SMS = Savvy Marketing Service?
We are a nation of mobile phone lovers, more than 32 million of us possess a smartphone and an additional 14 million handsets are expected to be in circulation in the next five years!
On average we each spend 66 hours per month staring at our mobile devices, a figure which is still on the rise and is expected to continue that way for some time. With that in mind, using SMS Messaging as a marketing tool seems to be a no-brainer.
Why Is SMS A Vital Marketing Tool?
SMS Messaging provides an immediate, personal way to communicate with your audience. Almost 75% of businesses in the UK believe that customers want some sort of SMS interaction, and a similar number of customers prefer to receive an SMS rather than a phone call.
The open rate of a SMS message is absolutely huge, 90% of messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery and 98% of SMS get opened the same day. Compare this to an average email which has an open rate of less than 20% in total!
Furthermore, an SMS marketing message has an average click rate of 19%, compared to an email which is 2.43%. This means that an SMS will create 8 times more traffic viewing your campaigns and buying your products than a similar email.
How Can SMS Work For Me?
The uses of SMS for your business are almost endless, the medium is perfect for promotional and time-sensitive messages, these include:
- Promotions & Special Offers - Send great deals direct to your customers' pockets, use shortened URLs to direct them to buy.
- Announcements - Share important information with your clients and customers.
- Appointment Reminders - Reduce no shows with an SMS to jog their memory.
- Booking & Order Confirmations - Send confirmation of a completed payment and expected delivery date, etc...
- Despatch & Delivery Notifications - Give customers the peace of mind that their purchase is on its way or has been successfully delivered.
- Feedback / Survey Requests - See how your customers feel about your service with a link to a review site or survey.
SMS Display Name
To enhance your SMS messages, you can change your SMS Display Name to your registered company name.
Using an SMS Display Name is an easy way to brand your SMS to help your customers identify the source of the SMS.
Display Names can be requested from within the SMS section of myTTNC
Automating SMS Messaging
We have a wide range of API functions which cover many aspects of your TTNC account. You can use our SMS API function to automate the sending of your SMS Messages from within your system with ease.
The SMS API information we use includes:
Message - string - Content of SMS you wish to send, 160-character limit.
Destination - string - Telephone number of SMS recipient.
Originator - string - Telephone number to display.
SendLater - boolean - To schedule the SMS to send at a later date. (Optional)
Year Month Day Hour Min - strings - Date & Time of scheduled SMS send. (Optional)
More information on our SMS API can be found here.
Our API functions can be used for a wide range of data communication including importing call statistics into your own systems in almost real-time. More information regarding out API functions can be found here.
2018 statistics from www.smscomparison.co.uk (SMS) & www.mailchimp.com (Email).
