SMS Marketing and its Importance in 2024

Two-Way Customer Service 

Customer service is expected to be swift and efficient by today’s buyers. If you compare SMS to other modes of customer care, such as live chat or phone calls, it is faster and less stressful. For example, you may be required to remain on the line during a live chat or phone call in order to get your question handled. With two-way SMS, you can respond at your own leisure, without having to wait on hold for long periods of time or making multiple transfers. According to some studies, more than half of consumers prefer to receive customer support via text message rather than via phone. SMS provides faster resolution times, which helps to increase consumer loyalty and profit margins. For businesses, this sort of communication is a big trend that should be embraced.

SMS marketing reaches customers wherever they are, making it one of the most cost-effective and direct marketing channels. Many companies claim response rates of 40% to 50% and click-through rates of 15%! Text blast services are expected to play a significant role in helping businesses engage with their clients in 2024 and beyond. 

Ten-Digit Codes

Due to corporations send promotional SMS’s utilizing shared short-codes, you’d be able to tell the difference between a promotional SMS and a regular SMS right away. However, brands are increasingly moving away from short-codes and toward standard 10-digit long codes, which will continue to rise in popularity through 2024. When using 10-digit numbers, marketers can design large-scale SMS campaigns with high volume. Additionally, they are less expensive and faster to use than traditional short-codes, and they have spam protection capabilities as well. A shift in this direction can result in improved deliverability and enhanced client loyalty.

Increase the number of visitors to your website

In addition to increasing website traffic by sending out SMS promotions and discounts, you can also use SMS to promote your business. Smartphones are used to access websites in around 70% of all cases. 

Eventually, the greater the number of website visitors, the greater the likelihood of conversions. Text messaging can assist you in acquiring new consumers and increasing your overall revenue.

Develop Customer Relationships

Customer retention is more crucial now than ever. A mass texting service can assist businesses in maintaining long-term ties with existing consumers. With the immediacy of the channel, brands can assure customer retention, while its high open rates can assist in delivering critical purchase information, such as order shipment, anticipated delivery date, and key brand announcements, to customers. Companies will use text blasting in 2024 not just to increase sales and marketing, but also to build strong customer connections by giving continual information and support.

Increased Automation

You’ve almost certainly come across chatbot use cases on live chats and websites, but brands have recently begun incorporating SMS chatbots into their operations. This is a trend that is expected to grow more prevalent in the coming calendar year. Chatbots decrease human labor by automating customer service chores, ensuring that client inquiries are responded to as quickly and efficiently as possible. Consumer service professionals will be able to devote more time to other critical activities rather than responding to routine customer inquiries. AI ensures increased personalization, which can assist organizations in having meaningful discussions with customers and increasing customer retention rates.

SMS Generates Revenue

Text messaging has progressed to the point where ecommerce businesses are taking notice of its potential to earn revenue. It doesn’t matter whether the text message is intended to welcome a new client, nurture a lead from an abandoned basket, or provide a personalized incentive to encourage a consumer to make a purchase; SMS can help with all of these things and more.

Furthermore, as time progresses, businesses will be forced to rely less on third-party cookies and more on information gathered directly from customers. SMS can be a useful technique for collecting information directly from clients. Brands who are able to combine direct data collection with SMS can see a significant increase in revenue production. Here are a few reasons why SMS marketing can assist you in generating income:

• Smartphones are owned by 62 percent of the world’s population.
• More and more people are preferring to engage with brands using text messages (SMS).
• Customers can shop from their phones using mobile payment alternatives, making it more convenient for them.
• As a result of data analysis, SMS offers greater possibility for personalization.

Reply-to-Buy

The ‘reply-to-buy’ function in SMS is one of the most beneficial things that has happened to the medium. What exactly does it mean? Customers only have to respond to your promotional SMS by entering ‘yes’ or ‘buy’ or any other phrase you want in order to purchase the item. It’s that simple.

In this type of SMS marketing, the customer’s contact information, payment information, and other information have already been registered with the company. As soon as the customer responds positively, the transaction is completed automatically.

This feature has made it quite simple for eCommerce businesses to sell their products online. The following are the reasons why it works so well:

• Customers will have to go through fewer steps in order to complete their transaction.
• M-commerce is on the rise, and this functionality goes even farther in terms of improving the user experience.
• It is significantly easier and speedier for customers than many other purchasing techniques.
• Brands can use this feature in conjunction with FOMO and urgency to increase sales.

Reorder Reminders

Reordering or replenishing a supply is easier than ever with SMS. In order to keep up with the growing number of customers who want to shop from their mobile phones, businesses have begun to transition from email notifications to SMS notifications for sending replenishment reminders. Because it allows users to make purchases directly from their phones, it is a convenient option.

With subscription models becoming increasingly popular in practically every type of business, reorder reminders sent via SMS let customers have a quick, seamless buying experience. Customers are more likely to place orders as soon as they read the text messages since the nature of the message – that it is a reminder – encourages them to do so. They can place the order immediately through their smartphones because they do not want to forget to place the order.

Brands are becoming increasingly competitive in the SMS marketing space.

Similarly to email and social media, brands are also beginning to become increasingly competitive when it comes to SMS marketing campaigns. Every company aspires to catch clients’ attention via SMS and develop their SMS strategy into a profitable business venture.

In addition, when there is an excess of something, customers tend to become choosy. Keeping track of more than a handful of brands is nearly impossible for most individuals. Customers may not want every brand to be able to contact them via SMS, for a variety of reasons. Therefore, people may only subscribe to a few different brands.

Is your company’s brand considered to be one of these? Is it possible for you to ensure that you continue to be a brand that customers choose to engage with?

Some best practices for text messaging are as follows.

• Before sending messages to customers, ensure that they have given their consent.
• Short codes should be utilized.
• Always adhere to the rules and laws governing text messaging.
• Maintain a conversational tone and respond in real time to questions and comments.
• Keep track of what is effective and what is not.

It’s critical to concentrate on the creation of SMS lists.

With increased competition in the SMS marketing industry, it will become increasingly challenging for businesses to build SMS lists and convince users to subscribe to the service. As a result, brands will need to develop methods to improve the number of SMS opt-ins they receive.

If you want to collect phone numbers from customers based on where they are in their trip on your website, here are some ideas to get you started:

• When new customers come to your site, you might use pop-ups to entice them to provide their phone number and contact information.
• When clients make their initial purchase, ask them to consent to you sending them SMS updates on the thank you page that follows.
• Customers who sign up for back-in-stock alerts should be encouraged to sign up via SMS by offering them a discount.

Conclusion

In 2024, we can expect SMS marketing to be one of the most important marketing channels used by brands to expand their reach and increase revenue. By choosing a trusted brand like Cloud Contact AI, you can guarantee that all of your company’s needs will be met. We offer high quality, affordable, and compliant SMS services to our customers. Our mission is to help you reach your goals. Get in touch with one of our experts today!