SMS Marketing. Getting it right through ‘Good Practice’.

Why Use SMS for Marketing Campaigns?

One of the main benefits of SMS (Short Message Service) marketing is how quickly it reaches users. In contrast to other forms of messaging, customers are far more likely to read and engage with a text the moment they receive it.
Text message marketing sends customers short, actionable messages containing promotional links, reminders, discount offers, and more. SMS is cost-effective and leads to a higher conversion rate than all other forms of written marketing.

Considering all this, you need to ensure you maximise the opportunity by following our ‘best practice’ guide for SMS marketing.

As mentioned above, SMS boasts greater immediacy and attention than other digital marketing methods. The interaction rates are undeniable:

• The open rate for SMS is above 95%. Push notifications pale in comparison, 3.10% for Android and 2.38% for iOS, and targeted Facebook Ads reach only 2% of their targeted audience.
• Response rates for push notifications, which require an app install, can take up to an hour, as opposed to only 3 seconds with an SMS message.

Enterprise companies in all verticals and sectors – including healthcare services, retail, gaming, finance, and many more utilise SMS marketing. Even small businesses, from Hairdressers and garages to Dentists, use SMS to send booking requests, reminders, and coupons directly to customers’ mobile devices. Plus, with some SMS platforms, you can engage customers even more by sending Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) picture messages, emojis, calendar invites, polls, and surveys.

Before we impart our knowledge and top ‘best practice’ tips, here is some additional information to help you better understand why we follow our best practice guide.

SMS marketing is a highly effective way to communicate with your customers. It strengthens customer engagement, works well alongside other marketing strategies, and is supported on all mobile devices (of which there are Billions). In addition, it is cost-effective and has a considerably higher open rate than emails.

The advantages of SMS are:

• SMS is widely used. Unlike most other instant messaging apps and social chat platforms, SMS is not an app and does not require downloading or updating.
• Around 95% of SMS messages are opened, and 90% are read within 3 minutes of receipt, meaning any call to action included in the messages is immediately actioned.
• Extremely cost-effective. You can reach each consumer for pennies or less. But average prices range between £30 and a couple of hundred pounds per month for thousands of text messages.
• SMS marketing is easily integrated into your marketing strategy
• It is reliable.
• SMS is versatile.

What are the rules and best practices for effective SMS marketing?

Use these SMS marketing best practices to maximise the efficiency of your SMS campaigns:

1. Identify yourself. Make your identity known, as customers need to know who sends them SMS text messages. Other marketing methods than SMS marketing provide more immediate brand visibility. Instead of a firm email address or smartphone app logo, clients have a random phone number to go to when they receive a text message from a business. Identify your business to the customer in every text using this marketing method.

2. Respect privacy and security concerns. Be aware that people are hesitant to click on links coming from unknown phone numbers. Optimise your messaging to offer verifiable evidence that you represent the company you claim to represent to promote a higher click-through rate. Avoid texting requests for credit card numbers or other transactional data. Additionally, for a more individualised touch, it’s beneficial to pick an SMS marketing service provider that sends out individual rather than group texts.

3. Ask customers to opt-in to receive messages. SMS marketing texts must be understood as a two-way conversation from the first text you send to a new client. From the beginning of your engagement, provide every consumer with a clear choice to accept or reject upcoming SMS messages. You can programme an autoresponder to give them a follow-up confirmation if they answer positively. To determine whether you can change your messaging to attract more opt-ins, keep watching your positive versus negative response rates.

4. Time your messages well. Consider the time zones of your customers while using SMS marketing messages. You’ll have a better chance of boosting brand awareness by ensuring that updates reach your users’ smartphones while awake. You can still send out bulk SMS messages, but to ensure you do it at predetermined hours or without any restrictions or controls, employ software that can search contact databases. Operating a consistent drip campaign over a prolonged period is preferable rather than continuously barraging the customer with updates and promos.

5. Offer immediate value. Use the immediacy of SMS marketing to offer your customers a sense of real-time value. Please provide them with a timely call to action (CTA). For instance, you could announce a short-term discount on a new product or information about a flash sale. These mobile marketing solutions to customer needs can quickly generate conversions and foster a more efficient and enjoyable customer experience.

