We have witnessed a shift in communicating – the shift towards mobile. Over the last few years the mobile commerce sector has grown from practically zero in 2008 to a staggering £6.61 billion in 2013 and is expected to more than double in 2021 with some researchers expecting growth of £25.06 billion.

The main factors driving this sudden growth are:

(1) the abundance of mobile devices (7.1 billion of them, that’s pretty much 1 mobile device for each person on the planet)

(2) the desire for marketers and business owners to interact with customers more efficiently.

SMS marketing may not be the sexiest tool in your marketing box when compared to Video, Email and Social Media for example, however it is absolutely one of the most efficient ones. It has the potential to reach, be relevant, targeted and immediate in comparison to other marketing techniques.

Did you know that 97.5% of SMS messages are read within 5 seconds of being received?

In comparison, how many of your Facebook posts are seen by your followers?

Now, you can understand what makes SMS marketing so compelling to a number of businesses.

So far, so good but where do you actually start? Well there are certain Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to text message marketing but today we will arm you with the knowledge you need and some great ideas to help you run the most successful mobile marketing campaigns.

Notify Customers About Upcoming Sales

This is one of the best and easiest ways to make SMS work for you. Send out a voucher or a discount code that your customers can redeem at the checkout or can present in store.

Black Friday is not the only day of the year for discounts. The whole period leading up to the holidays is perfect for that!

Send a Text Teaser to Improve Your Email Open Rates

Every marketing tool and technique is much more powerful when combined and coordinated with your overall marketing strategy. If you are about to send out an email campaign why not go ahead and send SMS teaser before that? Give people a little hint of what is about to land in their inboxes and this will surely improve your open and click-through rates.

Reminders For Appointments

If you are in the service industry, you can make use of SMS by sending out reminders for appointments. Especially this time of the year when we all have a little bit too much going on in our heads and one too many things to remember so a gentle reminder in the form of a text would be great. This would not only help your customers, but also help you decrease the number of cancelled appointments and people not turning up when scheduled to.

Everyone has their mobile phone with them all the time, so why not speak to your customers and prospects directly on theirs?

It’s effective and cheap so make sure you include it in your marketing strategy.