Text Message Marketing – Is It Legal and Does it Work?

Are you looking for an effective way to get to the face of potential customers? Try SMS marketing (in other words, Short Message Service Marketing, also known as Text Message Marketing), and yes, it is legal. This is one digital marketing channel that has stayed active and effective for a very long time. It doesn’t matter whether you are an experienced digital marketer or just starting; the channel is guaranteed to give you results.

Text message marketing or SMS service platform is one of the most popular ways to get to potential customers and keep them updated about the services you offer. The truth is that we all desire to connect to a broader audience but often fail in doing it.

With the constantly-changing digital landscape, the target audience has become much more accessible than they ever were. However, many marketers still find the availability of too many platforms and mediums overwhelming. And there’s a good reason for that.

Ask Yourself These Simple Questions:

· Am I looking to expand my marketing reach?

· Am I trying to connect with more consumers on my budget?

If you answer yes to any or both questions above, then sSMS marketing is your best shot at achieving your goals.

Before going on, let’s talk briefly on what SMS or Text Message marketing is.

What is SMS marketing?

Like you’ve probably guessed from the name, SMS marketing is communicating and marketing to your potential customers through text messages. It is just another way to connect to your potential customers and keep them abreast of new or existing services that you offer.  Not to be confused with text message spam, an action that promotes of giving away gifts or offers for the exercise of obtaining personal information illegally.

SMS marketing stands for short message service marketing, and it is virtually the same thing with the usual messages you send and receive daily on your cell phone.

SMS advertising lets you appeal to your targets using their mobile devices. Over time, it has been tried and confirmed to be one of the handiest and most effective marketing techniques. It lets you share personalized messages to individuals and groups of users, promoting your business.

It’s working process is simple. You let your prospects and actual customers to opt-in to your marketing campaign to receive updates on important information regarding your services. This form of marketing allows you to target users that have already expressed some degree of interest in your business.

The above brings us to the main goals of SMS marketing. Unlike most other marketing techniques, the main goal here is not just to make sales. In addition to making sales, you are also trying to build your brand into a market force and to retain existing customers.

You can use it to notify existing customers of upcoming events, promotions, and sales.

Better still, the delivery speed of SMS messages makes them useful for delivering time-based marketing messages. SMS marketing works in such a way that you can even set your system up to send messages to customers a particular time… when you think they will most likely be receptive to what you have to offer.

For example, if you own a stationery shop, sending a message a few days before schools’ resumption would be a brilliant thing to do. Your customers are more likely to be receptive to your message, and, of course, they will still have you in mind when they go out to buy.

What are The Basics of Text Message Marketing?

More than likely, you’ve witnessed a SMS marketing campaign before.

The whole concept of the SMS campaign revolves around short-codes and keywords, whereby a customer opts in to a campaign by sending the keyword to a short-code. 

You will have to customize a catchy keyword and a short-code for the particular campaign. When customers text back, they get subscribed to receive offers, news, or updates from you through SMS. You might have seen something like this from a brand before. That’s SMS marketing.

Does SMS Marketing Work? Yes

You’ve probably heard about SMS marketing before but don’t understand how it works precisely. As long as you read text messages when they are sent to your phone, then you can be assured that SMS marketing works.

There’s no denying the benefits of SMS marketing. The question, however, is often just how effective the strategy can be. Over 65 percent of modern consumers believe that businesses should adopt the use of SMS messaging more often. It’s already apparent that consumers are not the only game of SMS marketing.

Tons of businesses are already turning to a SMS marketing service platform such as SendSMS Marketing Platform, BiteSMS, and many others because of the level of speed, efficiency, and affordability it brings to audience targeting.

When compared to other marketing campaigns, SMS text marketing doesn’t cost much. The cost of SMS marketing is always small in comparison to the ROI it brings.

Why is SMS Marketing Effective?

When was the last time you tried to find a business using the Yellow pages or even your local mailer?

The truth is that people hardly subscribe to those marketing techniques anymore. The world has gotten so fast-paced that no one has the time to lookup businesses using those mediums anymore. 

However, a smartphone does it all. People spend a significant amount of time with their mobile devices; hence, there’s no better way to reach your target than on their mobile devices. Think about the speed with which you check your phone when you hear your text message tone.

So What Should You Do?

Sometimes you might be hit with the temptation to send out several text messages to your list of subscribers. But don’t! Hold on a little bit!

Things don’t work that way.

There is a need for you to create a relationship with your list before bombarding them with text messages. No one wants to be bombarded with text messages from “strangers.” Irrespective of the level of your customers’ loyalty, you will potentially lose them if you annoy them with too many texts.

Depending on your business type, you might need to send out text messages once a week or daily. There’s a need also to be conscious about the time of messaging. Remember to respect people’s time.

There you have it. Text message marketing doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think, especially with many software platforms available.

Any experience with using or witnessing text message marketing? Comment below, and share your thoughts on it.