3 easy ways SMBs can use text messaging to boost engagement

At Sinch we love dreaming big…but even better than dreaming is making those dreams a reality! That’s why today is a special day: MessageMedia is now officially a part of Sinch!

We announced in June that we would be joining forces with MessageMedia, a leader in mobile messaging solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). And now the acquisition is complete…paving the way for us to continue to build upon the #1 platform for mobile messaging and customer engagement for SMBs around the world!

We can’t wait to get started – so to celebrate, we’d like you to give you a few concrete, actionable tips to start transforming your customer communication. Tara Salmon, Chief Marketing Officer at MessageMedia, is here to spill the beans on how to use SMS marketing to boost your small business!

Here’s the thing about SMS text messaging: it’s a double-edged sword. Research shows that 90% of customers prefer to communicate with businesses through messaging, and a lot of your customers actually want you to reach out. That’s great! But, you also need to be careful. Because almost 80% of shoppers will ignore a retailer’s offer if it’s not personalized (of course, we offer personalization through messaging for larger enterprises. Now we will do that for SMBs, too.)

That’s the key word here: personalization. With so much competition, businesses (small and large!) need to stand out with superior customer experiences. Customers buy more from a company that knows their name and personal preferences.

Luckily, sending personalized SMS at scale doesn’t have to be hard! One easy way to do it is with mobile landing pages – personalized, interactive links embedded in a text that go beyond simply greeting the customer by name. Mobile landing pages can display your business logo, high-resolution images, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons. All of these can be segmented and tailored for your audience. (Oh, and did we mention that it’s all trackable? So you’ll know exactly how engaged each customer is, making it easy to calculate ROI!)

It’s an easy technique that gets results. One great example is MessageMedia customer The Athlete’s foot, which used mobile landing pages to offer discount vouchers to new, existing, or churned loyalty club members. The campaign achieved an impressive 13 percent click-through rate! (Read the full story here.)

This one might seem obvious, but it’s so important that it’s worth mentioning: SMS marketing shouldn’t be siloed! Whatever system you’re using to send customer texts, make sure it can be integrated with your other technology systems, whether that’s Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, or whatever else. Why? Because it makes everything better for you and your customers.

For example, using SMS from within the NetSuite interface enables delivery updates to customers so they know exactly when to expect their items. Integration of Adobe Campaign provides SMS for marketing promotions and campaigns, special offers, alerts, payment reminders, and more.

Even better, you can automate these processes. And that means more scale with less work! By building SMS into existing automation workflows, you can trigger personalized customer updates and offers at any stage of the customer journey.

For instance, an online retailer on Shopify can now send automated SMS reminders every time a shopper abandons their cart to recover a potential lost sale. This not only increases customer engagement levels but also stops the loss of precious potential revenue. It’s a no-brainer!

Last but not least, remember: SMS marketing should be a conversation. View it more like a friendly chat than shouting through a megaphone.

We already know that customers prefer to contact businesses via a digital channel. However, despite the fact that most of us (especially millennials) won’t call a business, we still expect a fast response that resembles a two-way conversation.

That’s exactly what 2-way SMS delivers! Features such as dedicated (or virtual) numbers support inbound SMS, and also mean that all your messages originate from the same number. Customers can save your dedicated number and use it to contact you.

An automated SMS service goes a step further, turning a 1-way message into an engaging, automated 2-way SMS conversation with customers. providing real-time delivery and responses through rules which trigger a desired action.

So…the question is, what are you waiting for?

Whether your business uses mobile messaging for marketing, customer service, employee communication, appointment reminders, authentication, or something else…the results speak for themselves. MessageMedia customers have seen a 40% reduction in abandoned carts, cut handling costs by 30%, boosted customer satisfaction by over 100%, and more. And now, MessageMedia and its sub-brands ClickSend, and SimpleTexting, are now all under the Sinch umbrella!

And if you’re an SMB not using the platform…well, it’s time to get started! Get in touch with our team – we can’t wait to help you delight your customers and drive incredible business results.

Want to learn more about SMS for SMBs? Download MessageMedia’s ebook, “Getting the messaging: Consumer attitudes to business SMS”.