant material along with your digital advertising platforms, increases your odds of generating organic traffic. Use videos, blogs, infographics, and white papers to entice clients for you based on internet search engine success. To learn more with your article advertising plan, take a look at this article.

Content Tip

For those who have marketing bits that have been especially successful using a digital medium, then reformat it to work across your electronic advertising stations. Give it a small refresh or correct the language, whether it’s unique to its primary usage. Still, if you have had success using a specific message, either call or promotion to activity, capitalize on it.

4) Mobile Strategy

A cell plan usually takes many shapes, based on the tools you’ve got available. It is possible to work effective mobile-marketing through interpersonal networking and also a mobile-friendly site. Or, you may make an authentic cell application. A cell application is useful as a result of customization possibilities.

Advantages of a program:

● You can send alarms.

● You Can Quickly employ a client loyalty application.

● Your emblem appears on customers’ dwelling displays always.

● Clients benefit from the simplicity of performing business point and click on trades and communications.

There are several program construction services; therefore, you should not begin learning code any time in the future! Organizations like AppsBuilder, BuildFire, and also AppyPie allow you to customize your cellular application based on your own precise needs.

5) Pay-to-Play Advertising

A lot of options here, including paid societal networking advertisements, pay-per-play music advertisements, pay per click advertisements, Google Adwords, etc.. You are essentially creating digital billboards Except with an electronic digital “billboard,” you decide that views your advertisement, where you can make the most of your ROI.

Cross-promote every one of these marketing stations to make sure clients are receiving communications at which they are most receptive. Include links to an own social networking page on each email burst, make an advertisement on social networking directed toward bringing leads and get info or drive traffic for your most recent blog post by way of a link into your most recent societal networking article.

The key to digital marketing will be to narrow your attention when casting a broad net. Sounds oxymoronic but are confident that this is simultaneously potential. What we believe is that all of your digital campaigns need to possess a particular goal using a specific audience in your mind, and you ought to be running several campaigns at one moment.

Author Bio:

Rishabh Gupta is an SEO executive at IT Company in Malaysia, where he handles all works related to SEO, SMO, PPC, Content Writing and Email Marketing.

How to Grow a Business With Bulk SMS Marketing

How to Grow a Business with Bulk SMS Marketing

Bulk SMS Marketing empowers customers and business as the best and affordable marketing tool. It is also the best and affordable marketing tool to grow business, apart from the normal and conventional ways of marketing. The conventional ways of marketing are much more costly and most of the MSME (Medium and Small Scale Industry) cannot afford for their business promotion. It is the only way of business marketing allows you to start with any smaller investment and reach directly to their customer or prospects. Now, this tool has changed the experience and allows everyone to get started with the new and cheaper way of business marketing. The promotional SMS has direct reach to customers so that the customer can contact for any business immediately. Now, many technologies have been introduced under this at no extra cost. The technologies and features introduced for growing business through these are:

1. Multi-Media SMS
2. Quick Link
3. Survey SMS
4. Split and Schedule
5. Personalize SMS

The Multi-Media SMS features allow you to send images, audio, and video files through the SMS Marketing. Hence, you can give more exposure to your brand and products, which definitely helps to double your leads and can grow your business in the same ratio. This feature allows you to reach directly to the customer’s mobile and you can track that the mobile number who have viewed your media SMS. These views can be your business leads and you can revert them with your proposal and services, using this you can multiply business.

Quick Link is the feature that allows you to send a Shorten business link with your business marketing SMS. This feature allows you to send a unique link to every mobile number along with bulk SMS and you can track those numbers who have shown interest in your product or services. This feature saves your credits and money to shorten your long URL into short because it saves your SMS content length. Using the Quick link, mobile numbers can track who has clicked your link sent through SMS content.

The latest feature on SMS marketing is Survey SMS. This feature allows you to create a business survey program for your product and services. Using this feature any of business promoter can make a survey through bulk SMS and can grow their business. This feature gives you the survey questionnaire answer data along with the mobile numbers. Here you can analyze or see the survey results in the platform along with the mobile numbers. Survey SMS can also be used for service feedback, political popularity checks, before any business investment in the market.

Split and schedule feature allows you to schedule your SMS for the whole day on a single click. Instead of spending the whole day time for a business campaign, you can just upload the campaign and set the split and time gape, this feature automatically schedules your campaign for the whole day in a few seconds. Once you make the split and schedule your campaign automatically run on your split scheduled time, this saves your SMS Marketing time.

The Personalize SMS sending feature allows to send a unique and personalize SMS on a single click to all uploaded numbers. It means you no need to spend time to send everyone a one-by-one SMS; you just send to all on a single push. This feature helps you to give a personal touch on your business promotion.