6. Provide an opportunity to unsubscribe. Just as potential customers need to be able to opt-in to receive text messages initially, current SMS subscribers need the option to stop receiving messages at any given point. Ultimately, it’s better for both you and your customers to view SMS messages as welcome surprises instead of intrusive pop-ups. Marketing automation tools make unsubscribing easy for both companies and customers. SMS marketing platforms can automatically log new and cancelled subscriptions, streamlining the general workflow.

7. Use texts for real-time updates. In your SMS marketing efforts, use this tool for its innate ability to offer time-sensitive updates and reminders. Your SMS marketing service provider can offer customers abandoned cart updates, appointment reminders, general notifications, order confirmations, and information about pricing changes.

8. Ensure the numbers you are contacting have opted-in to receive messages from you.

What is SMS delivery rate?

The proportion of sent SMS and MMS messages that reach their intended recipient is known as SMS Delivery. While SMS delivery might sometimes relate to the status of a particular message, it often measures the proportion of messages delivered as opposed to those intended.

How to improve SMS and MMS message deliverability
1. Clean your contact list.
2. Set up double opt-in to your subscriber list.
3. Don’t send spam messages.
4. Don’t send bulk SMS too fast.
5. Avoid sending links from domains you don’t control.
6. Two-way text with your customers.
7. Is it under 160 characters, including spaces?
8. Is your SMS going to the planned audience?
9. Is the mobile number formatted correctly?
10. Have you validated the number to ensure it is live on a network?
11. Personalise your SMS.
12. Create your send ID.
13. Do you want a reply? If so, a virtual mobile number is required.

What makes a good SMS?
You should make sure the text’s purpose is obvious. Provide instructions on how the recipient can use the information you’ve supplied if you want them to respond to your text.
Effective communication should have four things in particular.:

• Simplicity.
• Specificity.
• Structure.
• Stickiness.

Now that you understand “best practices” for achieving the best results with SMS marketing and communication, you need a solution to get your messages out there.
Let us tell you about the features and benefits of utilising Saascoms SMS platform and how we can assist you in developing SMS marketing campaigns using our world-class technology. We facilitate and manage millions of SMS each month for our clients.

Our team will design an SMS campaign based on your requirements.
We have a number of features to ensure best practise and maximising ROI.

• Reporting – see what SMS was delivered, remove failed and opt-out SMS from lists.
• Sasscoms have Tier 1 connections in over 350 countries means your SMS content is safe and secure, with the highest level of premium routing for maximising delivery.
• No set-up, commitment, training costs, or monthly hosting charges for any Mailmaster services. You pay for what you use per transaction.
• Our number validation service ensures your contact list is current.
• Saascoms have a message length checker on the platform, which will advise of charges.

Make contact to arrange a demonstration of our technology and to get started on a SMS marketing campaign that will undoubtedly get you the results you want.

One of the Saascoms team will give you a 1-0-1 guide and demonstration of our technology and how it will benefit your business.

As we see Royal Mail appearing in the headlines again, for all the wrong reasons, is the time right to think about alternatives to what is fast becoming an uncertain and outdated form of correspondence with your customers? What are the benefits of SMS over Royal Mail?

As new and emerging technologies integrate seamlessly and conveniently with our lives, why should we rely on an increasingly unreliable service to conduct our businesses?

What was once our only form of written communication has seen a raft of competition present itself to the stamp-and-envelope method of delivering content and communication.

A business or organisation with infrastructure, such as Royal Mail, has proportionate overheads to match. With profit for its shareholders a priority and under increasing pressure to perform, we need to ask: Is their performance based on you, the customer, and the service you receive, or on the profit it generates for those holding shares?

‘In the financial year ending March 2022, the company generated a profit of £758 million, representing a slight decrease compared to the previous year’.

After a price increase in April (2022), next January’s scheduled increase has been brought forward to November (2022).

‘In light of unforeseen inflationary pressures and increasing costs, we have brought our tariff timetable forward from January 2023 to ensure the Universal Service (and, in turn, our Access services) can continue to be delivered in a financially sustainable way.’

