Over the past few years (and, in fact, the past decade or so), B2C marketing has steadily shifted towards a digital-first enterprise. Instead of billboards and radio advertisements, the focus instead has been on email, digital ads, and social media.
And now, text message marketing, or SMS marketing, is entering the fold. More and more brands are turning to SMS marketing to capture and capitalize on an audience that is already being held captive by one of the most alluring digital innovations ever – the smartphone.
Because the growth and popularity of the smartphone shows no signs of slowing down, B2C marketers are looking for ways to ramp up their SMS marketing strategies in 2020. Here are the top trends to keep in mind when planning your text marketing strategy for 2020:
Increased SMS marketing
While text marketing has shown no signs of slowing down, it is especially poised to make a big leap in popularity in 2020.
More and more brands are starting to see the benefits of texting consumers, especially for the fact that a text message delivers relevant information and data directly into the palm of a consumer with purchase power.
While brands can expect more competitors to be focused on text message marketing in 2020, it also means there is an opportunity to perfect a consumer-first texting strategy.
Collect insights and data on every text campaign to identify areas of growth and use this data to inform text campaigns throughout the year.
Integrate with mobile apps
One new trend in 2020 will be the expansion of brand-focused mobile apps.
As more and more brands start to deliver mobile apps to consumers, SMS messages will become a key channel for driving adoption and engagement on these apps. Additionally, texting will also help brands notify consumers about changes or notifications on these apps.
Whether or not your brand has a consumer app available, including a strong CTA in every customer message is key to drive them back to your website or app.
If you’re sending consumers to a website, make sure it is mobile optimized for viewing on a smartphone.
Deliver an omnichannel experience
While text marketing is great for starting or kicking off a conversation with a customer, it doesn’t have to be the only place customer conversations take place.
In 2020, B2C marketers should strive to make text messaging part of a larger omnichannel communication experience with customers.
Between texting, email, phone calls, and other channels like social media messaging and AI-powered chatbots, there are more ways than ever before for brands to communicate with customers.
A true omnichannel experience means that, regardless of channel, a brand and customer can pick up wherever they left off in a conversation and both sides are well informed of what they were discussing. By tracking customer conversations on the back end across all channels, brands can deliver true omnichannel experiences to customers in 2020 and beyond.
There are a variety of ways you can utilize SMS marketing to promote your business.
One of the biggest ways is through review requests. Send your customers a text message with a direct link to your Google and Facebook reviews pages.
In a few taps, your customers can leave you a positive review and expand your market to new customers.
The answer: YES. The reason? Customers want businesses to text them.
Polls show that 87% of consumers prefer a business text them rather than call them on the phone.
When you communicate with customers how they prefer, you are going to have more effective marketing campaigns, and higher revenue. Text messaging has many unique advantages that are not available through other forms of marketing like email and phone calls.
By combing text message marketing with your other marketing tactics, you will be able to maximize your reach and increase customer satisfaction.
Ready to get started?
Kenect knows that SMS marketing is more than just sending out a few texts to customers. It’s about insights, strategy, and customer-first action. You can learn more about implementing a B2C text marketing as part of your 2020 strategy by texting us today!