Is a text message marketing campaign right for your business?

Texting has surpassed phone calls as the preferred method of communication. Don’t believe it. How many times have you found yourself not answering an incoming call only to text the person who was trying to call and asking what they were calling for. Texting is preferred because it’s convenient. When we’re busy and we don’t want to get drawn into a phone conversation, we sometimes text instead because it’s fast, convenient, and easy to keep things to the point. We also have a little more freedom to ignore or respond a text on our own timetable whereas several minutes of silence during a phone call would be socially frowned upon. All of this adds up to a startling statistic: Americans spend twice as much time texting as they do talking. What does this mean for businesses? If you want to reach Americans, the best way to do so is through their mobile phones and the best channel is SMS, or texting. Here are a few other things you should consider.

Text message marketing is extremely effective when done right

While open rates for promotional emails have dipped below 20%, the open rate for text messages has remained constant at about 98%. Not only are people far more likely to open and read your message when you sent it via text instead of email, they’re more likely to take action on it as well. If you include a link to your website, an invitation to like your Facebook page, or a link to an online directory like Yelp or Google where customers can write reviews, only about 3.5% of people will click on it if it’s included in an email. If it’s sent via text, that number is about 35%. People are literally ten times more likely to click on a link via text. If you send a coupon or some other special offer via text instead of email, people are approximately four times as likely to redeem that coupon or offer.

Cost of text message marketing

Not only is text message marketing one of the most effective mobile channels, it’s one of the least expensive as well. The exact cost can vary widely according to one bulk SMS platform you use and what features they offer. It works out to just a few pennies per text message and the cost per text is a little lower the more texts you’re sending.

Getting started

Finally, text message marketing is a great introductory channel for mobile because it’s one of the easiest to learn. You can sign up with a bulk SMS platform that automates opt-ins and opt-outs for you so you’re compliant with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). You select your keyword and shortcode and compose the text messages. Then you simply set the time for the message to send, the SMS platform does everything else. They also give you metrics which you can use to track the effectiveness of your efforts.

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Source: business.com/articles/text-message-marketing-for-retailers/