The new prices and the high-level increases that Royal Mail has announced include:

• 18% increase on Business Mail Letters
• 10% increase on Business Mail Large Letters
• 5% increase across the board on Advertising Mail

As the cost of using Royal Mail as a service provider has increased and will undoubtedly continue to increase again, unrest between the union and the company bosses grows, and so many factors are now at play regarding the value of service, let’s look at an alternative method of communication with your customers.

Benefits of SMS over Royal Mail

As we pick the promotional letters and flyers up off the doormat, we give anything unofficial a cursory glance before depositing it in the recycling bin. Things of no interest to us, something we have not asked for, and things that have no relevance to us.

When we receive a communication or promotion via SMS, it is something we have subscribed to and asked to receive. It is something that is of interest to us and is governed by a strict set of laws regarding communicating directly with us in this way. We have ‘opted-in’ to receive information from that company or business contacting us.

Communicating with your customers via SMS has a number of benefits over the traditional stamp and envelope method.

• 97% of marketing/communication text messages are opened.
• 90% of these texts are read within three minutes.
• Time and date stamps recorded when the message was received, security passed or failed and when the content is opened and read.
• The use of SMS communication is growing.
• 58% of people say they prefer companies to contact them by SMS

This is where Saascoms can help you scale to new markets, achieve more significant volume thresholds, or new communication channels, including Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

Saascoms was the first to market with a solution for sending your standard ‘print and post’ communications by SMS, with a secure identity verification function to ensure the correct person is viewing the information.

Why did we develop this service?

There were several factors. The marketplace required a communication solution which was dependable and accessible to every business to communicate with their client base effectively. Many of our clients were sending high volumes of letters by the traditional print and post method.
This caused a few issues.

• Cost – The cost to send a second-class letter is currently 68p and has become prohibitive due to rising costs.
• Time – It can take between 3-8 days for the letter to be received.
• Resource planning – If all the letters are sent and received by their customers within a day of each other, it can cause resource planning issues within the customer call centre.
• Environmental – CO2e footprint is considerably higher when sending a letter than an email or SMS.
• Complete lack of knowledge about user engagement.

Here’s the solution – Secure SMS is a method of including information or confidential documentation with your SMS message.

Embedded in the outbound SMS is a unique URL which takes the recipient to a security page where they confirm their identity.
Once security is approved, the recipient can read or save the letter. Hyperlinks to websites or telephone numbers can be active within the letter to direct the reader to a call to action on your website or to call your call centre.

Why use this? And what are the advantages:

Security – You can send any information, including promotional, marketing, confidential or financial documentation, to a recipient’s phone, knowing that the wrong person can’t open it due to layers of verification security required before opening.

Cost – It is circa 90% cheaper than sending a single-page printed letter and even more so when compared to multi-page statements.

Tracking – Our time and date stamps recorded when the message was received, security passed or failed and when the letter was opened and read.

Speed – Sent letters are received on the same day of sending, meaning response times are significantly improved over traditional mail.

Performance – Tracking and analytics show that digital mail performs better than print and post. As acceptance of digital engagement increases, the balance will continue to improve in favour of digital engagement.

Personal – SMS is personal. It is delivered directly to your customer’s mobile phone. The average mobile phone user checks their handset 63 times a day. Choosing an SMS partner that can provide campaigns for personalisation allows SMS communication to grab your audience’s attention.

Better results and value for money – Analytics and tracking show how effective this method of communication is compared to traditional mail.

In addition to the above, as a direct comparison against Royal Mail – Inflation proof – strike proof – fixed costs – not liable to go missing or get lost – guaranteed delivery – 

Make contact, and let’s discuss how we can help you improve your customer communications far more effectively.

As consumers spend more time on both business and social conversational channels, companies now have more chances to interact with customers at every point of the customer lifecycle, from marketing initiatives to pre-sales assistance to post-purchase support. Let’s look at the three main conversational marketing platforms.

The situation benefits both parties. Brands can spend less on operations while maximising their efforts to engage customers, and customers can benefit from improved customer interactions with less hassle.

What could be better than being able to quickly get your favourite brands?

Innovative marketers, in particular, are utilising these conversation channels and continually developing new means of connecting with clients and prospects. But every company’s drive to modernise its marketing eventually raises the same query:
Which marketing channel— WhatsApp, SMS, or email—is the most effective?

