Companies spend a lot of time and effort developing their core marketing channels. From cultivating email lists to segmenting social media audiences, it’s all about sending the right message to the right people, through the right medium. And today, the fastest growing channel is SMS marketing.

As more and more companies explore SMS marketing, many questions arise as to where it fits within their marketing strategy. Is it a way to solicit feedback and reviews? An upselling opportunity? A retargeting tool? Companies are beginning to realize that it can be all these things — and more! It’s a matter of embracing SMS to learn what a powerful, effective  marketing channel it can be.

How do you know if it’s time to branch into SMS marketing? Here are a few signs the time has come to embrace SMS.

1. High competition across channels

If you’re struggling to stand out within traditional marketing channels like email or social media, it’s time to explore SMS marketing.

It’s no secret that traditional channels are clogged (how many emails do you get each day?), so competition for audience attention is intense. By contrast, most consumers aren’t receiving an overwhelming number of text messages, and therefore don’t put up as much immediate resistance to them.

Whether your objective is driving sales or generating awareness, SMS may be the answer to getting your message in front of more customers, in a medium that’s less convoluted than other channels. This, in turn, drives results in core KPIs, while mitigating the number of recipients who bounce, unsubscribe or simply leave you unread.

Consider some eye-opening facts about the sheer number of competing emails, social posts, and PPC ads your audiences face on a daily basis:

• The average person receives about 126 emails per day. That’s a crowded inbox!
• In 2021, the average web user saw 6,000 to 10,000 PPC ads every single day.
• Average daily social media time is ~2.5 hours. That’s thousands of posts seen per hour.

All this adds up to an uncomfortable fact for marketers relying on traditional digital channels: you’re not alone.

2. Advertising costs are running higher

As competition crowds the usual digital marketing mediums like email, social media and PPC, it’s driving up the cost of acquisition through these channels. Google PPC ads can range from $1 per click for long-tail and obscure keywords, to as high as $50 per click for high-competition keywords. And this doesn’t account for an acquisition — just interest!

Advertisers are quickly finding that their marketing dollars aren’t going as far as they used to. If your budget seems smaller or less efficient, it’s time to explore SMS marketing as an incredibly cost-effective medium. Through a platform like Voxie, text message marketing costs pennies on the dollar, thanks largely to automation. This in turn drives down the cost of acquisition, maximizing marketing budgets.

Ultimately, lower SMS marketing costs mean more room in your budget for core marketing strategies that demand a heftier investment of both time and money.

3. Diminished returns on campaigns

Not seeing click-through rates or conversions like you used to from your campaigns? Experienced marketers know a plateau when they see one — and they know it’s a call to action to switch things up. SMS marketing offers an opportunity to shift gears and pique the interest of your audience in new ways.

The potential of SMS marketing to spark renewed interest in your messaging comes down to a few important key factors:

• SMS is a direct-to-recipient form of marketing that eliminates barriers.
• Recipients are far more likely to check and act on texts than emails.
• Text is a two-way communication medium, prompting engagement.
• SMS messages are shorter and more succinct, with a key call to action.

Instead of waiting for Facebook to show your audience an ad or relying on users to open and read your email, SMS is straight to the point in all aspects of the definition. This directness is your key to reigniting engagement KPIs and the rippling effects engagement has on things like conversions, revenue dollars, return visitors, etc.

If the time has come to give your campaigns a refresh, SMS marketing is a good fuse to light if you want to see fireworks.

4. Saturation across channels

How many times can you send the same email to customers? For many companies, email marketing has become a process of stripping off the face of the message, while leaving the bones intact. It looks like a different message, but customers are familiar with the layout, format and intention. As a result, they know they can ignore it.

SMS marketing combats this type of channel saturation by giving marketers another medium within an omni-channel marketing approach. Whether it’s a quick “hello” to solicit a review or a “you should know” text alert about a flash sale, SMS offers new opportunities to engage with customers that break out of saturated channels.

As part of an omni-channel marketing strategy, SMS opens the door for new synergies that actually de-saturate other channels. For example, you might eliminate product review emails in favor of text message follow-ups, thus cutting the number of emails a customer might receive in a month. The result is more meaningful engagement on the messages you do choose to send.

5. Peaking audience category

Have subscribers to your email list trailed off or declined? Have your Instagram follows plateaued? Are your PPC ads just not getting the clicks they once did? Peaking audiences across these channels signal the need for disruptive change. To get your brand and its messages back in front of an eager audience, you need to meet them where they are: on their phones.

More and more people are spending time on their phones, yet, they’re spending less and less time dealing with traditional advertisements. It’s too easy to flag emails as spam, unfollow social accounts and throw up an adblocker to browse the internet free of pop-ups and banner ads. To break through and recapture the attention of your audience, you need to go directly to them, via text.

Here, it’s of the utmost importance to present an authentic message. Spammy or unsolicited text messages could end you on a blocked caller list, which effectively negates the opportunities of SMS as a marketing channel.

The signs are there: watch for them

Chances are, your business has encountered at least one (if not more) of these five struggles. And, as you’ve likely realized by now, SMS marketing offers the support you need in overcoming them. It’s time to branch into SMS and explore the possibilities it offers. Voxie is ready to help your business kickstart its own text message marketing strategy.

Want to explore the powerful potential of conversational texting, to grow your business and strengthen your brand? Chat with a conversational texting expert at Voxie today to schedule a demo.