SMS Marketing Service

Text message marketing is a highly effective, quick, and easy way to reach customers. More than 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of being received, so your audience will almost always see your messages. Text message marketing messages are also effective because they’re so easy to personalize, making the customer feel seen and valued, and thus more likely to engage with your business.

Businesses should use text message marketing whenever they have quick, pertinent information to distribute to their audiences, such as a new discount code, an update on store hours, or information about an event. Try to send them only during normal business hours, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., in a customer’s time zone.

Text message marketing is important because it opens a clear, dedicated line of communication between the customer and your business. It also allows you to customize all the messages you send to your target audience, which can improve customer satisfaction, engagement and your brand reputation.

While the precise steps to create a text campaign depend on your provider, the basic steps are the same across most platforms:

1. Create an account.
2. Activate your account.
3. Create or import a contact group.
4. Write a message and select the recipient(s).
5. Send your message to the selected contact or group.
6. Monitor your campaign’s performance with the service’s analytics.

It is not necessary to train all of your employees in text message marketing. Focus on training only those who will be responsible for creating and managing the campaigns. They should understand how to create campaigns, choose contacts, manage analytics and troubleshoot minor issues.

Using text message marketing can show new customers that your business is committed to customer support and a personalized customer experience. This can enhance your credibility.

Your existing customers can benefit from your text messages if you keep them in the loop about deals, opportunities and news from your business. These updates keep your business on their minds and, especially if you offer them special deals for being loyal customers, incentivize them to keep buying from you.

While prices vary by provider, text message marketing services typically offer a variety of monthly or annual plans starting at around $20 to $40 a month and reaching $2,000 to $4,000 per month for advanced services. The price will also depend on the number of messages and keywords your business requires each month.

Yes, it is legal to send messages to customers via SMS — as long as your company follows the rules set forth by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC’s two primary laws, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the CAN-SPAM Act, are designed to protect consumers from unsolicited messages if they opt out or block a number. Penalties range from $500 to $1,500 per violation.

Companies that wish to send marketing text messages to customers must obtain express written consent from each individual number on their marketing list. According to the TCPA, the terms of consent must be “clear and conspicuous” so customers understand exactly what they are agreeing to when they provide their phone number. The most common way to get consent is by having a consumer provide their phone number on an online or written form that includes the required terms.

On average, about 98% of text messages are opened, proving the utility of text message marketing. Compared to the smaller 20% of email marketing messages that are opened, there may be a case for refocusing marketing outreach to target the larger percentage of people opening an SMS. 

There are two important steps to follow to track and ensure the success of a text message marketing campaign. First, confirm that the messages you’ve sent were delivered. Analyze your rate of delivery success. Then, use a tool like Google Analytics to track how many people visited your website from the SMS message you sent.