We summarise the most recent data and outline the benefits and drawbacks of employing a few of the most popular customer engagement channels for marketing to provide an answer to this issue.

email marketing
Contrary to endless stories proclaiming the demise of email every year, users are still engaged on this channel. However, different audience segments have varied preferences and behaviours.

We gain a better understanding by breaking down the data by generation:
Pre-millennials (74%), followed by post-millennials (72%), think email is the best way to hear from brands.
Therefore, organisations need to understand the client’s age demographics because it directly impacts the channels they should prioritise.

Email usage data:

• 99% of email users frequently check their inboxes.
• 4 billion people use email daily.
• In one hour, 22% of email campaigns are read.

Additional intriguing email statistics include:

• 8 out of 10 people open a brand’s welcome email generating four times as many opens and ten times as many clicks as other kinds of emails.
• When brands send less than five newsletters per week, open and click rates are generally higher.
• The average email clickthrough rate is 1.3%, and the average bounce rate is 10.1% across all industries.

It’s also important to stress the value of ensuring your client experiences are mobile-friendly. Pre-millennials use mobile phones 59% of the time for checking their email, and post-millennials use them for 67% of their email access.
Get busy if you’re one of the 27% of businesses that still need to optimise their emails for mobile devices!

SMS Marketing
The enormous global reach of SMS is one of its most significant benefits. You now have a channel that enables you to communicate with clients worldwide when mobile data isn’t always available or accessible for the consumer. Add to that the capability to send messages without the internet.

SMS statistics

• Email has a 22% open rate compared to 97% for marketing SMS.
• 90% of SMS texts are read within three minutes.
• The use of SMS marketing is growing.
• 58% of people say they prefer companies to contact them by SMS.

Consumers are more likely to consent to marketing SMS from brands in the e-commerce, retail, healthcare, financial, and banking sectors than other businesses.

It is evident from the information above that SMS is a fantastic channel for cutting through the noise to enhance customer engagement and income due to its high open rate, clickthrough rate, and even the simplicity of connecting directly to customers.

WhatsApp marketing
There are three variations of WhatsApp, one of the newest engagement channels:
1. More than 2 billion individuals use the app worldwide.
2. The Business App designed for small businesses
3. The Business API, which has functions to assist big enterprises and enable WhatsApp functionality in their programme.

The fact that WhatsApp allows all forms of rich media, including photos, videos, and animations, is a definite plus. With WhatsApp, businesses can engage customers with engaging, interactive content more efficiently than ever.

With over 2 billion users, WhatsApp is the world’s most popular and widely regarded messaging platform.

• According to WhatsApp statistics, 5 million businesses have signed up.
• WhatsApp is deemed simple for business discussions by 68% of users.
• WhatsApp is being considered by 61% of businesses as a new channel.

The data on WhatsApp reveals a wide range of marketing options. Given that it is created expressly for one-on-one talks, it is one of the three channels mentioned above that brings businesses and customers the closest together. Furthermore, the increase of this engagement channel is growing globally.

So, should you market to customers through WhatsApp, SMS, or email?

The answer is based on your business requirements, objectives, and target audiences. You must first understand your clients to choose the channels that will best serve your business and its goals.
To ensure thorough coverage of their target audience and profit the most, most firms opt for a combination of them. For instance, a business might use WhatsApp for advertising and SMS for urgent notifications and newsletters.

How can Saascoms assist?
Once you’ve chosen your channel plan or need some help determining a strategy, make contact and let us advise you on your best approach. Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and even more customer communication channels are all areas of expertise for Saascoms.
We are a market leader in conversational messaging and client engagement solutions, so let us help improve your customer connections, increase revenue, and develop new customer experiences.

Businesses and organisations utilise SMS marketing for various purposes, including informing consumers about special deals, rewarding them with loyalty points, and informing them about delivery changes. SMS enables secure communication and verification to establish a number of interactions.
Here is your guide to SMS communication…

When you use a promotional text message service, you are using the enormous potential of SMS marketing.

Text message marketing can assist and boost client engagement and sales.

Despite a widespread understanding of this marketing channel, many company owners overlook the benefits of SMS marketing.

