With today’s social media platforms and email, some may think that technologies like SMS and voicemail are a thing of the past. However, this doesn’t mean that the platforms being used right now are as effective. According to research, the average open rate of an email is about 15-25%, which means you might not be able to break through a noisy marketplace.
Conversely, the average open rate for SMS is over 70%, while over 90% of all business calls go to voicemail. With those numbers, this article outlines how SMS and voicemail can offer your business a competitive advantage.
Let’s get started.
How Can SMS Benefit Your Business?
It may come as a surprise, but many people still take SMS seriously to this day. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider SMS for your business:
1. Higher Degree Of Personalization
Messages on social media don’t often carry much weight because they’re usually for public consumption. However, a mobile phone is personal to an individual and they will regard a message sent via SMS with more intimacy. Furthermore, you can make your message even more personal by customizing it.
Personalizing your message can increase your sales and customer loyalty by making your customers feel special. You can also promote different kinds of information via SMS, such as:
- Rewards for loyal points to repeat customers
- Sale announcements
- Information about a new product
- Discounts and offers
- News to engage your customers
You can segment your customers and send messages as per your marketing objectives.
2. Affordable
Small businesses and startups must keep their costs low. Advertising via social media platforms or other forms of media can cost a lot of money, but there is no high cost of sending an SMS to thousands of people. Moreover, the campaign will bring tremendous results if you work on your copy.
Similar to an email autoresponder, there are software that allow you to send SMS in bulk. In addition, these applications have many add-on features to increase the effectiveness of the campaign. A reliable bulk SMS service provider you can check out is Drop Cowboy.
3. Immediate Delivery
The response rate of SMS is faster than any other medium. All you need to do is prepare a message and send it to your customers within a few clicks. SMS software typically have a simple user interface that allows even non-tech-savvy people to understand and work with it quickly. In addition, you can get immediate insights on who opened and read your messages, and who ignored them.
4. Supplement Other Marketing Methods
Being omnipresent in the eyes of your potential customers can enhance your brand image, thereby increasing your chances of making a sale. If you advertise your brand in front of customers and then send emails to them, it will likely make them consider your offer. Mix this up with a personalized SMS and they will be more eager to act.
5. It Is Convenient For Both The Sender And Receiver
Bulk SMS marketing helps remove all kinds of inconveniences for both senders and receivers. For instance, there’s no need to have a specific time for posting to senders, and receivers don’t need to check the message immediately. Unlike social media posts, your SMS won’t disappear within a few seconds.
Moreover, senders can send their messages whenever they like, and it doesn’t interrupt the receivers. Receivers get the notification, and they can check their SMS when they’re free. Furthermore, users will be in a clear mind to reply to your message, boosting your chances of engaging customers and fulfilling your marketing objectives.
6. Reach Out To A Global Audience
Like email marketing, there is no limit to whom you can reach out with SMS marketing. Many people all over the world have access to a cellphone, but not everyone has access to the internet. SMS marketing makes it easier for you to reach out to almost anyone all over the world.
Moreover, this reach is almost instantaneous. If your potential customers are in developing countries, SMS marketing can help you get better results compared to other marketing mediums.
7. Know More About Your Customers
If you want to get more from your existing audience, it’s crucial to know more about your customers. According to research, SMS marketing has an average response rate of 31%. What this means is that you can get to know answers to specific questions within a few clicks. Since the delivery of SMS is immediate, you can obtain a response from your customers within a few minutes.
8. Enhance Customer Experience
Your customers may not always have an internet connection, but they almost always have access to SMS. By providing SMS service to your customers, you can quickly respond to their queries, which can tremendously boost their level of satisfaction. Moreover, you can also set up a customized SMS reply that can be delivered to customers in real-time. Providing an immediate response to their queries and concerns will make your customers want to maintain a healthy relationship with your company.
9. Easier To Track Results And Improve Your Performance
As previously mentioned, you can immediately monitor the performance of your campaign. It allows you to see which SMS copy is working and which ones are not. By understanding the performance of your campaigns, you can improve on future messages and work on the most efficient strategies for your business.
Why Should You Take Ringless Voicemail Seriously?
SMS marketing can help you boost your profit and combining it with ringless voicemail can amplify your return on investment. Creating a ringless voicemail campaign is quite simple, too. Reliable ringless voicemail service providers have a simple interface, which lets you seamlessly create a ringless voicemail campaign. For a detailed tutorial on creating a voicemail campaign, check out this video:
Let’s check out the reasons for integrating ringless voicemail into your marketing strategy:
1. It Is Non-Intrusive
For many people, it can be annoying to talk to a random stranger on the phone. Some don’t even want to hear a salesperson pitching their products over a telephone. Therefore, a ringless voicemail can be a great solution since it’s non-intrusive, and receivers don’t even need to hear a ringtone when you send a voicemail. Only a silent notification is delivered so you won’t disrupt the receiver from their activities.
2. Send The Perfect Pitch
Telemarketers need to spend a lot of time pitching their products one by one to various potential customers, leaving them with little chance to correct mistakes they may have mentioned over the phone. If your salespeople send the wrong message, it will create a false expectation among your customers, which can damage the reputation of your company later on.
However, a ringless voicemail allows you to craft the perfect pitch and send it to hundreds of potential customers. You can edit the message as much as you like and prepare an ideal pitch. And all you need to do is develop the perfect script, record it, and then send it. It’s also possible to have multiple sales scripts to test and choose the best sales pitch.
3. Higher Rate Of Returned Calls
Your target audience can listen to your voicemails repeatedly, especially when they’re free and have a clear mind. This can make your audience not only well-informed about the product, but also care about it more. When your potential buyers call back after listening to a voicemail, you have a higher chance of converting them into a customer. This way, your salespeople can answer objections from informed leads instead of trying to explain the product to a cold audience. A higher rate of returned calls also allows companies to perform further analysis.
4. Reach A Mass Audience Without Much Cost
To send a voicemail, you only need to record your message once, saving your sales representative a lot of time. There’s also no need to pay a lot of money to telephone service providers for hundreds of calls. Like SMS marketing, there’s no limit to who you can reach via a ringless voicemail and you can instantly send one to a lot of people by recording only a single message.
5. Perfectly Complies With Policies
Not complying with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) can get you in a lot of legal trouble. The TCPA is a federal statute established for protecting consumer privacy. A reliable voicemail service provider understands and adheres to the limitations and regulations stipulated within the TCPA.
You can test your message and send it to your customers with peace of mind, as you won’t be going against the regulations of the TCPA.
6. Integrate Perfectly With Other Marketing Techniques
There’s no need for you to set up a new marketing campaign to integrate ringless voicemail. You can incorporate it without altering your current digital marketing campaigns.
You can follow up with a ringless voicemail once you get a positive response from your leads via other marketing mediums, which can tremendously boost your return on investment.
Final Thoughts
Getting your messages to customers in today’s noisy marketplace is quite challenging. As a business owner, you should do everything in your budget and capacity to convey the right information to your target audience. Keep in mind that your business will only survive if you consistently build a connection with your customers.
SMS and voicemail can be two powerful assets for your business today. These technologies can offer an immense return on investment for your effort.
Are you going to harness the power of SMS and voicemail now?
