What You Need to Know About SMS Campaigns

Most marketing channels are expensive, difficult to use, and subject to changing algorithms. That’s not even the worst part: they don’t deliver results for your business. You hope they’re working, even if everything is telling you they aren’t. 

That’s not true for text campaigns.

If you have a list of SMS contacts, then you can send an SMS campaign during breakfast. Before your coffee has gone cold, you’ll see new sales.

Why else does Coca-Cola use 70% of its entire mobile marketing budget on SMS marketing? SMS campaigns drive ongoing, tangible results, and ROI every day. And it’s not only for brands that buy Superbowl ads. Companies of all sizes, in every industry that you can think of, run SMS marketing campaigns.

If you’re interested in running your first SMS campaign but don’t know how to get started, then this article is for you.

What Is an SMS Campaign?

An SMS Campaign allows you to communicate with customers through text messages. SMS campaigns can share similarities with email marketing, but are more convenient and personal for the recipient. This is because texting is so widely accepted as a common method of communication with friends and family. 

A successful SMS campaign drives action, engagement, and sales while keeping the message clear and concise. SMS campaigns can notify conacts of upcoming promotions, product launches, events, and time-sensitive flash sales.

To send an SMS campaign, organizations rely on SMS marketing software. All it takes is the click of a button, and you can send as many text messages as you want, which is way easier than hoping a customer notices an ad in passing.

Are SMS Messages Effective?

Did you know that in the US we spend three hours on our phone every day? It’s no wonder that SMS open rates are 98%. If you are skeptical of industry studies that tout these statistics, we get it. So, here are some results that our customers have achieved.

• One of Amazon’s top supplement brands, Eu Natural, earned a 563% ROI with one SMS campaign.
• Whisker Seeker Tackle routinely sees a 25% conversion rate from its SMS campaigns.
• Aubrey’s Bead Closet uses SMS campaigns to drive a 400% increase in mobile web traffic.

The key takeaway is that SMS messages help businesses achieve extraordinary results. The combination of high open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates is unbeatable.

How Do SMS Campaigns Work?

Let’s dive into how you can send your first SMS campaign in four easy steps.

1. Choose a Text Marketing Software

First things first, you’re going to need a text marketing software as your cellphone won’t do the job. This is because your phone’s messaging app only lets you text around ten people at once. It also provides no way for recipients to unsubscribe from messages. (Our 14-day free trial of SimpleTexting is an excellent, zero-commitment, way to send your first SMS campaign.)

2. Choose a Phone Number

There are several different phone number options you can choose. For sending text blasts, you can use dedicated short codes, registered local numbers, and toll-free numbers.

Both local and toll-free numbers are versatile types of numbers that can support mass messaging and 2-way communication. This provides you with flexibility should you decide you want to start providing text-based customer service or sales. Just don’t forget to have your toll-free number verified to avoid traffic disruptions from carriers.

You can learn more about choosing the right phone number in this guide.

3. Build an SMS Contact List

Once you’ve signed up for a text marketing software, you’re going to need to start collecting phone numbers. After all, if you don’t have any phone numbers, you won’t be able to reach customers via text. Even if you have customers’ phone numbers, you’re going to need to get their permission to text them marketing messages (more on that below). There are a bunch of different ways that you can do this so your customers can start receiving text messages.

Keywords

Keywords are a word or phrase that customers can text to your number to subscribe to your SMS texts. For example, a company that sells running gear online might ask customers to text “RUN” to 538657. They will then be able to send an SMS campaign to these contacts.

Once you create a keyword, you can then email this keyword to your email list or promote it on social media.

RUN

Hey there! As a special thank you for joining the Run Family, enter code RUN20 at checkout for 20% off your next order! http://text.tl/mJPLPM

Web Forms

You can turn your website visitors into text contacts with a web form.  You can build one in a matter of minutes with SimpleTexting.

Mobile Sign-up Widget

Our mobile sign-up widget makes it easy for visitors to your website to text in your keyword. 

When visitors click on a trigger button, it opens a pop-up with more information on your text marketing program. When they click the button within the pop-up, their native text app is open with the keyword and number prefilled. All they have to do is send the message.

Take a look at how it works.

Import

If you already have a list of contacts, and express consent to text them, then you are good to go! With SimpleTexting, you don’t have to add contacts one at a time. Instead, upload a CSV or Excel file with the names and numbers.

4. Send Your First SMS Campaign

This 90-second video explains how easy it is to send your first SMS campaign.

The processing of sending an SMS campaign will differ depending on what platform you use. All you need is a call to action that fits into 160 characters and a list of SMS contacts to send your first campaign.

Getting Consent for an SMS Campaign

We wrote an entire guide SMS campaign compliance. If you want the key takeaways, here they are.

1. You need to get your contacts to provide explicit consent to receive your SMS campaigns. This is the case even if you are importing existing contacts who have never provided consent to text them.

2. You need to provide a CTA that includes your company’s name, contact information, description of the texts people are signing up for, and opt-out instructions in bold type.

3. Regardless of how users sign up, your first text to them must be a compliance message confirming their subscription. It should reiterate your identity, message frequency, the fact that message and data rates may apply, and how to opt out. 

With SimpleTexting, we’ve made this process automatic, i.e., every time a new user subscribes to one of your lists, we send out the required disclosures.

How To Track the Results of an SMS Campaign?

SimpleTexting allows you to track your campaign performance with our built-in analytics tools. At a glance, you can see how many new contacts you’ve gained, the number of contacts clicking links in your texts, and the number of messages sent per list.

SMS can be one of the most effective channels to reach your audience. By taking a couple of small and straightforward steps, you suddenly have access to where your customers spend most of their time. 

Given this, it’s essential to respect this access and not blow up their phone. By providing value and being considerate, you’ll stand out from your competition.