SMS should be utilised for communication and promotional messaging if you are serious about engaging and reaching as many people as possible. SMS campaigns allow you to engage directly with consumers, immediately catching their attention, from executing efficient flash discounts with mobile coupons to developing a loyalty programme for new clients or validating personal details for engaging with users on a secure platform.

Companies send their customers two sorts of SMS messages: promotional SMS and transactional SMS. Each kind serves a different purpose.

Consider beginning an SMS campaign if you have a promotional message for your target demographic.

What exactly is promotional SMS?

Businesses use promotional SMS messages to deliver customised notifications to clients for marketing and advertising objectives. Each message’s purpose is to encourage the client to click a link or button inside the text message, which will take them to a website where they may engage with a number of options.

Businesses utilise promotional SMS messages to market their goods and events, often by giving unique offers and discounts to pique customer interest and, as a result, increase conversions.

Text message marketing is one of the most effective and efficient methods to reach clients directly. The statistics speak for themselves: 98% of messages are read, and 75% of customers prefer to get special offers by SMS.

Choosing the right messaging is essential to deliver a successful marketing message. Whether you want to increase sales via clearance events or send urgent notifications to current customers, the correct SMS marketing platform can guarantee that messages are sent to consumers at the right time.

What is the difference between transactional and promotional SMS?

Transactional SMS messages deliver appointment and booking reminders, purchase confirmations, and instructional messages to registered clients.

Promotional messages are sent to a customer’s phone to promote an offer, an event, or a bargain. Promotional communications should be delivered at an appropriate time between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. to avoid annoying the consumer. A transactional message, on the other hand, may be sent at any time of day or night.

Transactional communications must be provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since they frequently include critical information, such as arranging a doctor’s appointment and getting an SMS to confirm the day and time.

You may be wondering which one to use for your company.

If you want to enhance website traffic, customer engagement, retention, or purchase rate, try using promotional SMS. Coupons via promotional SMS messages are ten times more likely to be redeemed than coupons marketed by other means, such as email.

Transactional SMS messages are an excellent choice if your company wants to build brand trust or educate clients on crucial topics so that they depend on your brand for information.
Ecommerce businesses make use of both types. An e-commerce company, for example, may send clients a promotional SMS with a link to a special deal on their website. When a consumer purchases a product during the sale, the brand will send a transactional message as a shipment or delivery update. This may provide significant value to the consumer.

What Should You Think About When Writing a Promotional SMS?

1. Individualisation
Personalising advertising text messages are the most successful. Personalising advertising campaigns based on the target demographic is a guaranteed approach to increase the effectiveness of your SMS marketing campaign. To maximise consumer engagement on each promotional message, businesses must consider their customers’ age, gender, and geography, for example.

2. Professionalism
Promotional SMS messages should be official in tone. This does not imply that your advertising SMS campaign should be dull.
Although we recommend avoiding slang, acronyms, and emojis, they may be used when appropriate. For example, employing emoticons in SMS messages may adapt SMS marketing messaging to a younger target group.

Here are some other suggestions for making promotional SMS messaging more professional:

• In sentences, never use full capitals. Some firms confuse ‘unique’ messages to attract customers with ‘loud’ and ‘obnoxious’ texts that bother them. The line between the two is thin.
• Avoid SMS messages like this: “Hello, John. THIS WEEKEND’S NEW SALE! DON’T MISS IT! “. This example is far from subtle and may harm your brand’s reputation.
• Exclamations and question marks should be used sparingly. When question marks and exclamation points are overused in promotional text messages, they might appear unprofessional. Consider the following example of what not to do: “Hello, Mike! Congratulations on your birthday! Here’s a 40% discount on your next purchase!!! “. When in doubt, use a single question mark and an exclamation mark.

Don’t be robotic. Customers should be engaged by promotional SMS, and one of the greatest ways to do it is to make it personal.

3. Accuracy
Promotional SMS should provide information in an understandable manner. The start and finish dates should be included if a company advertises a sale.
The sort of goods sold should also be included in the marketing message. Here’s an illustration: “Hi Mike, I’m offering 50% off Gents haircuts tomorrow till Friday 1800.” The more precise the data, the better.

