What Does SMS Marketing Bring to the Table?

If you’re brand new to SMS or text message marketing, welcome! Get ready to learn how to connect and increase your brand awareness with your audience. Your first step [if you haven’t already] is to take a look at our previous post, which outlines what you should know before you get started with SMS marketing. 

Just as with any marketing avenue, there are certain rules and regulations that business owners have to operate within and you want to be aware of those right out of the gate. Unlike other marketing avenues though, SMS marketing has incredibly high visibility with your audience. It’s estimated that 98% of text messages are opened! Which makes sense, how often do you leave text messages unread on your phone?

With that percentage of open rates you’d be crazy not to take advantage of SMS marketing, but if you’re new to it, it’s hard to know what types of campaigns would be the most effective. Luckily for you, we’ve put together a list of SMS marketing examples for you so you can hit the ground running!

Before You Send Your First Message, You Need to do This

While it’s tempting to jump right in and start texting your current customers, legally you need to give them the chance to opt-in first if you’ve never used their phone number for marketing purposes. We go over this in the previous post as well, but it bears repeating because the last thing you want is to be labeled as spam. 

If you have a large email list, this would be a great place to reach out and offer joining your SMS list as a way to receive updates or incentives for your business. Getting your current customers on your SMS list is a great way to dip your toe in and try out some different strategies. Now, don’t expect to get a 100% opt-in rate, but it’s the best place to start!

From there, you can start to routinely collect cell phone numbers as part of your lead capture so you can put these SMS marketing examples to good use and build your brand awareness, and loyalty all while connecting better with your audience.

SMS Marketing Examples to Boost Your Engagement

Just as there’s strategy behind how you craft your marketing emails, there’s strategy behind how you structure your SMS marketing campaigns. Your ultimate goal should be to engage with your audience. Texting is very interactive in nature, more so than email for a lot of people, and you need to encourage that interaction and be prepared when their engagement comes! 

But how do we get them engaged in the first place? You’ll want to make sure that you’re adjusting the language and style of your SMS marketing to match the recipient. If your business’ ideal client is male aged 45-65 your messaging is going to look very different than if your ideal client is a female aged 18-24. Take advantage of different emojis, graphics, memes, or GIFs to engage with your audience exactly the way they are already texting their friends. 

Lets go ahead and jump into our SMS marketing example list that you can use to get out there  and start texting with your customers!

10 SMS Marketing Examples for Your Business

1. New Customer Hello

Why We Love It:

A new customer message lets you set the tone for your brand right from the start! Reach out with an entertaining meme, GIF, or funny quote, just make sure that you stand out and let them know you’re there for them!

Potential Pitfalls:

As with any follow up communication or new marketing platform, there’s the risk of immediate unsubscribes. Maybe their text inbox is too busy, we’ll never know, but you always run the risk that they opt-out right away. 

2. Product Launches

Why We Love It:

In terms of SMS marketing examples, I’m sure you expected this one! It’s earned its place on the list though. SMS marketing can boost your product launches considerably with an average click through rate of 19%. Especially if you have a lot of repeat customers, adding an SMS marketing campaign to your next product launch can give you a healthy increase in sales. 

Potential Pitfalls:

If you only message your customers when you launch a new product it can become very one note and potentially lead to opt-outs. Make sure that you’re offering them other incentives to stay on your SMS list as well.

3. Abandoned Cart Sequences

Why We Love It:

There is so much power in combining your marketing efforts with the rest of your business ecosystem. This is exactly why here at Social Fox recommend an all-in-one marketing platform that combines your website, calendar management, CRM, and marketing efforts and houses it under one digital roof. This gives you the power to create these abandoned cart sequences and increase your sales. 

Now this doesn’t have to be with just traditional online storefronts. If you have any service you charge for [coaching, digital downloads, etc] you should be using abandoned cart sequences to give that extra little reminder that some people need in order to buy. 

Potential Pitfalls:

While there are people who will appreciate the reminder, there are also people who won’t. You want to make sure that these types of reminders aren’t triggered multiple times within a short time frame as this has the potential to get a bit annoying for the customer and lead to opt-outs.

4. Discounts | Promos | Flash Sales

Why We Love It:

If you want your current and potential customers to know about your sale in the fastest way possible, SMS marketing is it. Younger age groups are sending upwards of 120 text messages a day, so there’s basically a 100% chance they’ll see your message. This helps to increase your sales and create those repeat customers that all businesses love. As an added bonus, text messages are easily shared so if your flash sale is irresistible, your customers might even pass it along to their friends. 

