SMS marketing is an underrated marketing strategy, but it is one of the most effective.

Text messages have been used to communicate for more than 3 decades now and it is still a means of communication that is actively used today. In fact, 95% of the people who are online still use messaging platforms like SMS for texting.

This makes it a great marketing channel that you should use to promote your products and services.

Here are 7 reasons why you should use SMS messaging to market your brand or business: 

1. High Open Rate and ROI

Research shows that 90% of text messages are read/opened in the first 3 minutes after they are delivered. Meanwhile, 97% of them are read/opened in the first 15 minutes.

That’s an incredible percentage. 

Imagine using a marketing strategy that offers almost 100% visibility to every single prospect or customer you send it to.

To make it even more impressive, data from Sakari SMS Benchmarks show that SMS campaigns usually have around 45% response rates. They also have between 19% and 36% click-through rates. However, these rates heavily depend on the industry and the time the messages are delivered.

These rates are a lot higher than the average rates gotten from email marketing.

Standard email marketing campaigns get around 20% to 33% open rates. Meanwhile, their average click-through rates are between 2% and 3.5%.

You can clearly see that SMS marketing outperforms email marketing by a very wide margin.

2. Fast Delivery and Interaction

In this age, a mobile phone is most likely the first thing that most people check when they wake up. They also keep tabs on each notification that makes their screen light up. 

This is why SMS marketing is an effective marketing strategy. 

Unlike emails, SMS messages usually pop up on screens immediately when they are delivered, and they aren’t hidden in crowded tabs.

That’s one of the major reasons why it has such high open rates and conversion rates.

The speed at which SMS messages are delivered and engaged with makes them effective tools for sales offers, flash sales, and project updates.

3. Works Well With Other Marketing Channels

To get the best out of SMS marketing, you need to combine it with other marketing channels. This could be email marketing, social media marketing, or SEO.

Just ensure you make it part of a larger marketing strategy. So that while SMS marketing offers personalized updates and reminders, social media marketing can boost awareness, and email marketing can offer more detailed marketing promotions.

The goal is to boost sales and revenue, so all these strategies should work together towards that goal.

4. Cost Effectiveness

Compared to other marketing strategies, SMS marketing is a very cost-effective method. 

The best part is, despite the low cost it takes to implement it, it still guarantees a high ROI.

This is one of the major reasons why you should use SMS marketing. It costs you less but earns you more.

5. Ease of Implementation and Automation

The process of implementing SMS marketing is a simple one. The same goes for the process of automating it. We can confidently say it is one of the easiest marketing strategies to start and implement.

By implementing and automating this strategy, you can send personalized messages to your customers effectively.

A tool like MailChimp enables you to segment your customers and automatically deliver SMS messages to them. It also helps you track the performance of your SMS campaign.

6. Two-way Conversations

SMS messages enable two-way conversations, and this can benefit you in a lot of ways.

First of all, it serves as a great relationship builder. When you can talk to your customers and they can communicate back to you directly, it can build a meaningful relationship with them over time.

Secondly, the relationships built through these conversations can play a key role in helping you turn prospects into new customers and new customers into repeat customers.

Thirdly, it gives your customers a choice to decide whether to continue the service or end it. This will help you separate disinterested people from those who are really interested in your products and services.

Lastly, the ability to use SMS messaging for two-way conversations also makes it a great tool for customer service.

Your customers can use the channel to contact you directly, send you feedback, and leave complaints.

7. Easy To Track and Measure

You can easily track and measure the performance of SMS campaigns. This data tells you how your campaigns performed and helps you know the areas you need to improve to get better results going forward.

Final Thoughts

No matter what your industry is, SMS marketing is an effective marketing channel you can use to promote your products and services. It is cost-effective and simple to implement, has wide reach, delivers fast, has high ROI, builds trust, and works well with other marketing channels.

So, if you are not using SMS to market your business yet, this is your sign to start.