7 reasons why SMS Marketing is vital in today's strategies:

It is not a secret that we live in a mobile-focused world, with the latest stats suggesting that over 5 billion people on our planet own a cell phone. As a matter of fact, the reliance on mobiles in the next few years is expected to keep growing, as more and more individuals are getting access to the latest technologies. And although marketing via social media platforms is gaining so much attention lately, there will always be pros and cons for every single marketing option. That is exactly why, a successful business should make sure of reaching out to customers and potential ones, via every possible way, including SMS Marketing and bulk SMS.

Keeping that in mind, here are 7 reasons why you should introduce SMS Marketing and especially bulk SMS to your marketing strategy:

1. SMS messages typically have higher opening rates:

According to a recent study by American technology news magazine 'Cellit', SMS messages have 8 times the response rate of an email. In other words, sending an SMS increases the chances of reaching your message to the customer by 8 times. The same can be said when comparing SMS Marketing and bulk SMS messages to posts on various social media platforms, from Facebook, to Instagram, to Twitter et al. How often does the average user ignore such posts, either because they are not catchy enough, or too long to read, or perhaps because she/he is not in the mood?

On the other hand, when a potential customer receives an SMS, she/he will almost certainly open it and take the time to read it, as SMS is by nature more engaging, despite being an old-school way. The messages are usually short and straight to the point. This is what most users want nowadays, as all scientific studies prove that this generation is becoming lazier in terms of reading and concentration. Let's be honest, each one of us can relate, right?

2. An SMS is by nature less annoying than an email:

Your email inbox is very precious to you, especially if you are looking for relevant information related to a potential job interview, a new tech-product that is set to be released, information regarding your payments from the bank, or for any other reason. Imagine when at the end of the day, you login to your email, open your inbox and find out that you have 15 unread messages. It gets even worse, when you literally have no interest in 90% of them. You know what comes next? Exactly, unsubscribing. It is very common for users to unsubscribe from emails that keep spamming them with irrelevant information. However, stats show that with every 1000 SMS being sent, only 37 have led to unsubscribing, at a very impressive rate of merely 3.7%.

3. Cost-effective:

An SMS marketing strategy is indeed cost-effective. If we compare how much money it costs to send an SMS against how much it does for promoting a Facebook post or buying an ad spot, we can notice how much cheaper the former is. By saving money, any business or agency can take advantage in various ways: such as paying higher salaries to its employees and therefor becoming a more attractive destination for potential candidates, or by even dedicating a higher budget to train new employees. These are few of many ways to benefit from reducing costs and saving budget.

4. Mobile-friendly:

If we look back a couple of years ago, we can remember how dominant Nokia was in the mobile industry. So was Blackberry. But when you don't catch up with the latest technology, you are usually left behind. There is no room for time-wasting in today's very demanding market. Your customers will never be loyal for you, at the expense of their personal interests. When a company fails to match its clients' needs, they will go somewhere else.

The same can be said about marketing agencies that are not mobile-friendly today. More and more people are doing their business operations via mobile. While using SMS Marketing and bulk SMS isn't the only mobile-friendly strategy of reaching out your potential customers, it is certainly one of the most important ones.

5. SMS Marketing and bulk SMS are compatible with other marketing strategies:

If a firm uses SMS Marketing in order to communicate with clients, it does by no means prevent it from using other platforms at the same time. As a matter of fact, they can complement each other, helping the business reach its full potential and attain as many potential clients as possible. Why reach 70% of people when you can work a little bit harder and reach the maximum by simply introducing SMS Marketing and bulk SMS?

The success of a business should never be limited to making more profit than loss. A leading company must optimize its business operations and take as much advantage as possible of all its resources. If you are satisfied with mediocrity, you will find yourself thrown out of the market in the blink of an eye - as was the case with former famous gaming console 'Sega'.

6. SMS Marketing and SMS Bulking can strengthen customer engagement:

There is always a special feeling of intimacy when a client receives an SMS. It is something very intimate, that makes her/him feel valued and important. While it is well-known among anyone familiar with technology that these SMS messages are programmed and sent based on a huge database that companies already possess, many clients fail to acknowledge this fact, and fall for the intended trap.

"Hey look, they sent me their birthday wishes! They remembered me even before dad."

That SMS was most-probably automated, but it's always a nice way of contacting customers. If not for a direct call to action, then at least to help create a solid bond between a business and its current clients. Because as we said earlier on, nothing lasts forever. Not even Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's dominance on the Ballon d'Or!

7. Quick delivery:

A user may not even login to her/his Facebook account for a whole day, in case the schedule was busy. Or a user may login to Facebook but forget, or be lazy enough, to navigate throughout his timelines on other platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Of course some may have the time for it, but the majority of the users who make an action that is profitable for businesses, are usually the elder, who are working for a long duration and do not have enough time to spot on all your notifications.

Meanwhile, a catchy SMS about an upcoming promotion or about the arrival of a new rare product in the market with the relevant websites next to it, could certainly grab the attention of the ones who would be interested. It is also worth noting that users tend to receive a much higher number of emails per day, than SMS messages. This is especially the case for businessmen who are always busy responding to emails related to work. You can bet that there is a high possibility, this email about the promotion could easily get lost in between all these notifications.

To conclude, a successful business has to keep up with the pace of technology. The ideal situation is to combine all the useful marketing tools together, rather than putting all your efforts on social media, or only on SMS Marketing and bulk SMS. All of them are compatible. An SMS can even help you target new customers, win their interest, and end up linking them to your website or your social media platforms. This would be the perfect scenario.

In a decade from now, there could be new marketing tools that emerge and take the spotlight away from current ones, or to the least, make them much less relevant. This is why technology is about keeping up with what's going on. You can never rule out any possibility, you should always be open for evolution and for implementing new ideas. This is the difference between huge corporations like Apple, that are never satisfied with what they have achieved, and continue to be innovative and proactive. But for the moment, SMS Marketing and bulk SMS remain vital for every business.

Click for more information about bulk SMS.