Potential Pitfalls:

You don’t want to be the boy who cried wolf with your promos. If you send too many notifications like these, there’s no real time-sensitive offer pushing them to buy. They might just wait around for the next sale to pop up. 

5. Event or Appointment Reminders

Why We Love It:

Let’s just be honest, in terms of SMS marketing examples, this one is a given! There’s no way we’d remember our pet’s vet appointments if not for the text reminders. With that said, make sure that you give your customer a way to confirm, reschedule, or cancel if needed to increase the ease of appointment management within your business. 

Potential Pitfalls:

By giving people an easy way to cancel their appointment should something change in their schedule, there’s potential that customers will use that option frequently. Make sure to have a follow up email or SMS after a cancellation with instructions and encouragement to rebook.

6. Delivery Notifications | Order Updates

Why We Love It:

It’s estimated that more than half of consumers prefer SMS delivery notifications and order status updates over emails with the same details. It’s just so much more convenient. 

Potential Pitfalls:

You want to make sure you control the frequency of these updates. While having order updates and delivery notifications are much appreciated, they can get wordy with long tracking numbers and links. Remember to keep it simple.  

7. Reviews | Rating

Why We Love It:

Reviews and social proof are the lifeblood of any business existing in the digital space. When we’re considering a new purchase, the first place we head to is Google to see what other people are saying about that company. Asking for reviews through SMS guarantees that your request is getting seen by your customer quickly.

This SMS marketing example doesn’t have to be held to just product reviews though. You can reach out and ask your customer to rate how excited they are about their new purchase or rate how happy they are with the shipping process. This is all valuable engagement with your brand and provides information that you can use to improve your business processes.

Potential Pitfalls:

If you are asking for honest reviews, you’ll get them… sometimes in the form of negativity. When these ratings are for internal use that’s one thing, but a public review from an unhappy customer is sometimes more than what you bargained for.  

8. VIP Customer

Why We Love It:

This is the SMS marketing example that’s focused primarily on creating the feeling of exclusivity. This is a great way to entice people onto your SMS list by offering special perks that aren’t available in any other way. This could be specific discounts, freebies, or early VIP access to future sales. People want to feel special, in the know, and like they have an inside contact and this is a great way to achieve that.

Potential Pitfalls:

Make sure that the perks you offer to your VIPs stay exclusive! If people can get the same deal by purchasing through the link in bio on your Instagram you’ll immediately lose the special sauce of being on the VIP list. 

9. Support | Questions

Why We Love It:

It’s estimated that more than 50% of consumers would rather message than call a business. This is especially true with the younger demographic who grew up with the ability to text anyone at any time. Offering support or the ability to ask a brand questions through messaging is an excellent way to increase engagement. 

Potential Pitfalls:

If you’re going to offer customers the ability to interact via SMS with your business, you’ve got to have the staff to back it up. If your customer has to wait for two days before they hear back via text, they probably won’t use that avenue for support again. 

10. Birthday Wishes

Why We Love It:

If you have a way to collect birthdays in your business you can use this to your advantage! In fact, this is an excellent way to get people to opt-in to your SMS list in the first place. Make it known that you’ll send them an extra special gift when their birthday comes around and people will sign up over the idea of getting pampered with your product or service!

Potential Pitfalls:

Try to make this a truly special offer! If you offer 20% off coupons all the time it won’t feel like a unique birthday gift. Offer something out of the ordinary like a free product, or even a free product with their purchase to make them feel loved on their special day!

What Are You Waiting For?

If we’ve learned anything from these SMS marketing examples, it’s that texting can make your audience feel special and that it’s here to stay. The large majority of business owners don’t utilize SMS and don’t have any SMS marketing plan in place which is costing them valuable engagement and sales. 

At Social Fox, we provide easy opportunities to integrate SMS messaging into our platform because we know that it can do wonders for small business owners. It’s no longer a marketing platform just for huge companies with massive marketing budgets. It’s a low entry cost and low barrier option to bulk up your marketing efforts. 

If you still aren’t quite sure how to get started with your first SMS marketing campaign, don’t worry, we’re here to help! We know that behind every small business there is a somewhat frazzled small business owner likely in need of some simplification and that’s what we’re all about. We focus on the business owner and work to decrease their overwhelm through our all-in-one marketing platform that simplifies your business processes.

So whether you’re looking to start using SMS marketing, build up your current marketing efforts, or streamline your business processes, reach out! Book a free demo call with us and learn what it’s like to get high-level business coaching for just the price of software.