SMS and marketing

SMS marketing can be utilized in a number of ways as part of your marketing plan. It is a great element to add to your marketing mix as a whole to engage customers, and provide value. Of course, using SMS requires you to understand your targeted audience, and choose the approach the best fits their needs and provides value to them.

Consider the following approaches:

Branded shortcodes- These are extremely costly, but can be a great way to use your short code as part of your brand. For example, your branded shortcode could spell out the name of your company, or could be really easy to remember. It takes longer to set up branded shortcodes, and costs more than other forms of SMS marketing. However, it is yours, and yours alone, and it can be incorporated into other aspects of your marketing plan to increase brand awareness, and build up recognition in the mobile marketing world.

Shared shortcodes-Shared codes are a lot cheaper, and can be used for tons of pages, where each company or brand has their own unique name. Shortcodes that are shared allow you to use the same message in other channels, integrating your short code approach along with other forms of marketing. You can use all of your other forms of marketing (tv, radio, print, online display, email, etc.) to do callouts for SMS. Many companies have found this to be the most cost effective option. As the mobile marketing market continues to evolve, owning a branded shortcode will likely become far less expensive, thus, for smaller companies who do not have the cash outlay for a branded short code, can still take advantage of mobile SMS marketing, by sharing codes.

SMS contest entries- Users can text in exchange for entry into a contest. These are a great way to gain information about your market or audience as well. You can collect some personal data, preferences, etc. and send out short surveys etc. Consumers who respond to the surveys, answer the questions, or text a certain code in to your shortcode will be entered into your contest to win a fabulous prize.Just remember to keep the prize good so that they have motivation to enter.

SMS advertising- Marketers can send message content that consumers subscribe to via SMS. Build opt-in list, and drive traffic and engagement. This needs to be stuff that consumers will consider valuable, so that you get to advertise, but they do not get annoyed. In other words, use SMS marketing to send out coupon codes, to make consumers aware of events or sales that are happening now, and to invite them to participate. You can use content relevant ads on browsing sites, or respond to specific queries that have to do with you. The idea is to advertise but to provide value at the same time.

SMS is a valuable addition to any marketing mix!