07 Jun The Importance of SMS in Omnichannel Marketing
Whether you’re a marketing professional or an entrepreneur, you know that your business exists in a fully connected world. To keep up with changing customer tastes, innovating marketing professionals and brands have turned to omnichannel marketing strategies to elevate the customer experience, improve brand awareness, and build relationships.
Omnichannel marketing goes beyond using multiple marketing channels. Omnichannel marketing addresses the overall customer experience from initial contact to the final purchasing decision.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that SMS messaging plays a critical role in any successful omnichannel strategy. With a high response rate, on-the-go accessibility, and a few surprising features, online SMS messaging platforms have become a favourite tool for cutting-edge teams.
Our staff at TouchSMS has compiled seven steps for integrating SMS messaging into your omnichannel marketing strategy to help you get started today.
What Is Omnichannel Marketing?
You’ve likely heard the phrases “omnichannel marketing” and “multi-channel marketing” used interchangeably amongst marketers. While these marketing strategies share similarities, omnichannel strategies have a significant advantage over multi-channel marketing.
Omnichannel marketing provides customers with a fully integrated consumer experience. Your customers can easily access your products or services from their laptops, mobile phones, landlines, or even in a brick-and-mortar store. Most importantly, your customers experience a cohesive brand experience, regardless of the communication channel.
The seamless experience sets omnichannel approaches apart from multi-channel marketing. A multi-channel marketing strategy provides users with multiple channels of communication, such as social media platforms, email marketing, or an in-person experience. However, the customer may not have unrestricted movement between channels at any given time and may not feel completely synchronised.
How to Integrate SMS into Your Omnichannel Marketing Campaign Strategy
Use a Customer Messaging Platform to Send SMS from a Computer
Smartphones have allowed employees to work on the go when necessary. Few – if any – would venture to say that working on a mobile phone is productive or enjoyable.
Previously, marketers implementing an SMS campaign had to manually send messages from a mobile app. The resulting process was time-consuming and created a bottleneck in the workflow. However, technology has continued to improve as software companies have recognised the popularity of SMS marketing.
Now, marketing agencies can carry out SMS campaigns through desktop-based customer messaging platforms like our professional online SMS platform. Marketers can easily incorporate our communication system into their ongoing marketing strategies for improved agility and customer retention.
Additionally, our desktop-based messaging platform will allow you to communicate with your customers in real time, sparking meaningful relationships and sharing exclusive promotions and discounts with loyal followers.
Ensure That Your Subscribers Opt In
While omnichannel marketing can create a seamless experience from start to finish, getting customer permission is critical. An article by TechJury noted that 75% of customers feel comfortable with SMS brand marketing – as long as they can voluntarily opt in to receive messages.
With this in mind, begin the relationship on the right foot and allow your customers to opt in to your SMS marketing messages. Failing to get permission from your customers can damage their perception of your brand. Additionally, both your customers and AI technology may view your marketing efforts as spam, decreasing your open rates.
Play it safe and let the relationship mature before you make your sales pitch. From there, you can start sharing promotions and special events.
Automate Your SMS Marketing
Automation has become a massive trend in the technology and marketing worlds. With a few clicks of the mouse, marketing professionals can automate welcome messages, sales promotions, and more on virtually every platform.
Automation has changed and, in many ways, improved the ways customers interact with your brand. That said, customers also hold brands – and marketers – to a higher standard, making it crucial to find a messaging platform that synchronises with your omnichannel marketing strategy.
You can use an SMS messaging platform to create a personalised experience for your customers. Send alerts regarding promotions and sales, notifications for new product lines, and even improve user experience through account reminders, loyalty programmes, and more.
SMS automation has another crucial advantage. While email and social media automation can feel detached, customers typically describe SMS automation as appealing. With that in mind, marketers can work to craft friendly messaging to keep customers interested.
Personalise Your Messages
As mentioned above, personalising your messages helps customers engage with your brand. SMS messaging creates a natural platform for your brand’s personality to shine. With thousands of emojis at your disposal, you can communicate with your customers in the same way they communicate with their friends.
Besides offering a splash of personality, emojis can help break up long messages and direct your customers’ eyes to key information. Before you begin using emojis at random, however, take some time to consider which are relevant to your brand.
Offer Coupons and Discounts
Marketing teams have used discounts and exclusive coupons to move products since the first marketplaces evolved. As the modern market continues to become more competitive, entrepreneurs and marketing professionals must push the boundaries of creative product promotion.
Even so, discounts remain an effective way to entice customers to make a purchase. Almost every company or industry has some form of a discount, from loyalty programmes to supermarket coupons or flash sales at your favourite local shop. In recent years, online deals and coupon codes have become a mainstay for e-commerce brands as well.
No matter your company’s size, you can quickly run discount campaigns and loyalty programmes through an online selling platform. Simply integrate our TouchSMS messaging platform into your workflow and keep loyal followers and new leads informed and motivated throughout their customer journey.
Send Messages Based on Location
SMS marketing has allowed innovative professionals to add another tactic to their repertoire: cell broadcasting. This real-time communication strategy sends automated messages to customers based on their location.
For example, consider a customer with an H&M account. If they come within a certain proximity of the store, a marketing team could automate a cell broadcasting message to send a limited-time, in-store offer to that customer.
As more brands experiment with this customised strategy, customers will begin to enjoy an intuitive and highly relatable shopping experience. Rather than meeting consumers with a one-size-fits-all approach, marketing teams can target individuals going about their daily routines.
Additionally, as cell broadcasting becomes more popular, consumers will become more accustomed to the marketing tactic and look forward to exciting new deals, sales promotions, or events.
Promote Sales and Special Events
When it comes to special events or promotions, most companies rely on social media or email marketing to alert customers. But when brands implement SMS marketing, they can leverage the responsive channel for improved sales, hands-on customer service, and other critical aspects of the marketing mix.
On average, text message marketing campaigns boast a 98% open rate compared to email marketing’s 20%. The SMS marketing response rate may create even more excitement, as SMS messages receive a response from more than 30% of their customers.
For even higher rates, you can segment your audience based on customer data. Segmentation will allow your brand to send targeted marketing campaigns for special events, holiday sales, and more. These specific messaging campaigns can help your company’s holiday promotions cut through the noise without overwhelming your audience.
Experience Omnichannel Integration with TouchSMS Text Message Marketing
Integrating an omnichannel marketing strategy can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. At TouchSMS, we have the experience, skills, and team that your brand needs to craft a seamless customer experience.
See what automated SMS messaging can do for your company. For more information on our services, SMS platform, and text plans, give us a call today at 1300 795 419 to speak with one of our TouchSMS experts.