Does SMS marketing have a big impact on reaching new customers?

How do you find new customers and persuade them to come on board? It’s something that all businesses have to wrestle with. No-one can afford to sit still, everyone needs to grow their customer base or risk going backwards, but the challenge is to do this continually.

Every business also needs to tap into the power of mobile. More than three quarters of adults now own a smartphone and each of those are closely wedded to their precious device for browsing, shopping, chatting and more. It has become an all-powerful tool and, as a result, is right at the heart of the modern marketing world.

SMS marketing is a good way of addressing the latter point, but can it also help with the first too? Can texts help to get new people to spend their money with you? Here’s how…

The right platform
Many customers quite like the idea of text messages. It’s a platform they are happy to interact with a brand on, as a SAP study found, and is a method of communication that they are more likely to read and reply to than an email, for example. As a business it helps if your customers are comfortable when they talk to you.

With a mobile they feel they are in control and capable of replying how and when they wish. Many brands use a ‘text KEYWORD to 1234’ format to offer new people more information and have success with this. This can be incorporated into other marketing material – from print to TV and beyond – giving great depth to a campaign in order to fully convince a new customer that yours is a company they should do business with.

Offers, promotions and competitions

When it comes to new customers you need to catch their attention and give them a reason to come to you. They might well already use and enjoy the product or service of a rival company, so why jump ship? Offers and promotions are a strong way to win people over. Giving a big discount on a product is enticing – as is giving items away in competitions.

A batch of text messages can be used to offer coupons to a large group, get people to click through to web pages or to enter into competitions (using the same message format as above). All of these can be the difference in securing someone’s custom and there’s no format as quick, easy and successful as SMS to deliver this.

Look after your existing customers

You shouldn’t ignore the need to keep hold of your existing customers. Keep them sweet and coming back for more and you’ll actually be going a long way towards attracting new people too. The offers and promotions you send out can help foster a good reputation and that, in turn, will encourage people to make word of mouth recommendations about your business. Your existing customers are your best ambassadors. Send messages that they’ll want to show off to their friends and you will benefit.

SMS marketing gives your business the perfect platform to engage with new customers and the ability to hook people in with enticing offers, promotions and competitions. This is also an effective way to keep your existing customers happy so that they will recommend you to their friends and family.