Most brands run their marketing campaigns on different channels in silos. But today, customers interact with their brands across multiple channels and expect a unified customer experience.
Delivering a seamless customer experience can be challenging if internal marketing teams are siloed and fail to communicate and align all their marketing content to a single goal.
While social media marketing has its own popularity and has yielded results for companies, SMS marketing is equally effective, given it has a four times higher open rate than emails.
Imagine the impact it can have if you combine SMS marketing with social media campaigns. SMS marketing is considered one of the easiest and quickest ways to expand your reach and get in touch with audiences, and there are about 4.59 billion social media users worldwide in July 2022.
This article will discuss different types of SMS marketing, why you should integrate SMS and social media campaigns, and how to best implement these strategies.
Quick Jump
What is SMS marketing, and what different kinds of SMS marketing exist?
In SMS marketing, businesses use text messages to generate leads and contact customers about promotional offers, newly launched products, campaigns, and other essential updates. It is also considered a form of mobile marketing that helps brands text existing and potential consumers.
Depending on the type of messages, SMS marketing campaigns have two types: promotional and transactional.
Promotional Campaigns
Promotional campaigns are created with the intent to generate interest around a product or service. Such campaigns include sending text messages to existing and prospective customers and are considered highly effective for driving more traffic to your website. Promotional campaigns typically include a call-to-action (CTA) in the text messages and can either be a one-off message or an automated SMS sequence.
Furthermore, promotional SMS marketing campaigns are designed to provide customized product recommendations to customers, inform them about the launch of a new product, share business updates, or provide special offers.
Transactional Campaigns
Transactional SMS marketing messages are sent to clients in response to an action or event and are quite effective in driving communication between the brand and the business. These SMS campaigns can help reduce your sales cycle and improve your marketing ROI. Use it to nurture leads, schedule one-on-one appointments, and send out meeting reminders, amongst other things.
It’s a great way to nurture relationships with decision-makers and consumers alike. They might not open emails, but text messages reach people directly without interrupting them.
Why Should You Integrate SMS Marketing with Social Media Campaigns?
SMS marketing is one of the cost-effective marketing channels as you don’t require any special tools to execute its campaigns. If you are skeptical about integrating SMS marketing with social campaigns, consider that the open rate for SMS is nearly 98%, while 97% of messages are read within 15 minutes of being received. For emails, that number is 21.5%.
So, why should you integrate SMS marketing with your social media campaigns?
- Using social media, you can reach a wide range of customers and communicate with them through multiple channels.
- Social media campaigns and SMS marketing are both cost-friendly and achieve successful customer segmentation.
- Social media creates a centralized hub for information about your brand, while SMS has a more personalized approach, making the two channels complementary.
The 7 best strategies for integrating SMS marketing with social media campaigns
Fortunately, the use of CRM software has made it easy to integrate all your marketing campaigns into a single platform. Using CRM, you can easily automate the workflow of sending out text messages every time an action is triggered on your social media page and vice versa.
Great social media platforms will integrate directly with your CRM so you can connect and track customer messaging across the board.
Here are a few ways to integrate your SMS marketing with your social media campaigns and watch your reach grow.
#1. Increase Your SMS Opt-Ins with Social Media Offers
Promoting your SMS marketing campaign becomes easier using social media channels, since your followers are already interested in your brand. Hence, they would be keen to sign up for your SMS list and be the first to get updates on promotional offers and any newly launched products or company updates.
Include a link as the CTA while promoting your SMS opt-in offers so that users can join in with a single click. And the CRM platform will automatically update your SMS contact list, making it easy to send out timely text messages to your list.
With the integration of SMS marketing with social media campaigns, you can tap into your already established customer base and provide attractive offers in lieu of SMS opt-ins.
#2. Create Text-to-Win Contests
Text-to-win campaigns are one of the most popular SMS marketing tactics companies use. They can be integrated into almost every social media campaign, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to generate more traffic and leads.
To execute a successful text-to-win campaign, you need first to determine your target audience, followed by identifying the goals you want to achieve through it. These goals can include lead generation, boosting conversions, improving brand awareness, maximizing participation, etc.
Using your social media handles, you can ask people to send a keyword on a particular number and inform them about the rewards that would follow. Once they send the required keyword, you can create the text messaging body and set up automated sequences with the help of your CRM tool to guide participants about the next steps.
Typically, text-to-win contests include free products, giveaways, event tickets, discounts, early access to soon-to-be-launched products, and vacation packages. These campaigns also help create hype around the brand, which is useful whenever a new product or service is introduced.
Moreover, anyone can participate in text-to-win competitions from anywhere, helping brands expand their reach to a wider audience.
#3. Stay in Touch With Your Audience
Integration of SMS marketing with social campaigns helps you stay in touch with your audience at all times. Given that text messages have a 98% open rate and are opened within minutes of being received, it proves that SMS marketing and social media go hand-in-hand.
You can use text messages to inform your customers about any changes, upcoming campaigns, or contests on your social media account. You can even curate these messages according to the needs of your audience and send them messages related to your social media posts that might be best suited to their needs.
#4. Create an Automated Reply Text Campaign
Whenever brands run a text-to-win campaign, they ask participants to enter the contest by sending a particular keyword. Once contestants text the keyword, they are entered into the competition and can proceed to the next steps.
But it doesn’t have to end there. Brands can leverage this opportunity to include an automated reply once they message the keyword.
You can thank the customer for participating and add a link in the SMS message to direct them to your social media channels for more details or inform them more about your brand.
#5. Create Targeted SMS Campaigns Using Social Media Analytics
If you are randomly sending text messages to your clients, it will not yield many responses. You can build a highly targeted SMS campaign using a social media analytics tool. With a social media campaign, you can segment your audience based on various filters such as age, gender, location, buying history, and so on. This helps you understand the needs of your audience and send them customized text messages.
Furthermore, social media analytics can help you save time by sending timely notifications to your audience, tracking the performance of your SMS marketing campaign, and encouraging them to subscribe to your social media handles.
#6. Create a Sweepstakes Promotion Campaign
A sweepstakes promotion campaign is one where winners are selected randomly, and no participation criteria are required. It is said to be a low-cost marketing tactic and can have a very high impact on expanding customer reach.
You can use sweepstakes promotional contests to send a code to users directly through a text message, which will direct them to your social media profiles upon clicking. Here, users can enter the code to participate in sweepstakes, giveaway competitions, and more
#7. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Another method of integrating text marketing with your social campaign is influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a paid partnership between an influencer and a brand, where the former promotes a business on their social media handles.
To use influencer marketing in your SMS and social media marketing campaigns, brands can ask influencers to mention keywords in their posts that would help customers sign up for SMS marketing. Since influencers usually have a large follower base, it would only help brands expand their reach and get more traffic on their website or store.
Wrap Up
Despite the emergence of digital communication, SMS marketing continues to be one of the most effective strategies for nurturing client relationships. With an open rate of almost 100% and low implementation costs, text messaging is one of the best ways for marketers to identify and generate leads, increase conversions, and enhance brand awareness.
And when combined with the power of social media campaigns, it has the potential to take your brand popularity to the next level. It’s a great way to keep your audiences engaged. Even if they miss your social media posts, you can stay in touch with your text messages.
Use this combination wisely, and watch your business grow.
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