Short message service, or SMS, is one of the most popular methods businesses use for personalized customer service. According to a report, 86 percent of business owners have used SMS marketing to text their customers in the past year.
We live in a technology-driven digital marketing world where getting your audience’s attention is crucial. That is why most businesses are redefining the methods of direct communication. They are working on methods to make direct, personalized, and more effective methods of communication.
If you are looking forward to upgrading your marketing skills, we will elaborate on 4 effective ways to leverage SMS marketing for a more personalized customer service solution in this blog.
4 ways to leverage SMS marketing
No wonder SMS marketing is a crucial part of digital marketing that comes with tons of perks, including a personalized marketing approach, real-time communication, intensive customer support, and so on. You can also use SMS marketing to help your customers access all the information independently for maximum conversion. Here are 4 ways you should follow to leverage SMS marketing:
1. Proactive communication
The first and most important way to leverage SMS marketing is to be involved in proactive communication. Proactive communication, or notification, is a pre-programmed series of notifications sent by the company to the targeted audience via an SMS gateway to initiate regular yet meaningful conversations which can be done by notification API
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Sending appointment reminders and updates
In proactive communication, you can communicate with your customers or clients regularly to provide essential customer support. You can use communication through SMS to remind your customers about their appointments, unpaid invoices or receipts, or share valuable updates on them.
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Providing order tracking and delivery notifications
Proactive communication through SMS is also helpful in offering essential information about the service to your customers. With it, customers can request to know their order status. You can also provide essential details like order tracking and delivery notifications to build strong customer support. This will also improve your customer feedback for offering quality customer support.
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Offering exclusive deals and promotions
You can also utilize proactive communication or notifications for promotional purposes. SMS is an ideal option for a promotion that you can use to alert your customers about exclusive deals and offers and keep them engaged with your services. For example, implementing SMS campaigns is considered one of the best restaurant digital marketing strategies, ensuring timely and direct communication with your audience.
2. Reactive communication
Reactive communication is a relatively new discipline that has good potential to leverage SMS marketing. Unlike the proactive method, the reactive method uses an event or incident to create a reactional SMS to initiate good communication with the audience. If played right, this method can bring outstanding responses.
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Answering customer inquiries in real-time
You can utilize reactive communication methods to leverage SMS marketing and initiate real-time communication. You can use this method to answer customer inquiries in real-time and communicate with the audience. It will improve your customer support service, and you can gain more positive customer feedback for your business.
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Resolving customer issues efficiently
Another great way to utilize the reactive communication method is to resolve customer issues efficiently and eliminate miscommunication and other problems that can affect your impression. Providing a dedicated SMS line for customer support will enable quick and direct communication, reducing wait times and frustration. Customers can simply text their concerns, allowing agents to respond promptly and effectively.
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Gathering customer feedback
Lastly, reactive communication is also helpful in gathering consumer feedback for your service to analyze the success of your marketing strategy and where you can do better. These messages can be tailored to specific interactions, such as recent purchases or service interactions, ensuring relevance and higher response rates. Moreover, by leveraging gamification such as discounts or entries into prize draws, businesses can encourage higher participation rates.
For example, when customers use any Google product or third-party app from the Play Store, they ask you to rate their service. These rating notifications help the business gather customer feedback and analyze their service based on the valuable feedback.
3. Personalized experiences
SMS marketing helps brands reach their customers immediately and directly. Personalized SMS marketing has helped this classic medium resurge. Businesses can use personalized customer service through SMS marketing. They can create content based on customer behavior, preferences, and demographic information. This way, brands can create a more relevant and personalized experience for each consumer.
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Greetings by name in messages
One of the easy ways to personalize SMS marketing is to address customers by name. In addition to drawing the recipient’s attention, this personalization gives them a sense of value and appreciation, which raises the possibility that they will interact with the message and take the intended actions. With personalized online consumer experiences, your online conversion rate is expected to increase roughly by 8 percent.
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Birthday or anniversary offers
Targeted promotions and offers are part of personalized SMS marketing: 36 percent of consumers like receiving birthday deals via SMS. Therefore, personalized offers on special occasions can significantly impact purchase decisions. These offers could include exclusive discounts, free gifts, or special perks tailored to commemorate the occasion. Through thoughtful and timely birthday or anniversary offers delivered via SMS, you can also cultivate loyalty and increase customer lifetime value.
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Recommending products based on past purchases
Recommending products based on purchase history and individual preferences can offer customers a sense of exclusivity. This also ensures that the messages remain valuable and relevant to them. You can also integrate automation and seamless CRM integration to ensure the timely delivery of relevant product suggestions. This approach will not only enrich the customer experience but also promote stronger brand loyalty and long-term relationships with the clientele.
4. Two-way communication
Two-way communication allows businesses to send and receive messages from their consumers. It is highly beneficial in SMS marketing. A brand or business can use automated messages, shortcodes, or long numbers for two-way communication.
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Enabling customers to book appointments or ask questions via SMS
Two-way communication helps in enabling customers to engage with a brand. Businesses can use this SMS marketing strategy to send customer feedback response forms or surveys. Two-way communication also offers solutions for scheduling appointments and addressing queries. By doing so, you will gain more loyal customers if they feel their needs are addressed.
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Offering live chat support through SMS
Offering proper customer support is crucial for businesses to gain consumer trust. Live chat support has become a necessity. People do not have time to engage in telephone conversations for customer support. Live chat support through SMS offers a quick and easy solution to this problem.
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Encouraging customer engagement through contests or polls
A lot of businesses incorporate contests and polls into their marketing plans. It facilitates the acquisition of crucial information about their target markets and raises client involvement. As per Statista, 53.5 percent of businesses in the U.S. use text marketing for higher open rates. Sending links for polls and contests through SMS can also attract more responses.
Conclusion
In the upcoming years, SMS marketing will grow to be one of the most popular types of marketing. You can utilize text message marketing to maintain consistent communication with your target audience, furnish crucial information about your products and services, and cultivate personalized customer support to expand your customer base. You can also use these 4 effective ways to leverage SMS marketing and make the most of it for your business.
