Because cellphones and text messages are ever more engrained in our lives, mobile marketing strategies can capitalize on your contacts' attachments to their phones. SMS marketing provides solutions for reaching customers and accessing new customers. These services also provide you a level of convenience by allowing you to manage your marketing efforts from your desktop. Keep in mind the following criteria when you're choosing an SMS marketing service to use.
The features a company offers are the first thing you'll look for when choosing which mobile marketing company to partner with. Services need to provide much more than the ability to send mass messages to your audience. Look for a service that allows you to create a two-way conversation with you consumers. Key features include auto-responses, free inbound messaging and online sign up.
The best services allow you to geo-track consumers and send them messages when they are near your store. Another feature to look for is the ability to personalize text messages with the first name of your customers. These features help you develop a stronger bond with consumers.
Another area to pay close attention to is campaign management. The platform that you manage your campaign from should be easy to use and intuitive. Look for services that allow you to create unlimited contact lists and groups. Another key feature is the ability to import contact lists so that you do not waste time manually uploading contact information.
The best services allow you to schedule automated messages as well as manually send out messages on an individual basis. These can come in handy when you have sales going on and want to alert everyone or when someone is having a birthday and you'd like to offer them an exclusive deal.
SMS campaigns produce valuable data on whom your messages are reaching and on where your efforts might be lacking. This information can only benefit you if you have the correct tools to organize and analyze it. An efficient text message marketing service gives you the tools you need to monitor data like your inbound responses and delivery notifications. The best SMS services also provide the ability to track message carriers and consumers that are opting out of services. Look for services that provide not only numerical data, but also charts and graphs.
While most of the platforms for mobile marketing we reviewed are user-friendly and intuitive to use, you can still run into trouble or have questions about how to use a certain tool or feature. Help should be provided to you through email, phone and live chat. The best SMS companies will be quick to respond with knowledgeable representatives.
Text message marketing should enhance your existing marketing strategies and give you a new avenue to reach your customers. Whichever service you choose needs to be the right fit for your company and your business needs.
