If you’re looking into buying SMS marketing software with built-in analytics, we will help you with your research. Our experts have answered the questions that most of our visitors ask and compiled them below.
What is an SMS campaign?
An SMS campaign is similar to an email marketing campaign, but you will be using permission-based text messages as a way to communicate to your customers – both existing and potential ones. Most people argue that this is more effective than email marketing since you can reach out to a wider customer base. For more information about SMS marketing campaigns, read this.
What is SMS marketing software?
SMS marketing software gives you the ability to send marketing messages to the mobile phone of your customers in bulk. We’re talking about thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of recipients here, allowing you to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time.
Instead of sending the marketing message through your phone, you have to go online or log in to an application, type the message, and send it to multiple recipients. Imagine all the time you’ll save not having to type them out one at a time!
What are the basic features of SMS marketing software?
The common features of SMS marketing software are:
- Contact Management
- Subscriber Management
- Analytics
- Mass Texting
- Scheduling
- Shortcodes
- Keywords
- Multimedia Messages
- Conversation Threads
More advanced SMS marketing software has unique features such as coupons, voting or polls, text-to-win, API access, search filtering, timed campaigns, and auto-personalization tools, among others.
Does all SMS marketing software have analytics?
The capabilities and features of SMS marketing software depend on the company behind it, which is why it’s important to do some research and read reviews before choosing your SMS marketing software. Some software has built-in analytics, while others require you to use a third-party app to analyze your SMS campaign numbers.
What metrics are used to measure an SMS marketing campaign’s success?
Again, it varies from one provider to another, but most SMS marketing software with analytics measures the following:
Open rate: This tells you how many of the customers actually opened the message. Generally, SMS has an open rate of 98%, which is very high compared to emails (22%), Facebook posts (12%), and tweets (29%).
Delivery rate: This metric gives you the percentage of successfully delivered messages as compared to the total number of subscribers that the message was sent to.
Click through rate: This metric tells you how many of your subscribers clicked on the URL you placed in the text message.
Conversion rate: Conversion rate measures the number of subscribers who clicked on the URL, purchased, signed up, or did anything that added value to the company.
Opt-out rate: You want to keep this metric low since it measures the number of subscribers who decided to opt-out from your marketing campaign after receiving an SMS.
Other metrics that need to be measured are the actual sales that resulted from the SMS campaign, the ROI of your campaign, the number of new subscribers, and the growth rate of your subscribers list..
Is SMS marketing legal?
SMS marketing is legal as long as you your customers allowed you to send messages to their phone numbers. SMS marketing is a permission-based campaign, and without explicit consent from the people you’re texting, you run the risk of getting in trouble with marketing laws.
How much should an SMS marketing software cost?
Prices start at around $20 and go as high as $300. This depends on the number of subscribers, features, and messages sent.
Does my company need SMS marketing software?
Whatever industry your business is in, it won’t hurt to include SMS in the overall marketing strategy. You can use SMS marketing software to make transactions easier for your clients, provide after-sale support, and to provide useful information that your subscribers will appreciate.
How do I get customers to opt-in to my SMS communications?
Your SMS campaign must go hand in hand with your other marketing strategies. Below are other tips that will help you encourage customers to opt-in to your SMS campaign:
- Advertise your SMS promotion in different platforms such as digital, in-store ads, and print.
- Offer exclusive discounts to SMS subscribers to encourage opt-ins.
- Put it on sign-up forms and checkout pages.
- Promote it in an email campaign to let the people on your email list know about your SMS program.
There are many other ways to promote your SMS campaign so people will be prompted to opt-in. Always bear in mind that you cannot send a promotional text message to a person who hasn’t given you the permission to do so.
What makes customers opt-out of SMS communications?
When customers opt-in, they also have the freedom to opt-out. In fact, there are regulations in nearly every country that requires you to make it easy for your customers to unsubscribe from your SMS campaign. Mostly, subscribers opt-out of an SMS campaign that is too spammy. Check and double check your messages and your overall SMS marketing strategy to make sure that people won’t get annoyed when they receive it.
If in case a lot of your subscribers decide to opt-out, despite the fact that you are not spamming them, revisit your subscribers list and make sure that these people belong in your target market. It could be that you are targeting the wrong people.
