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SMS Marketing for Business Beginners

Spreading the word about your business can be tedious and inefficient if not done properly. Mobile phone usage has become popular in that nearly everyone in the world owns a phone, with statistics showing 5.11 billion users in 2019. People rely on their phones for so many things that a text message has an open and read rate of 97% within the first 3 minutes they have been received.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is simply a marketing tactic that uses a short message service (SMS) to send notifications, informative and promotional messages to people who have opted into a company’s products or services.

Why you Should use SMS Marketing

SMS marketing gives you real-time visibility of your loyal customers and followers, narrowing down your target customers. It provides a direct and instantaneous link to customers once they have opted-in. The brevity of the message is limited to 160 characters, make it easy and simple to use. Allows you to get feedback on marketing campaigns allows you to create, track, and ameliorate your content. 

SMS help to enhance other marketing forums such as email and social media. Short codes and keywords are easy to remember attracting new customers. Some providers can deliver your message to the world and you can visit Edgility to learn more about this.

How to Compose Messages for an SMS Campaign

Identify Your Organization

Use the business name or business short code to show where the text originates and where to redeem the offer.

Establish your audience

Personalize the message by addressing the person by the first name. Using demographics such as location, gender, and age may come in handy in creating a customized message. 

Make it Short

Be concise and to the point, ensuring it is exclusive and provides a high amount of value.

Embrace the Call-To-Action

Include an engaging call-to-action, preferably at the end, to serve as the last instruction to the recipient and provide a link to perform this.

Use Formal Language

Professional language should be used. Below are some of the cautions to take.

· Avoiding text-speak use, for example, using ‘u’ in place of ‘you.’

· Limit the use of Caps as it is interpreted as wailing.

· Overuse of the exclamation mark is often translated as a sign of desperation.

· Abbreviations and abuse of punctuations are annoying and confusing.

Incorporate an Opt-out Option

Including a virtual number of your company where users can save you from tough anti-spam regulations. Opt-out allow customers to unsubscribe from your messages. Examples may include “Reply STOP to opt-out” or “Opt-out send STOP to 12345,” which are your actual virtual numbers.

Use the Right Timing

Once you have come up with the text message, you have to be conscious of its delivery timing. Guided by your geographical location and the business’s nature, it is prudent that you send the message using the right timing.

Conclusion

The SMS marketing technique is a low cost, fast and effective way of product promotions that can lead to high traffic and increased sales in your business.

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