You might assume that SMS marketing isn’t as valuable as it once was just a few years ago, given all the digital marketing options that small business owners have these days to promote their company.
The reality is, that even now, in an age of social media marketing, SMS marketing campaigns are surprisingly effective.
Particularly, local businesses can benefit from SMS marketing since regional marketing doesn’t require much personalization.
There is no denying that social media marketing enjoys a substantial amount of attention, but SMS marketing has some surprising statistics that cannot be ignored.
SMS marketing has a wide range of uses today and in the future. Listed below are some benefits that SMS marketing can provide, particularly to small and medium sized Home Care businesses.
How Can Your Agency Benefit From SMS Marketing?
Using SMS marketing, you can reach consumers where they spend the most of their time – on their phones. Getting in touch with your customers in this way is not only logical, but also the fastest option.
Experts at Forbes consider it to be the ‘tool of the future,’ and we certainly agree. Here’s why:
Fast Engagement
A cell phone user takes 90 seconds on average to respond to a text message. On the other hand, users take about 90 minutes to reply to an email.
Getting instant engagement with SMS marketing alone is enough to illustrate its effectiveness, but marketers must also take the open rate into account.
Open rate refers to the percentage of texts or emails that the receivers open.
As compared to a 20% open rate for emails, 98% of the receivers open their text messages, making the latter a quick way to reach your customers.
However, SMS marketing can help boost your email marketing campaigns too.
According to a Smart Insights report, sending a follow-up SMS like ‘Did you read our email?’’ can increase the email open rate by up to 30%. It’s a win-win on both sides.
High ROI
SMS marketing yields a 45% return on investment when used solely and up to 50% when applied in combination with other marketing channels like email or social media marketing.
It’s also a great way to funnel a customer through your omnichannel marketing approach.
For example, as a local Home Care Agency, you could send out an SMS message to those who opted-in to receive notifications about personalized care programs or new events and services you’re providing to families and loved ones.
The receiver will read your SMS and head over to your website to get information about your services.
You can also expect them to read reviews on your social media pages and check out user-generated content, such as images and videos. In this way, SMS marketing helps bring people to your other channels too.
Finally, they visit your business and signup for a free assessmenet or specialty care program. The trend is bound to continue into the future, since 63% of the consumers still use their phone’s default texting app, and the number of people using SMS to stay in touch will continue to increase in the future also.
Considering this, 61% of marketers intend to invest more in their SMS marketing.
Cost-effective
For smaller start-ups and home-based businesses, email marketing and social media marketing may not be viable. Thanks to SMS marketing, businesses can get impressive results without spending a fortune.
Further, you do not need to hire someone to make graphic illustrations, create videos, take pictures, as you would for social media marketing.
The SMS copy can be written either yourself or by hiring a content copywriter.
High Responsiveness
Because text messages are quick to respond, many businesses prefer SMS marketing. Even better, they manage to reach 67% of the consumers, which is an impressive reach.
Another way for local businesses to leverage SMS marketing is to allow customers to make and confirm appointments through text messages.
It’s worked in the past – 44% of the consumers schedule their appointments through SMS – and it’s bound to work in the future.
Having said that, 53.75% of the marketers and business owners consider fast delivery to be the most significant benefit of SMS marketing.
Thus, the sooner local businesses jump on board, the better it will be for ROI and customer engagement.
Future Trends in SMS Marketing
SMS will be an important means of communication for businesses in the future. Conversational commerce is gaining significant momentum and will come into play in your business – if it hasn’t already.
Basically, this refers to having one-on-one conversations with your customers right where they are. We’re already seeing this in Facebook Messenger, Google Messenger, and Website chat. The ability to meet the customer where they are is resulting in higher conversion rates, and higher customer satisfaction.
For instance, your prospects or clients can ask about services you offer, insurance plans you accept, or caregiver recommendations for specific medical conditions.
Although it’s non-promotional, it helps generate revenue and bring more customers into the loop.
Links in SMS
Sending links via SMS is another upcoming trend. In fact, the CTA is associated with the link. For instance, if you’re a Home Care agency, you can send Care questionnaires or home modification checklists to client families through SMS.
Similarly, businesses will be sending links for promotional offers, their social media pages, contests, and websites.
Rich Communication Services
Rich Communication Services is a messaging technology that will allow businesses to add features like inserting maps, videos, or checklists into text messages.
For instance, for In-Home care providers, you can send a map to your office location to families seeking care for a loved one. Similarly, you can can send area maps to show customers the proximity of your business to other nearby locations
However, this may become a trend later in the future, since only 8.1% of the global mobile phone networks have adopted it so far.
In Conclusion
The speed and effectiveness of SMS marketing make it a top choice for reaching out to customers. As far as the open rate and return on investment are concerned, it’s actually the best.
If you’d like to learn more about using SMS marketing to communicate instantly with potential clients visitng your website, Facebook page, or Google My Business listing, all from a single dashboard and phone app, contact us today!