Email Marketing

6 Tips for Choosing the Best SMS Marketing Services

January 22, 2022

If you haven’t considered using SMS marketing in your digital strategy — think again. 9 out of 10 customers prefer to communicate with businesses via text.

But how exactly does an SMS marketing strategy work? And what should you look for in an SMS marketing service?

Below we include a guide explaining SMS marketing services and the 6 considerations for choosing the best SMS marketing services.

Basics of SMS Marketing

SMS marketing has been around for a while, but many businesses haven’t tried it for themselves. Here’s a quick refresher on what SMS marketing is and the benefits you can receive from an SMS campaign.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing involves using text messages to promote your business’s products and services. It’s a digital strategy also known as mass texting. It works like emails do but is much more effective – research shows that Americans check their phones 96 times a day.

What Do SMS Marketing Services Do?

your SMS campaigns through the use of a team and relevant software.

The team will be responsible for writing and researching all of the messages behind your campaign. They’ll then use their top-notch technology to schedule texts to be sent to people on your contact list.

What Are the Benefits of SMS Marketing Services?

SMS marketing has numerous benefits and has come a long way since its inception. With SMS marketing, you can boost sales, engage your audience, earn consumer loyalty, collect and nurture leads, and create buzz around a product or competition.

SMS marketing services will amplify all of the positive effects of an SMS marketing campaign because you’ll have a team of experts dedicated to crafting and delivering the perfect message.

What to Look for in SMS Marketing Services

Not all SMS marketing systems are created equal. Here are a few things you should consider when looking for your SMS service.

1. Combined Platforms

Aside from SMS marketing, email marketing is one of the best revenue-generating channels – especially for e-commerce businesses. It only makes sense that you try to build your SMS and email strategy together. This is why we recommend Klaviyo to our marketing clients 9 times out of 10.

When selecting your SMS provider, look for one that can manage both SMS and your email at the same time. That way, the services can merge customer data into one profile and provide a more comprehensive understanding of how the customer interacts with your brand.

You’ll also have an advantage when contacting your customers because you can make smarter communication decisions. For instance, if the customer doesn’t open an email, you can send them a text with the same information since you know they haven’t seen it yet.

2. Flexible Contract

Having contract flexibility with digital marketing services is key to any positive relationship. Your business needs will grow and change over time, and so will your marketing strategies.

Look for providers that charge you based on the size of your subscriber list, not based on the size of your business as a whole. You may only want to send targeted messages to a small number of people.

Also, consider the length of your contract. It should be flexible enough so that you can change it every month or even every quarter. You should not have to sign a multi-year deal that leaves no room for change.

3. Seamless Functionality

Selling directly to your customers via SMS is of course meant to increase sales. But it’s also meant to be a tool that gives you data for more personalized experiences in the future.

You want services that will use your SMS to create a seamless customer journey. Messages are only the first part – next, the user should visit your website and have a positive experience there

This means that the SMS team should be sending text messages based on your customers’ actions – not based on a random timeline. They’ll only send messages when it will optimize the sales funnel.

4. Communication Expertise

Text messages may be short – but that makes them even more difficult to get right. In just a few lines, you have to attract the customer’s attention and encourage them to engage with your call to action.

Your SMS marketing services should be expert communicators, able to reach people of all different backgrounds and positions in the sales funnel.

And they also should know how to personalize messages based on what the target audience will respond to best. It could be anything from opening with a customer’s name to only texting them about sales in their size.

5. Clear Tracking Tools

SMS has some of the best returns for any digital marketing method. But of course, this is if you have the right data available.

Your SMS marketing service should be using software and tools to accurately track customer actions and interactions.

For instance, say a customer receives both an email from you and a text message within the same 48 hours. They then place an order.

With the right software that manages email and SMS together, only the message the customer saw the most recently would get credit for the sale. Otherwise, both channels would get credit and you wouldn’t have a true understanding of what was working.

6. High Compliance & Deliverability Standards

SMS compliance may not be complicated, but it’s required. Your SMS marketing services need to be completing all tasks above board. Messaging subscribers who haven’t given explicit consent or failing to provide an opt-out option are grounds for trouble.

Make sure that the provider you select has run numerous SMS marketing campaigns before and knows the ins and outs of the law.

Deliverability is another important element of your SMS campaign. How often are messages going through? Your SMS provider should have a deliverability rate of 90% at the very least.

Transform Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Your business can’t thrive without a strong digital presence. SMS marketing services and other strategies are the keys to standing out.

And you don’t have to do it alone. The Forged team is here to guide you through your digital strategy, whether you need text message marketing tips or a new website.