Communication has become a lot easier over the years, thanks to the ever-advancing technology. Today, there are a lot of channels through which you can get to your customers and pass whatever message you want. Some of the most common platforms include social media and personalized calls. Perhaps, one method that’s been underrated in recent times is text messaging. About 20 years ago, this communication channel was slowly becoming one of the most effective methods together with e-mails.
Mass messaging is still a great way to market your business because it’s fast, easy, and inexpensive. In today’s highly competitive business environment, getting your message across quickly and effectively can be crucial to the success of your company. However, remember that your message should be relevant to your customers. As such, try as much as possible not to spam customers with messages that are too generic because it could end up spoiling your reputation. This article aims to explore the benefits and features of this communication technique.
What Is Mass Text Messaging?
It’s a communication service used by organizations to send bulk messages to many customers at the same time. You can send as many text messages as you want, depending on your subscription. It saves considerable time, given the fact that you don’t have to text each phone number individually, especially if the messages to be sent are just the same. This method is mostly used as a form of digital marketing.
Apart from advertisements, it can also be used to communicate with employees on any important updates. There are several platforms through which you can use this service, while others, like Call Cowboy, allow you to integrate both your call and messaging structures into one automated system. As such, your team can schedule future text messages, hence, enhancing their productivity.
Here are some of the key features and benefits of mass text messaging:
- Low Cost And High Output
One thing you should always assess before deciding on new policies in your business is the ratio of investment (ROI). This is, basically, a measure of how much output you get with respect to the resources used. Mass text messaging is a winner in this department since it doesn’t give you a lot of financial pressure, unlike newspaper ads and TV commercials. All you need is a reliable platform and a few bucks to get started. Some providers allow you to contact up to 1000 customers within a few seconds for about €30, which is a fair price.
2. Personalized Marketing
Personalized, or one-on-one, marketing is a strategy wherein a company gathers specific information about its customers and uses it to advertise their products. Individualized content can either be in form of a video or written message. The goal of this technique is to engage customers in the right way while using their needs as leverage. This is exactly the same benefit that an auto dialer brings, which means you can integrate both systems and use them together.
There aren’t many channels of personalized marketing that can do the job better than mass text messaging. By judging from previous customer behavior and their demographics, an experienced marketing team will know what message to use and the right time to send it. It, however, involves a lot of research, and the sender must also ensure that they use the right technique.
The reason why most companies prefer mass text messaging to other methods is the fact that it’s a cheaper option. In addition, it doesn’t require a lot of technical skills, both from the sender and the recipient.
3. Open Rates
One of the biggest advantages of using mass text messaging is the rate at which the recipients open the notifications. Over 98% of customers open such messages within the first 30 seconds of receiving them. If you do your research very well and target the right people, then, this percentage will prove to be quite significant because it means you’ll have the ability to convert many prospects into real customers. Also, if you’re using it to market new products, there’s a huge probability that these items or services will gain popularity within a short period.
So, how does this compare to other marketing techniques? Well, emails are the closest relatives, but they don’t come any close to the efficiency provided by mass text messaging. For starters, it may take up to 48 hours for a fifth of your emails to be opened. Of course, this is just an estimation, and the values may vary depending on the recipients you’re targeting. It’s only natural for a phone user to open their text messages first before proceeding to the emails. In fact, some people only use the desktop app to read these mails, which further delays the process.
4. Highly Targeted
Sending a marketing message out there with the hope that it’ll land on your prospective customers is, by far, one of the worst strategies. It might work at some point, but, obviously, you’ll need to sample a lot of recipients for you to get even a decent number of responses. Consequently, that means investing too much resources on a hit-or-miss plan. In the past, this was one of the techniques used by managers, but things have changed.
Today, especially for companies who are cautious about the costs, it’s important that everyone who receives the message is a potential customer. As such, the marketing team is urged to do a lot of research before deciding on who to include in the list. Also, keep in mind that this method is permission-based. In other words, the two parties must have prior business relationship and the buyer has agreed to receive these messages.
That said, most of the recipients will not mark your messages as spam, provided you don’t become too persistent. The fact that they’re already customers means there’s a huge probability that they’ll be convinced to buy your products. It’s undoubtedly much easier to resell to existing clients than finding a new customer base. This is exactly what you get with bulk SMS marketing.
5. Flexibility And Speed Of Delivery
What sets mass text messaging apart from other marketing strategies in any business is the speed of delivery. For clarity, this is a different factor from the rate of opening. It’s more about how fast the message gets to the recipient even before they decide whether to open and read it. That said, SMS is known to be one of the fastest channels of communication. It takes less than a few seconds for the message to travel from the sender to the desired destination.
In this day and age, every company should be ready to adapt to the ever-changing world of business. Flexibility is a key feature in these policies, and mass text messaging brings that on board. With such a service at your disposal, you can immediately respond to your competitors’ strategies within a matter of minutes.
6. Instantaneous Feedback
Still on the speed of this service, a business can request for instant feedback from various product users. For instance, you can set up your system so that consumers can comment on the item after a few hours or days of use. There’s a high probability that most recipients will reply accordingly since it doesn’t take much time to react to an SMS. At the end of the day, you’ll get to understand where to improve and keep up on. The beauty of it is that most service providers allow you to integrate it into an in-house application that allows you to send these messages to phone numbers in any network.
7. No Advanced Gadgets Required
Do you ever wonder why established companies still prefer to use text messages even with the current technology? Well, there are many reasons, but one that stands out is the fact that you can reach almost anyone via this communication medium. Even as the world welcomes the 5G technology, some people are still stuck with the old gadgets, which only support the lower network protocols. With SMS, neither of this matter as the message can be deliver to any device that supports the same.
Another thing that makes it accessible by almost everyone is the fact that it doesn’t require Internet connection. Social media and emails might be quite effective, but not every person can afford to be online all the time. You can, however, can reach all your contacts by sending them a text message. As such, it makes it a lot easier to market products to those living in remote areas. Perhaps, this is one thing that makes it the fastest channel even when communicating to your workmates.
Conclusion
Mass text messaging is an old marketing technique, but it still proves to be more effective than many advanced methods. One feature that’s usually associated with bulk messages is the low costs. As a business, you’ll only need to invest a few resources to reach as many customers as possible. In addition, it can be used even on simple gadgets, and the message will still be delivered pretty fast. Flexibility and personalization also make it a must-have feature for every business. Therefore, if you’ve never used this form of marketing, then, this is the right time to give it a try.