4. Short and simple
Have you heard the expression “keep things short and sweet”? The same is true for promotional SMS messages sent out as part of any SMS campaign. They should be brief and straight to the point, which means that the whole message must communicate all necessary information in a brief message. This may be tough to do.

Here are some pointers:

Determine the primary points you wish to convey. Is it an offer, a promotion, or a reminder of an appointment? Prioritising the key reason for the SMS message will ensure that the vital elements reach the consumer first.
Determine any more important points. If you have room within the character restriction, go into more information about a product or service and perhaps provide a link.

5. Call to Action
A call to action, or CTA, is an interactive feature that encourages a consumer to perform a particular action to capitalise on the opportunity given by your company.
CTAs may be purchase buttons, subscription sign-up buttons, social network sharing buttons, or links that incorporate a specific term, such as “Try it now.” Your text message marketing campaign may fail if you do not include a strong call to action in your promotional SMS. There would be fewer clicks and conversions if there were no CTA. Also, make sure the CTA is visible and easy to understand.

The Advantages of Promotional SMS Messages

Increasing client loyalty
Promotional SMS is an excellent way to connect and retain customers. Customers might be given sales specials or additional information about your company’s offerings. Making your consumer base and customers the priority helps them feel valued. The more you give, the more you will get.

Enhancing communication
Good communication is the foundation of long-term partnerships. The same holds true for promotional SMS marketing. An SMS message is a personalised message sent by your brand to your target audience. Inform them of a covert deal, promotional offer, or birthday greeting.

Cost-effective
Compared to conventional marketing efforts, promotional SMS is a comparatively inexpensive mode of communication. Many businesses save a lot of money by using promotional SMS marketing instead of sending out letters and brochures.

Increasing word of mouth
Use SMS to attract new customers and engage current ones. Word of mouth is a significant promotional technique that can be used with shareable incentives like “£10 for you and £10 for a friend if you recommend this sign-up link to them.” If you provide something of value to your consumer, they are more inclined to tell their family, friends, and co-workers about it.

Time is money
SMS marketing saves a significant amount of time compared to conventional marketing approaches. You may save even more time if you utilise an SMS API. You may also organise marketing campaigns for specific launch dates by forward planning and scheduling, allowing you to devote more time to other aspects of your organisation while ensuring that your SMS marketing is handled competently.

Effective advertising SMS message examples

Promotional SMS must be done correctly. There are several ways in which promotional SMS might be carried out incorrectly.
To avoid sending mediocre SMS messages, consider the following outstanding examples of how promotional SMS messages could be sent in many industries:

Retail
“Our end-of-season deals begin right now. This week, the store is offering 30% off summer clothing. The supply is limited!
Unsubscribe from Urban Fits by replying STOP.”

Gym
“Hello, Mike! Bring a friend throughout December and get £100 if they join. To discover more, click the link. Visit our website HERE.
To unsubscribe, reply STOP.”

Dining
“Hello, Mike! This Saturday at 8 p.m., join us for live music and a special 2-4-1 on main courses.
Please visit our website HERE.
To unsubscribe, text STOP.”

Special events
“Looking for a last-minute present? This weekend, our best-selling gift range has 20% off. Only valid for in-store purchases.
Unsubscribe by texting STOP.”

These are excellent examples of how promotional texts may be utilised in many businesses. Always look for a way of grabbing the reader’s attention at the beginning of the text.
All communications are brief, pertinent to their goods, and provide an opt-out option at the bottom.

How to create a communication strategy with SMS messaging

This is where Saascoms leads the field in SMS creative platforms. With a set of promotional SMS templates and message samples at your disposal, you can rapidly get started on creating bespoke messaging campaigns. Saascoms puts business-critical pin codes, alerts, and marketing messages in the hands of your customers. With full analytics and reporting, Saascoms gives you all the SMS marketing and transactional tools required to generate successful customer communications.

Learn about the Saascoms suite of SMS marketing tools here

Please make contact with our SMS communication experts to discuss your requirements.
With the experience of tens of millions of messages behind us, we’re here to drive your business forward.

Our new bulk SMS platform txtpro, launched in late 2024 is a self serve, bulk messaging platform, perfect for marketing campaigns. Just upload your data, write your message and schedule delivery.