A Beginner’s Guide On Promotional SMS For Businesses

Understanding Promotional SMS

What Is Promotional SMS

Promotional SMS are messages used to market and advertise products or services. It is often interchangeably used as promotional text messages or SMS marketing.

Businesses can use promotional SMS to inform customers about new product launches, discounts, upcoming events, sales announcements, special offers, etc.

Leveraging effective SMS features such as responsiveness, immediacy and high engagement, companies interact with their prospects for marketing or promotional purposes.

For this, businesses need advanced features like SMS API, automation, bulk messaging and SMS templates to create their marketing campaign.

Choosing the right SMS API platform, like Route Mobile, is paramount to achieving monumental outcomes for your promotional SMS practices.

What Are The Benefits Of Promotional SMS?

Here are the benefits of promotional SMS:

• High deliverability and open rate
• Fastest delivery
• High click-through rate (CTR)
• Offer opt-in and opt-outs
• Cost-effective marketing solution

What Are The Use Cases Of Promotional SMS?

Here’s how companies use promotional SMS to send:

• New product release
• Welcome messages
• Sales announcements
• Upcoming events registration
• Customer surveys and feedback
• Flash sales
• Time-sensitive discounts and offers
• Personalised product recommendations

When To Run Promotional SMS Campaigns

Here’s when you can run promotional SMS campaigns:

• Special Offers & Discounts: Creating brand pull by informing your prospects about special offers, cashbacks and discounts
• Giveaways: An effective way to attract a large volume of prospects is by sending high-value product giveaway messages.
• Seasonal Offers: Message potential buyers at the right time during the seasonal shopping periods through great deals and offers.
• Flash sales or clearance: Leverage a sense of urgency, lucrative deals or very low prices on out-of-stock products to drive a heavy volume of buyers.

Also Read: A2P Messaging In 2024 – A Deep Dive

How To Get Started With Promotional SMS?

Explore the full potential of Promotional SMS by utilizing the SMS API platform. It allows businesses to send, receive, automate and manage SMS marketing campaigns.

Choose a reputed business service provider offering the most heavy lifting in API integration so you can simply focus on crafting compelling promotional messages for higher ROI.

We at Route Mobile offer SMS API solutions featuring services like A2P messaging for businesses, along with a comprehensive suite of advanced tools and features.

Our CPaaS solutions further help seamless SMS API integration where companies can use SMS functionalities without needing expensive backend or technical expertise.

We’ve made it as simple as the following steps:

• Get started with Route Mobile services by contacting our experts and signing up.
• Select the relevant messaging product offering bulk SMS, promotional SMS, campaign management, personalisation, etc.
• Import your customer contacts.
• Ensure you comply with local regulations such as consent, opt-out information, etc.
• Create your first promotional SMS campaign
• Schedule and send messages
• Track, A/B test, monitor and analyse campaign performance

Also Read: 10 Essential Metrics For Measuring The Impact Of Promotional SMS Campaigns

Pro Tips To Write Effective Promotional SMS

Maintain Professionalism

Here are some tips for maintaining professionalism with your promotional SMS:

• Avoid using any slang, emojis or abbreviations
• Never use caps
• Do not use too many question marks or exclamations
• Use emojis or exclamation only when necessary or add value
• Be personable in your messages
• Ensure the language you use is consistent with brand identity

Write Short & Precise Messages

Since SMS has a character limit, you have very few words to convey your message as clear, concise and impactful as possible. Avoid explaining too much or sharing unnecessary details.

Must Include Clear CTA

Ensure all your promotional messages include a clear, concise and actionable call to action (CTA). “Buy now”, “View products”, and “Use coupon code XYZ” are great examples of a clear and compelling CTA.

Open With Attention-Grabbing Statement

Always begin your SMS with a compelling, attention-grabbing, impactful statement, hook, or question to immediately capture the recipient’s interest.

Then, make them continue to read with clear messaging about what value they get from the SMS or what problem it solves for them.

Get Permission

Businesses must comply with the country’s laws and regulations regarding sending marketing/promotional SMS to recipients.

One is to get permission or explicit consent from recipients through opt-in forms during the checkout process or from other platforms.

Create a Sense Of Urgency

Companies can use a sense of urgency to motivate prospects to make faster purchase decisions. Another way to create a sense of urgency is through creating scarcity or limited availability of a product.

Personalize Message

Personalize your messaging to ensure your marketing efforts stand out from the competition. One simple yet effective practice is to address the message by the recipient’s name.

You can also utilize advanced tools such as segmentation, artificial intelligence and data analytics to create more personalized campaigns based on customer data such as purchase history, demographics, abandoned carts, etc.

Also Read: How A2P Messaging Enhance Customer Engagement?

Conclusion

Any text message sent to prospects to sell, promote or advertise is simply a promotional SMS. Promotional SMS also leverages the effectiveness of SMS communication channels for business, ranging from high open rates to convenience. It further translates into improving customer engagement and boosting sales significantly.

Collaborate with a leading cloud communication service provider like us to achieve the best results. We at Route Mobile are known for simplifying business communications using our diverse range of SMS-based services, such as A2P messaging, 2-way messaging and more. Contact our experts today to get started.

FAQs

What Are The Difference Between Promotional SMS and Transactional SMS?

Promotional SMS is sent to engage customers for marketing purposes, including lead generation, sales, driving traffic, sign-ups, and brand awareness. In contrast, transactional SMS is more about delivering critical information to customers without marketing goals such as password reset, account information, OTP, delivery updates, etc.

How To Get Consent For Promotional SMS?

You need to get an explicit opt-in from the prospects before sending them any promotional SMS. This particular message called opt-in SMS, is required by compliance and regulations. You can obtain opt-in during checkout through a checkbox or using a form.

How To Grow Promotional SMS Subscriber List?

Leverage your social media presence and reach to increase subscribers for your promotional SMS. Offer helpful lead magnets or incentives like discounts in exchange for sign-up. Use easy opt-in forms and make them simple for customers to subscribe. Put a check box to get consent from your existing customers during checkout.