Did you know that 78% of Americans would love to be able to text with a business? What’s more, 50 million people opted to receive text messages from businesses in 2020. Plus, SMS messages have a 95% open rate and a 19% CTR rate. That’s a powerful incentive to add text message marketing to your marketing toolbox. 

What Is Text Message Marketing?

Text message marketing involves sending either simple text messages or videos, images and GIFs to encourage people to do business with your company. Both SMS and MMS text message marketing messages can be effective, but there are some key differences. 

What Is SMS?

SMS (short message service) texting is straightforward and direct: No pictures, videos, GIFs or emojis. It relies on cellular network connections and most North American plans include unlimited text messages. 

SMS texts are also cheap and easy, costing about $.01 per message to send and generally costing nothing for the recipient to receive it. It has a limit of 160 characters, including spaces and punctuation. 

If your message goes over 160 characters, most mobile network providers will break it into sequential messages of 160 characters each that may or may not arrive in the intended order. 

What Is MMS?

MMS (multimedia messaging service) includes text messaging, images, GIFs, JPEGs, emojis and video or audio clips to make the message come to life and really showcase your brand. 

MMS costs about $.03 (to start), depending on the content since more data is transmitted with each MMS text message. 

The good news is that both SMS and MMS are considered text messages, so you won’t be eating up your customers’ data plans by sending them information via text. But not all cellular providers allow MMS messages, so you do run the risk of bounce-back, but every provider across the globe allows SMS. 

Is Text Message Marketing Legal?

Short answer: Yes it is. However, there are some strict guidelines around when you can send a text message.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) administers the Telephone Consumers Protection Act (TCPA), which states before a business can send marketing messages, that business must get express written consent from the consumer. 

Consumers can specify what kind of communications they want to receive. They can also opt out, and that wish must be respected.

The TCPA states SMS campaigns can be sent from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the recipient’s timezone. It can be difficult to know a user’s location so a good rule of thumb is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time. 

Ignoring the rules will cost you: TCPA fines range from $500 to $1,500 per violation. “Per violation” is per call/text, not per message. So if you send one message to 3,000 customers without obtaining consent first, fines can add up quickly. Repeat offenders can be subject to treble damages. 

Is Text Message Marketing Effective?

Text messages are 134% more likely to be read than emails. SMS has open rates as high as 98%, often within 5 minutes of receipt. A redemption rate for SMS coupons is 10 times higher than for paper coupons issued for the same promotion. 

The pandemic turned the world upside down and sent people inside. 64% of people said they spend more time on their phones than prior to COVID-19, with 63% saying they use the default texting app to keep in contact with friends, family and business colleagues. 

People are using texts to schedule appointments, arrange deliveries, order food or arrange curbside pickups. People are already doing business by text, so it makes sense to leverage that.

The “Cyber 10” refers to the shopping days on the Sunday before Black Friday through Giving Tuesday. It’s the Shangri-la of shopping. In 2020, according to Omnisend, of the total number of e-commerce orders that occurred in the U.S. during the month of November,  72% of orders occurred during the Cyber 10, and were as a result of an SMS message. In contrast, only 27% of email orders were converted from automated email messages. 

Overall, in 2020 SMS saw a click rate of 10.6%, with a conversion rate of 2.65%, a 102% year-over-year increase. Contrast that with 2019, when SMS had a click rate of 10.08%, but a conversion rate of only 1.31%. 

How Does Text Message Marketing Work?

We’ve convinced you. Now what? Here is a brief overview of how text message marketing works. 

The Opt-In

Before you do anything with text marketing, you need to obtain a written opt-in from the customer. There are a number of ways to do this while building your SMS contact list. 

• Website widgets: This can be as simple as a “subscribe for updates” widget to a home page pop-up, site footer or a sliding subscription box that gathers more information as users continue. Once they subscribe, you send a text confirmation that clearly states they are opting in for marketing communications that they must respond to. 
• The check out: Customers can opt-in when checking out to receive order status notifications and future marketing. Send the confirmation text and you’re good to go. 
• Offering a discount or other promotion as an incentive: People will often take advantage of this kind of opt-in if they can use the code right away. Have a pop-up at the checkout. 
• Advertising your SMS number: Say you’re a brick-and-mortar store. You can display an opt-in keyword, such as “text FASHION to 77777 to get a weekly list of sales.” This strategy is effective when combined with a first-time subscriber discount. 

Personalize It

The more information you gather about your customers, the better you can target your campaign messages. 

For example, if someone has just bought a top in blue, text them if other color options become available. If they looked at a product but didn’t purchase, but it has now gone on sale, you can text them a notice. 

Reminders to buy refills are another great way to engage your customers, offer added value and keep your business in their sights. 

Also, if you have both text and email notifications, try not to send the same message twice. Switch it up. 

Timing

When you send depends on what type of message you are sending. If you are a restaurant offering a lunch special to your VIP clients, mid-morning will get their attention better than late afternoon. 

If you are sending out a reminder of an upcoming appointment, 48 hours ahead works well. (If you have a cancellation policy, make sure you send the reminder with enough time for the customer to adhere to your rules.)

In general, here at Radiance Labs, our research has found that the sweet spot to send SMS/MMS text messages is around 11 a.m. local time, although anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. works, and that includes the weekend. 

SMS or MMS?

In general, SMS works well for things like confirming an appointment, a delivery or a reminder to reorder a product. It also works better for time-sensitive information. 

MMS works better for any message requiring images, such as product launches, sales, new store openings or welcoming a customer to the “family”. 

A good text message marketing campaign will balance both SMS and MMS text messages.

For more, see 5 SMS/MMS Marketing Campaign Best Practices.

Final Thoughts

Text message marketing was already making its way into the ecommerce space, and the pandemic turbo-charged it. 

What was a “nice to have” in 2019 has become a competitive must-have in 2021. With millions of people ready and willing to communicate with your business via text message, it makes business sense to meet them on their devices.