Source:smsala.com

5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Be Using Bulk SMS

Bulk SMS is arguably one of the most powerful communication channels available today and the truth is as great as Social Media, SEO email marketing and chatbots etc. whatever the new biggest marketing channel is today SMS online still outperforms each of these channels.

In fact, the traditional online channels have become a staple amongst business owners.

Most marketing channels (even in 2020) still don’t come close to the raw marketing power of SMS online – Tim Silvia – 160.com.au

Unfortunately, too many marketers and some business owners are attracted to shiny new things which means they are more likely to jump on a new trend then actually look to channels that can actually deliver results.

What is the latest marketing funnel? Should we use webinars? Push notifications? Spreading your dollar thinner and thinner with each new marketing experiment.

Smart marketers don’t care about what’s “new” their only concern, “what’s working”.

What is Bulk SMS?

Source:polycom.rs

Bulk SMS is simply sending text messages from an online platform – this is NOT an online marketing channel.

Even though bulk SMS uses the internet to push out the text message it is still received as if it came from a mobile and is treated as an offline marketing channel.

This is important, since bulk SMS is an offline marketing channel you do not have to worry about the typical online barriers like SPAM algorithms, ranking updates, reputation scores, strict ad policies, etc.

Why SMS Online Is Growing

Source:ajuratech.com

Virtually everyone now has a mobile phone which means marketers and businesses are able to reach consumers wherever they are.

The problem for most marketers is that they are still using the same online strategies in the mobile world (i.e. push ads, email marketing, PPC etc.).

The difference between SMS and traditional online advertising is that people prioritize their text messages over all other mediums.

When a person receives a push notification, they click away from it, if they see an email they’ll get around to it (if at all) but when they receive a text message they read it almost right away.

In this article, I’ll give you 5 great reasons why you should be using SMS online inside your business.

1. Bulk SMS Gives You More Control

Source:beasmartprogrammer.blogspot.com

With other marketing platforms like Google, Facebook, Email, Publishing sites etc. you don’t really control the platform and there are restrictions on your messaging, images and even products and services that you want to sell.

With Bulk SMS you control everything with no restrictions at all.

2. Super-Fast Response Rates

It’s not uncommon to see up to 97% of people opening your bulk SMS messages, that’s huge! Not only that but when I was working for an affiliate company we would routinely see 3-5x earnings per click (EPC), up to 6x ROI over our email marketing program and up to 25% click through rates.

Source:bulksms.com

3. Rapid Response Times

On average it takes a person 4 minutes for a person to open their text message compared to 48 hours for email. Not only that but there is a lot less competition inside the SMS inbox vs. the email inbox.

4. Bulk SMS Can work in almost any area of your business

SMS online can be used in almost any area of your business for example, you can use SMS for:

  • Product fulfilment for information products
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Traffic monetization
  • Content distribution
  • Drive back end sales (repeat sales)
  • Product and event launches
  • List building
  • Appointment reminders
  • Two-Factor Authorization (Security)

Basically, any part of your business communication channel can benefit from having online text messaging.

5. Generate Quality Sales Leads

This is probably one of the best reasons to use SMS online if you rely on generating fresh customer leads because it allows you to attract highly-qualified leads that email or cold calling cannot match.

People are reluctant to give away their personal mobile number, it is a greater risk for them to do so.

This is a good thing if you are a marketer because it means that if they do give you their personal mobile number then chances are they are much closer to making a buying decision and ready to see and offer or be contacted by a sales person.

When I worked in sales I had an incredibly tough time trying to convert email leads into sales, at best I would be able put them on my call list to contact them in 6 months.

As a sales person 6 months is an eternity, we need to close deals today.

SMS leads on the other hand were a lot easier to convert into appointments and ultimately sales.

Source:heymarket.com

Getting bulksms SMS leads is actually very straightforward all you need is a short code, keyword and an offer for example:

Text 50 to 12345 and get 50% off all of our Summer Season shoes!

  1. ‘50’ is the keyword
  2. ‘12345’ is the short code and;
  3. The offer is the 50% off deal.

Whenever someone texts 50 to 12345 they are automatically added to a contact list for you to follow up on and generate sales from for as long as they are on the list.

One of the keys to getting a lot of bulk SMS leads is making sure you promote the offer in as many places as you can for example:

  • Email newsletters
  • Floating sticky bars
  • Home page
  • Exit pop
  • Blog posts and articles etc.
  • Social media pages

Conclusion

SMS was born in the early 90’s but is still 100% relevant due to the fact that we’re living in the mobile age which makes bulk SMS one of the greatest business opportunities available especially when you combine the open and click through rates, responsiveness and the fact that you can use it in virtually any area of your business this direct marketing channel should absolutely be integrated into your overarching communication strategy.


Peter is a freelance writer with more than eight years of experience covering topics in politics. He was one of the guys that were here when the foreignpolicyi.org started.