Marketers relentlessly look for ways to improve mobile engagement with customers. Several studies prove mobile as an effective platform for driving purchases. Keeping customers satisfied and happily engaged is something every brand and business wants to champion. It's easier said than done, so many businesses look for a top text message marketing service to partner with.
A growing number of mobile consumers prefer and appreciate the ease of access from a simple link in a text message. The simplicity and ubiquity of text messaging have enabled it to emerge as a differentiated business-to-consumer engagement channel, and it offers several benefits to marketers looking to engage target shoppers on their mobile devices, ensuring their preference and convenience are respected.
While many marketers are still playing catch-up with mobile engagement, several recent trends suggest convenience holds the key in deepening mobile engagement and responding to consumer expectations. Text messaging is one such proven approach, and it's a highly effective engagement strategy for mobile marketers.
7 benefits of text message marketing
Text message marketing software is now used widely as a strategic component by retailers and brands for a wide range of mobile marketing use cases. Here are some successful examples and use cases of how text message marketing delivers a unique advantage to businesses.
1. Text messages have high open and response rates.
Consumers are constantly on their mobile devices, making it an easy platform to reach them on. Marketing-related text messages have an incredibly high open rate of about 99%, compared to the average email open rate, which is closer to 30%. Also, as mobile consumers place a considerable premium on convenience and simplicity, text messages are likely to command much higher – and faster – response rates than other approaches such as email or app notifications.
2. You can take advantage of mobile coupons.
The mobile channel has become the first point of interaction between consumers and brands. No wonder marketers saw a tremendous opportunity in leveraging this trend to send tailored promotions and loyalty rewards such as mobile coupons. Interestingly, with the mobile customer's journey becoming mature, more consumers have come to prefer receiving mobile coupons over paper coupons.
A recent study on mobile coupons that surveyed 1,200 consumers highlights the urgency text messages deliver. The survey found that 60% of consumers said they would redeem a mobile coupon received via text within a week, and 25% planned redemption within three days. Findings underscore a useful context to understand consumers' preference to store and redeem mobile coupons from their phones – with more than half preferring a text message with a link to the coupon.
3. It increases loyalty program engagement.
Making loyalty programs accessible via mobile devices is the most effective way to drive member engagement. Adding strong evidence to this is recent consumer loyalty research that shows 75% of consumers confirming their willingness to participate and reply to loyalty program alerts if they could access the program easily from a smartphone. Such data provides key insights in taking a great step in the right direction to appeal to consumers who want to engage with loyalty programs from their smartphones via text messages.
A growing number of consumers prefer accessing rewards information from a link in a text message rather than through an app. Evidence consistently suggests that many companies use apps for mobile loyalty, but more members prefer text engagement over apps.
4. It is a cost-effective form of marketing.
Text message marketing can be a highly cost-effective marketing method. This is because the only costs associated with this method of marketing involve using a text message service, which you most likely already have for your company anyhow. When compared to other types of marketing, this makes text message marketing an inexpensive alternative that yields great results.
5. Consumers can easily opt in and out.
Another benefit of text message marketing is that it is easy to opt in as well as opt out. Many businesses get the word out when customers visit websites as well as physical locations. By simply asking if the customer would like to receive special offers, coupons, etc. Via text message, you can convince many customers to subscribe to your text message marketing service. Alternatively, if they no longer wish to be sent text messages from your company, opting out is as easy as either clicking a link or texting a few words to the sending
6. Delivery is direct and immediate.
According to Smart Insights, one of the greatest benefits is that text message marketing is direct and immediate. In particular, text message marketing offers a read rate of 97% within 15 minutes of delivery, making it one of the best methods of marketing with minimal costs. Not only will most customers read your messages almost immediately, but 45% of mobile marketing campaigns generate a successful ROI.
7. It can integrate with other channels.
Text message marketing can easily be integrated with other channels. Although it can work as a stand-alone marketing method, it can also serve to enhance and support other marketing methods. For instance, you can use text message marketing to alert your customers to sales that may be advertised on social media platforms, to remind them to check and respond to emails, etc.
Best text message marketing solutions
If you've decided that text message marketing is right for your business, there are several great text message marketing services you can choose from. The best one for your company will depend on what features you need and how big your target audience is. You will also want to look at considerations such as affordability, scalability, usability, and customer service.
To help narrow down your search, we spent hours researching and analyzing the best text message marketing services available. Here are a few of our top choices:
- Podium: This all-in-one messaging platform is our choice as the easiest text message marketing service to use. The platform comes with one central inbox that lets you communicate with customers and ask for feedback through text messages. It is also great for review management, allowing you to respond to online reviews in real time. For more information, check out our Podium review.
- Textedly: If your small business is looking for an affordable text message marketing platform, consider using Textedly. With multiple plan options, free trials, and free incoming text messages, this service is especially ideal for growing businesses. You can access features like mass group texting, cross-program integration and custom keywords to reach your target audience. For more information, check out our review of Textedly.
- TextMarks: If premium customer service is your top priority, TextMarks is an ideal text message marketing solution. In addition to useful features like two-way messaging, mass texts, dedicated short codes and open APIs, this cloud-based platform comes with a top-rated customer support team. The friendly and responsive support team is available at any time to help you navigate the platform. For more information, check out our full review of TextMarks.
Summary
As businesses, brands, and consumers move further toward a mobile-first world, there is a growing preference among consumers to connect with businesses in the same way they do with their social contacts, including family and friends. Text messaging is not only growing more powerful but is also more relevant for marketers and retailers.
With brands vying to deliver greater digital experiences with mobile devices, texting certainly emerges as an easier, faster and far more productive engagement vehicle than other methods. Marketers can use text messaging, and pack it with surprises, delights and rewards and serve it to the mobile consumer, ensuring elements of choice and convenience are given due respect to earn customer equity and loyalty, thereby resulting in continued engagement and revenue.
Texting began as a simple tactic, largely applied for nonstrategic and small-scale communication activities. Fast forward to today, text messaging has become the most preferred method for brand communications and a must-have ingredient in the marketing toolkit for retailers.