Text message broadcasting, aka SMS marketing, has changed the landscape of digital marketing forever. That said, you should familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of it before you decide if it is right for your business. Also, you should be aware that most SMS marketing platforms have tools to make everything easier for you. With that in mind, let's go over the pros and cons of text message broadcasting for your business.
Pros
Let's get one thing out of the way - there are many more pros than cons when it comes to SMS marketing for businesses. This is why it is considered the future of marketing by many, and the future is now. In any case, there are all the benefits of SMS marketing that you should know about.
Affordable
SMS marketing is extremely affordable, even if you're using an online SMS service, which you should be if you actually care about succeeding with your campaigns. The reason it is so affordable is that it is so simple. On top of that, the affordability will help you to achieve bigger ROIs on your marketing campaigns and give you more wiggle room to get your sales funnels optimized when you first get started.
Easy to Use
Speaking of being simple, text message broadcasting really is the easiest form of marketing aside from just handing someone your business card. In fact, it is no exaggeration to tell you that even your janitor could run your SMS campaigns if you're using an SMS platform to tie everything together. This ease of use makes running SMS campaigns faster, easier, and more effective in just about every regard.
Massive Reach
There are basically two ways to do a text broadcast - a huge volume-driven message that reaches as many of your subs as possible and messages focused on a very specific segment of your subs. As you can probably guess, the volume approach is excellent if you have a very homogenous audience or when you first get started and need time to collect data before you segment. Either way, SMS marketing can allow you to reach a truly massive amount of people.
Increased Focus
On the other side of things, you can use the segmentation tools provided by an SMS platform to divide your audience into subgroups. This is a good option for audiences that have a wide variety of interests, wants, and needs so that you can create more personalized messages and offers. As you may have guessed, this will turbo-charge your conversion rates and increase the trust and authority associated with your brand.
Instant Sales
Have you ever wanted to generate sales with the touch of a button? With Text message broadcasting you can! Thanks to the fact that texting gets instant engagement, you can send out a text for an offer and just watch the sales roll in. It really is that simple. Just don't overdo it with this tactic as your subs can become jaded about it.
Cons
Okay, now for the cons of text message broadcasting. Bear in mind that most of these are situational and may not apply to you or your business at all. However, they are something to think about when you're considering SMS marketing.
Segmentation Takes Time
If you're looking for massive conversion rates right off the bat, you may be disappointed. This is because getting high conversion rates requires segmentation which requires data collection. In other words, it will take time before you can refine your SMS marketing campaigns for big conversions. In the meantime, using the large volume approach works well to increase your total number of conversions.
Competition
When we say competition, we don't just mean with other businesses, we mean with everyone who is texting your customers. Their family, friends, and even workplaces are probably texting them regularly. This means that your messages could get lost in the shuffle. To avoid this, make your messages more personal/useful, send them out during time periods of high engagement, and surprise your subs with special offers so they will fear missing out if they don't read.
SMS Marketing is the Future
Let's be honest; the pros of SMS marketing far outweigh any cons. This means that if you're not using SMS marketing to fuel your business, you should consider jumping on board as soon as possible. It is one of the best investments you could ever make for your business.
