SMS Mailing Lists: A Detailed Guide for a Marketer

| Updated on February 13, 2024

SMS messages are read more often than email: according to statistics, in four out of five cases they are opened immediately. And the Open Rate of emails is only 9-23%, depending on the industry. SMS text marketing makes it simpler to convey important information: they are more likely to be read. Therefore, many marketers combine short message services and e-mails. This material is a starting guide, in which we have collected everything you need to launch an effective SMS mailing list, whether it’s text message marketing for real estate or the retail shop.

What is the Main Purpose of SMS: Basic Strategies

SMS mailing lists are a fast interaction method that is often used separately or combined with messengers and e-mails. Marketing tasks, for which SMS is most often used, are sales, gathering feedback from the customers, client service, informing about some events, and creating relevant offers.

Sending service messages via automated text messages informs the customer about placing an order, receipt of a parcel at the pick-up point, and verification. They contain important technical information for ordering, for reminders of scheduled meetings, and it can be a newsletter about promotions, a new collection, or sales. As a rule, more than 50% of people are willing to sign up for an SMS newsletter for the sake of service messages. Mailing not only increases loyalty but also lets you receive much more profit.

In creating relevant offers, SMS mailings are used on par with e-mail mailings. The messages say that the goods in the basket have fallen in price, and offer personal collections of goods or promo codes based on recent actions.

How to Make a Mass SMS Mailing: Technical Solutions

There are two different ways: to work directly with operators or through mailing services.

Operators offer to upload a database of numbers and send messages on it on your behalf: for example, you can specify the name of the store. It is impossible to create automatic message chains and segment the subscriber base by interests, the number of purchases, and other parameters. In addition, you can find mailing offers from operators on their databases. This does not work as a standard SMS newsletter, but as targeted advertising.

In the mailing services, you also upload your database of numbers and deliver messages on your behalf. There are more possibilities: you can divide the audience and set up automatic chains for sending service or relevant messages.

Sms for real estate marketing is an impressive and easy-to-use text marketing tool that helps businesses communicate effectively with their clients. This SMS marketing service provides many options with a user-friendly interface, built-in CRM, and reusability. Upload your database and save plenty of time on phone calls in several clicks. Initially, it was designed for text message marketing to real estate investors, but now it is a widespread solution for all spheres of business, providing not only SMS marketing for real estate but much more.

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of SMS Mailings

Operators and mailing services usually provide minimal analysis. Some services offer detailed analytics. Text message marketing is now developing a feature for constantly checking the activity and effectiveness of text SMS marketing and soon it will be available.

There are also other methods and tools of analytics:

  • UTM tags. Links in messages are marked with unique labels: a sale — by some, information about a new collection — by others. Then they compare the number of clicks on links with tags and understand which message brought more traffic and sales.
  • Different phone numbers for different advertising channels, promotions, or segments. After the mailing, they compare the number of calls on them and count the conversion into appeals.
  • Special landing pages for different communication channels, including SMS. This way, too, you can estimate how many people came from the email mailing list, how many from SMS messages, and what targeted actions they performed.

In case the message does not contain a link or phone number, analytics is not possible. You may only evaluate the effectiveness of marketing SMS activities in general.

How to Write Texts for SMS Mailings and What Else You Need to Know About Them

  • Write briefly. There are two reasons for this:

SMS has a limited restriction: one message can contain no more than 160 symbols.

The text in the message should be concise and informative, and most importantly — catchy from the first second. Otherwise, the person will simply swipe the notification and won’t even open the message.

  • Use personalization. Contact the recipients by name and include personal information in the messages: for example, the expiration date of the discount. This increases the conversion rate.
  • Call for action. Some mailing services recommend limiting the time: give a discount only for the next couple of days.
  • It is quite critical not only to compose an effective text message but also to deliver it on time. Some mailing services have a function for tracking the recipient’s time: set the dispatch for 13:00 — the person will get the text at one o’clock in the afternoon, even if he is in a different time zone.
  • It is also important to segment the subscriber base. This will let you send out relevant offerings that also boost conversion and reduce costs.

What is Necessary to Understand to Work with SMS Mailings According to the Law

You can not simply send texts to the client database: it’s illegal. It is also impossible to take other people’s databases of numbers and send a newsletter to them. Briefly about what is necessary to be done in order not to disrupt the requirements of the law:

  • to take consent from all subscribers to get advertising — for instance, to offer to tick a checkbox when registering on the website;
  • you can also get consent from all subscribers to the processing of their data through the checkbox;
  • notify the state authorities that you will process personal data and prepare documents: policy on confidentiality, non-disclosure obligation, and others.

Let’s Summarize

SMS text advertising is used as one of the ways to improve the number of sales, send personalized offers, gather feedback, and other tasks.

Mass mailing can be sent through an operator, but this will not give detailed analytics and segmentation of the user base. Another way is to use mailing services: they have more opportunities for analysis and segmentation.





Freddie George

Expertise

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