Mobile phones have really taken off with the Australian public. Almost everyone carries one around.
As a result, SMS marketing has developed as an important new channel.
Although most of our clients use email to notify their clients, including us, there are some advantages to consider in using an SMS instead.
- SMS has a staggeringly high open rate as compared to email. A good email campaign generally gets you about 20 per cent open rate. SMS messages will get you more than 99%.
- Not only that but SMS is read within an average of 7 seconds while an email average at about a day often it can be a few days.
- Lastly, people respond much higher to SMS.
Here is an actual example that occurred with one of my clients. A customer made a special order with them. It took a while to get. However, when the goods arrive in their store, an email was sent to the customer automatically that it is now available for pickup. The problem was that these goods arrived to every other shop at the same time in the area. As the person wanted the goods, they bought it in one of the other shops before they got the email. They then were nice enough to call to say how sorry they were, but they waited long enough and had not heard from the shop. So they got it elsewhere. If the shop had sent an SMS, they probably would have got the sale as the email was sent in the morning before the customer had purchased the goods.
One point I should say is there is a cost, however, with SMS. Depending on the quantity purchased with us, they range from 7.5 to 10 cents an SMS. Which I believe is the cheapest in our market space.
Please let me know if it is not.