So, the latest technologies and features in is much easier and user-friendly along with, without any extra investment on your business promotion budget. It is the future tool to grow any business for your any product and services.

Authors Bio:

Pramod Chandraker has been Telecom, IT and Digital Marketing professional for 12 years. He is a Technical and IT background with a Master’s Degree in Sales and Marketing. He has worked with many companies till 2015 as a Manager to General Manager in his position. In the year 2015, he thought to empower the customers and society with his different ideas of technology developed by him. He has started a venture, Named OSDigital.in in the year 2015 and introduced the services, which he has experienced in the previous 12 years. He gives the latest features and innovative technologies to their customers and the customer also show their interest because of the unique and user-friendly technology provided by him, he also takes the customer feedback for the market challenges and make changes or redesign accordingly. This is the reason he has associated many brands with him, and brands rely on their services.

Why Insurance Industries Should Use Text Messaging Service?

Text messaging is a powerful tool for many businesses and the insurance industry is one of them. It is now a proven fact that customers respond better to SMS marketing campaigns rather than emails or social media campaigning. Around 64% of consumers who get marketing offers via SMS make a purchase.

Text messaging is not only favorable for new clients, but it also helps to provide lucrative offers and customer service to existing clients. Moreover, text messages also offer a quick solution to customers to resolve their issues. According to a survey, around 65% of consumers hold a company in high regards if it offers services via the SMS channel.

Along with these factors mentioned above, SMS text messaging service also has many other benefits, especially for the insurance industry. Here are some of the ways the insurance industry can use SMS to boost their business:

• Quick Service

Texting is beneficial for events that call for immediate attention. The insurance industry has to deal with all kinds of emergency situations such as house fire, medical emergency, sudden death, accidents or an emergency during an international trip. Being in the insurance industry, you know that you need to deal with such issues immediately. If you use text messaging, you can get important information from your clients quickly and you can also keep them updated using SMS.

Telephones or emails can be unpractical during such emergency situations and hence text messages prove to be perfect. The client may not be able to talk on the phone due to noise in the background or email due to poor network, but the SMS facility, reaching out can be easy. SMS also allows customers to read the instructions and revert only if they want to.

The insurance industry also requires immediate photographs of the place or person, where the emergency has struck. Using SMS texting, one can send photos quickly via text and can also assess the damage quickly. The photos sent via SMS can be easily transferred to email or to the records of the client maintained in the company in order to have accurate details.

• Tips and Advice

The insurance industry also needs to send tips and advice in order to prevent accidents or claims to their customers. For example, a health insurance provider can send helpful advice and tips to help reduce health risks such as diet plans, exercise advice, etc. First-time mothers can be sent tips via SMS on how to handle a colicky baby or what to do when the baby has diarrhea. Similarly, a car insurance company can send helpful tips and advice such as how often to change engine oil or how to avoid car theft. Using SMS to provide clients with relevant advice not only helps them avoid insurance claims but also makes them more knowledgeable. These tips can prove easy to read while traveling or in idle time.

• Increase Client Base

Text campaigns help to grow the company’s clientele. You can advertise by offering a free ‘text for a quote’ promotion or a policy discount. This will excite your customers and also those who are not your customers and are reading about the offer. For this, you will have to include details of ‘how to opt’ on other channels such as websites, social media, newsletter, etc. SMS texts are generally more effective in attracting customers when compared to emails and phone calls.

• Enhance Customer Experience

SMS texting is a great way to reach the customers about issues that are important to them. Majority of the emails see the trash bin and you cannot disturb a customer by calling him at an inconvenient time. In such cases, you can inform your clients about any updates via a text message. You can also send reminders for appointments and inform them about any changes in your company’s policies. SMS messages can also be used to update personal information such as address or bank account. This is easier rather than filling out lengthy forms. SMS texting can also be used to offer tips and advice to the client and improving their customer satisfaction.

• Customer Surveys

SMS messages have a higher response rate than emails as they make it easier to get feedback from the client. Getting genuine client feedback and opinions is important for insurance companies as they have to deal with very delicate issues and frustrated customers. Poor customer service often leads to most of the customers abandoning a purchase in between. An insurance company can succeed only when they take care of their customers and provide good service. With SMS text messaging, the insurance company can understand how better to serve their clients.

Text messaging service provides faster and better services. SMS messages have never lessened their importance since they have been invented. If you are in the insurance industry, you should SMS messaging service to improve your business.

Author bio

Marketing Head of TXTImpact – I am Susan Raj, Marketing Head of TXTImpact provides Text Messaging products for marketing and support customers to increase your client base. Our Enterprise Text Message Marketing Platform designed for your business, allows marketers to communicate and engage customers on the go instantly.