Are you looking for a new way to engage and convert customers on the move? SMS is your top pick. It might be surprising, but this widely known communication method is becoming a crucial part of multi-channel marketing strategies implemented by major players.
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Despite the popularity of the format, many digital marketing agencies fail to incorporate SMS into their core offering. Needless to say, their clients are missing out on a serious ROI boost from their marketing campaigns.
Here’s a guide to help you make the most out of SMS in your marketing campaign by aligning your social media marketing strategy with this format.
Why SMS?
Why is SMS worth your attention at all? Let’s have a look at some statistics.
The read rate of SMS is a smashing 97% within 15 minutes delivery. SMS is an incredibly immediate channel, and you can be sure that your target audience reads your messages.
45% of SMS campaigns generate a successful ROI.
Combined with other channels like email and social media, the ROI is bound to exceed 50%. For example, you can use SMS to remind customers to read an email you sent before. A simple message can increase email open rates by 20–30%!
SMS is incredibly efficient for gathering customer feedback. On average, a third of consumers will respond to a survey via SMS within a little more than 5 minutes. You can count on getting plenty of data in a very short time.
Finally, SMS is a traceable channel that helps to monitor delivery rates, track customer engagement, and deliver meaningful ROI reports.
Using this analytics, you’ll be able to develop a better understanding of your mobile client database, profiling and segmenting it into groups that are likely to respond through different channels.
Now that you know why SMS can be such a valuable addition to your marketing strategy, here are 7 ways to help you merge your social media and SMS marketing campaign for a serious conversion rate boost.
1. How To Include Social Content In Your SMS?
Facebook introduced Open Graph meta tags in 2010 and it has since become an industry standard for integrating content from social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Be it article links, images, or body text, using Open Graph meta tags helps to preserve your marketing message by ensuring that your content can be traced back to its original source as it’s being shared and reshared on social media.
That’s why you should make sure that your SMS messages include Open Graph meta tags to boost the circulation of your content across these different channels.
Customers who receive your SMS should be able to easily share it with their friends through popular social media platforms.
2. Increase SMS Opt-ins
Have a look at your list of followers or subscribers.
These are the people who are interested in your marketing messages.
Let them know that you’re running an SMS campaign through social media posts and newsletters.
Entice them to leave you their number and participate in your campaign. That’s a simple and free method for increasing your SMS opt-ins.
3. Attract Customers To Your Social Campaigns With SMS
If you’re running a giveaway on Facebook or have an interesting promotion going on over on Instagram, you can use SMS as a hook to your social channels.
It’s good to remind customers that something exciting is happening on your social channels.
Users who don’t check their social apps every day might miss out on your calls to action or special promotions. But they will look at their phones, at one point or another.
That’s why SMS is such a powerful tool of communication to drive these users to your social media content and boost the ROI on your social media campaigns.
4. Create A Sense Of Urgency
If you’re running a limited-time offer on your social media channels, making sure that plenty of people see it before the time runs out is a huge challenge.
Send out a text message reminding your subscribers about the deadline. Encourage your mobile subscribers to engage with the offer presented on your social channels.
That’s how you create a sense of urgency that will motive them to go straight to the landing page and participate in the offer.
With limited-time offers, customers will greatly appreciate getting this type of alert.
5. Track Your Channels With Different Keywords
How to know which channels work best for specific promotions?
Create different keywords for each of your channels and track their performance.
For example, ask your customers from your social channels to use a specific keyword that unlocks a promotion. Create another one for people who access the promotion via SMS.
Sending different keywords to different consumer groups, you’ll be able to track the performance of your campaigns and analyze the effectiveness of different communication channels for your marketing efforts.
6. Craft Different Messages For Your Channels
If you plan to integrate SMS into your social media marketing, remember that consumers have different expectations regarding communication styles on different channels.
For example, if someone receives a text message, the expectation is that they’ll be able to read it quickly. If you’d like to share content which is too lengthy for an SMS, use a different channel.
Post a full-length promotional video to Facebook and Instagram, and use a specialized feature to offer a shortened version of the same video to text users.
7. Promote SMS Offers On Social Media
If you’re running special promotions for your SMS subscribers, it’s smart to let your social media communities know as well.
Be it a special discount or a hand-picked promotion, an exclusive deal will motivate your followers to subscribe to your SMS list.
But they first need to learn about it, and social media is just perfect for promoting the benefits of your SMS subscription service. That’s where you should encourage your target audience to sign up.
Key Takeaway
If you introduce SMS into your marketing strategy, don’t forget to ensure that your target audience knows how to properly opt-in and that standard data messaging rates may apply in calls to action that require your followers to send an SMS.
Once you’re sure that your SMS campaigns are done in a compliant manner, you’re ready to combine social media and SMS into one powerful multi-channel strategy that brings you plenty of conversions and helps you develop a strong community of followers.
