When it comes to marketing it’s not surprising that bulk SMS is not on their top 5 list in fact it’s typically not on any list, anywhere.
Gary Vaynerchuck who is one of the most sought-after digital marketing experts inside the social media space said that SMS is something that no one is talking about.
This is a guy who is a leader in digital marketing switching gears and jumping over to a technology that has been around since the ’90s!
According to smspapa.com.au using bulk SMS you can expect to get open rates, marketers, only dream of at around 98% and engagement rates of up to 90%.
If you’re a savvy business owner or marketer then seeing Gary Vee’s open and engagement rates should already be getting you excited and there’s probably little point in reading the rest of the article.
For those who don’t quite understand the implications of having such a high open-rate this article is for you.
Gary believes in it so much he invested his own money in two SMS marketing companies targeting celebrities who want to use SMS to reach their fans.
Ashton Kutcher is one such celeb using SMS to engage his fanbase.
Personally, I think not having SMS (short message service) as a part of your marketing mix is a huge mistake.
In this article, I’ll outline exactly why bulk SMS is an absolution must-have for any small business serious about reaching customers in 2024 and beyond.
SMS Has 98% Open Rates
Bulk SMS old technology, yes and is very simple and not very sexy, I get it.
But if you don’t care about looks and are only interested in driving sales revenue then who cares.
The number one challenge advertising and marketing in general is getting people to read your marketing message.
Most marketers even high-profile ones say the “offer” is the most important part of any promotion.
I disagree.
I say the open rate is the most important part.
Think about it. If no one opens your marketing then your campaign is done.
It doesn’t matter how amazing your offer is, you could be giving away all of your products for 90% off, it doesn’t matter, no ones going to buy anything because they didn’t open your message to see the offer.
Even if you have a mediocre offer you can make the sales numbers work just by having more people see the offer in the first place.
The more people who open your marketing message the more your sales will increase – it’s just basic math.
Take email marketing for example. Email marketing on average will give you 20% open rates, that’s a horrible open rate yet most companies still use email to generate sales.
Imagine using bulk SMS and getting 98% of people to open that same promotion?
That’s more than 4.5x more people being exposed to that offer – do you think your sales will increase?
Customer Database
Just like email, bulk text messaging allows you to build a subscriber list.
Building a customer database is one of the most intelligent things any business can do because it allows you to drive sales during slow months – you’re not just relying on people to come in.
You just send a text message and within a few short moments, you can start driving people towards your offer or event.
While working as marketing manager for an Italian restaurant we would send out SMS promotions on Mondays or Tuesdays because they were traditionally our slowest nights.
We would send out a bulk SMS marketing campaign to our list and over the next 60 minutes, we’d be booking tables like crazy.
Before SMS we’d try Instagram posts and Facebook ads to try and get people in on those slow nights nut it was really hit or miss.
With SMS we were able to know that could get anywhere from 70-100% of our tables booked from a single campaign.
Bulk SMS Is NOT Online (That’s A Good Thing!)
Today’s businesses seem to be only interested in using digital marketing channels even though the metrics across the board for digital is average at best.
Here are just some of the things you need to deal with when using online marketing strategies:
Algorithm updates – if you’re using SEO then you need to constantly be worried about whether the next Google update will wipe your business traffic out overnight.
Policy changes – if you’re using the main advertising networks then you need to adhere to their advertising policies.
It is their ad platform Afterall but talks to business owners and marketers who have had their Facebook ad accounts shut down for no reason – it has happened to me a few times and it’s a hassle trying to get it reactivated again.
SPAM filters – if you’re involved in email marketing then you know that a big part of your job is to avoid having your email promotion slammed into the SPAM folder or “promotions” tab.
Did you know that there over 400 words considered spam and that if you use them in combination could get your email binned?
One of them is “click here”.
Bulk SMS is not an online channel so you don’t need to be concerned with these campaign crushing barriers.
This is why SMS has nearly 100% delivery rates, there are no spam filters or sender scores ready to block most of your campaigns.
There are no strict advertising polices to cancel your SMS campaign because you used the word “weight loss” inside your message because that word could “offend” someone on your list.
Unlike email where only 20% of people will actually open your campaign, yes, even though they signed up to hear from you, the SPAM filters are going to decide whether they will actually get to read your marketing message or not.
SMS gives you maximum access to the people who subscribed to get messages from you – this is the way it should be.
With SMS you get a chance to create your own platform for you to monetize.
