Text Message Marketing to Grow Your Business

If you’re not using text message marketing yet, you probably should be. After all, over 90% of Americans keep their smartphones within arm’s reach at all times.

Text marketing, or SMS marketing, is one of the latest trends businesses use to maintain contact and increase customer engagement. In fact, studies have found that over 90% of text messages received are opened and read within the first 3 seconds.

Compare that to email marketing’s average open rate of 18% and push notification’s click-through rate of 2.25%, and text messaging is the clear winner.

Use SMS Marketing to Get Reviews

Reviews of your business are extremely important. Ninety-three percent of consumers claimed to read reviews before deciding to purchase from a business, and for many consumers, anything lower than a four-star review is a sign of an untrustworthy business.

Getting reviews, whether your business is established or just starting up, can be a challenge. To combat this, you can leverage text message marketing and get your customers to leave reviews. At Catapult, we’ve developed our own text marketing app called Kydos to help businesses connect with customers through text messaging.

[Related: How to Ask Customers for Reviews]

Send Coupons & Sales Texts

Seventy-seven percent of customers who opt into text message marketing do so specifically for special coupons and exclusive sales.

Use text messages to send reminders of sales or special discounts to customers that sign up for your SMS marketing. Send your text marketing audience to specific mobile landing pages that are optimized for conversions and specific products. You can even help increase click-through rates by 39% if you use branded shortened URLs.

Confirm Appointments Through Texts

Maintaining a relationship with your customers is a must. If your business provides a service or requires an appointment, sending appointment confirmations and reminders is a fantastic way to keep cancellations down. Texting about appointments has a greater chance of engagement than sending an email that will inevitably get lost in your customers’ inbox. Bonus points if you personalize the text with their name.

Follow-Up Texts to Contact Form Completers

When a website visitor fills out your contact form, send them a quick follow-up text asking if they have any questions or a simple yes/no question about their business or service they requested information about. Or even give them the option to set up an appointment. You can also send them a brief explanation of the service they requested information on and send them to a special mobile landing page with more information.

[Related: Good Practices to Keep Clients]

Text Marketing Drip Campaigns & Automation

Using automation to send birthday & holiday texts can help maintain a relationship with customers, especially if your texts include special promo codes. But you can utilize texting automation for drip campaigns. A drip campaign utilizes automation to send pre-written messages to customers and leads over time. Utilize SMS marketing to follow up on leads that may have slipped through and try to bring them back in.

Text message marketing is a powerful tool for businesses and should be utilized, but it should be used the right way. Make sure you get permission to send SMS messages to your customers and develop a strategy for your SMS marketing endeavors. If your business needs to talk strategy, contact Catapult today for a free quote, and don’t forget to check out our text marketing platform, Kydos!

Devin Barnes is a Data Analyst at Catapult Creative Media. He is a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University with a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies focusing on Marketing and Music. When Devin’s not working, he enjoys playing original music and spending time with his dogs.

Work with Catapult Creative Media Inc. Catapult Creative Media Inc. is a digital marketing and design agency serving clients over the United States but is proud to call Baton Rouge, Louisiana home. Founded in 2007, Catapult provides digital, social and mobile marketing solutions backed by relevant strategy and measurable results. Catapult works the web to their clients’ advantage, launching them to their next level of success.