By Monica Mihu

SMS marketing (a.k.a. mobile marketing) has become a technique widely used in marketing strategies. It has gained a great popularity due to the fact that it implies a simple process and it promises results that help businesses grow. These are just two reasons why small businesses need to start using SMS marketing.

Small businesses are working their way in a market that is dominated by competition. Each business field has its big key players. Thus, forming and maintaining a strong position becomes a difficult task for small businesses. This is why small business owners should focus on marketing strategies and techniques that will increase their chances of success. Success also means that your business enters a new stage and it grows.

SMS marketing can be used for different purposes, depending on your business objectives and values. You can use this technique to:

• Send event notifications
• Announce your audience about your latest offers
• Send coupons and special discounts
• Remind your ‘old’ customers about your business

Using SMS marketing will bring a small business several benefits. Here are 5 of them.

–Reach your target audience

SMS marketing makes it very easy for small businesses to send a message to their target audience. The best part is that the open rate of texts exceeds 99% and 90% of them are opened in the first 3 minutes. This almost guarantees that the messages that small businesses send are read. Therefore, the first stage of the marketing campaign is done: the message is acknowledged by the right people.

Another advantage for small businesses is that they can reach their audience globally. For example, if a small company is based in Paris and their target audience is in London, they can easily send texts with their offers to their current and potential new customers. This also helps them extend. Small businesses can reach new categories of potential customers, as they are not limited to a specific geographic area.

-Send a great number of messages

If you are thinking of starting a great marketing campaign where you will send more than 1000 texts to your target audience, do not feel overwhelmed by the high numbers. You can send a large number of SMS. The numbers vary from one text marketing service to another. Some companies allow you to send up to 10,000 texts in a SMS marketing campaign.

-Easy and fast process

When we speak about SMS marketing, we speak about sending text messages. Not only is this an easy and fast process, it is also an action that people are familiar with. It implies creating a short message and sending it to a list of contacts. When combined with the idea of great results at the end of each campaign, SMS marketing becomes a technique that has a positive impact on the growth process of a small business.

-Personal approach

SMS marketing enables businesses to reach people on a very personal device: their mobile phone. This makes the entire strategy a more personal one. People need to feel that they are contacted by another person, not by a company. Taking into consideration this aspect can have a positive impact and can increase the success rate of the campaign.

Moreover, the messages you send have a special characteristic: they can have maximum 160 characters. Thus, the messages that businesses want to transmit need to be short, precise and clear. People have to understand what you are saying from the first words. Leave out the unnecessary details and just tell them your news or offer.

-It is not spam

For people to receive texts from you, they have to give you their phone number. They do this by signing up with their phone number to receive SMS from you or by giving their phone number in your opt-in or sign-up forms. This means that they give their consent to get news, notifications or promotional offers from you.

However, it is important to send a reasonable number of messages in a period of time. You do not want to be perceived as an intrusive business that advertises its products and services aggressively.

These are just a few of the benefits SMS marketing brings to small businesses. It is a useful technique that can offer great results and influence the growth process of the company. The key to success is to integrate it in your marketing strategy, to use it to fulfill your established objectives and to adapt it according to your needs and your business values.

How does SMS marketing work for your small business? Share your experience with us in a comment below.

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Monica Mihu is a copywriter at Helparo, a blog dedicated to helping small businesses grow. For more guidelines and information, follow Helparo on Twitter at @Helparo.