Why Text Marketing?

This is Part 1 of a 7-part series. Check out the full series below.

• Part 1: Why Text Marketing (You are here)
• Part 2: List Growth Strategies & Consent
• Part 3: Segmentation Strategies
• Part 4: Campaigns & Automations
• Part 5: Composing Great Messages
• Part 6: Measuring & Improving Results
• Part 7: Now What?

I hear a common theme from the DTC brands I’ve talked with.

“I’d never want to get text messages from a brand, so I don’t want to send them to my customers”

But, there’s a problem with this.

It doesn’t reflect the perspective of most consumers today.

Many consumers actually enjoy text. A company I previously worked at did a research report asking consumers who had purchased online in the last year whether they had signed up for text message marketing.

Over 75% said yes, and that number is still climbing.

Between appointment reminders, two-factor authentication, and political campaign text messages, today’s consumers are far more comfortable receiving text messages from brands.

But is it enough that they’re used to it? Does it actually improve the customer experience?

The truth is that text messaging, like email, can be done well or poorly. It can be abused or it can be a source of delight for consumers.

It’s all about how you execute it.

In fact, one of the great benefits of text over email is that it is more personal.

That means stronger positive reactions when you do it well and stronger negative reactions when you abuse it.

Over the next few posts, I’ll be sharing some ways to improve the consumer experience and get better results with good text message marketing.

But first, I want to leave you with a few more reasons why text marketing is so incredible.

The use cases for text marketing are plenty. The beauty of text marketing is the variety of ways that brands can and are using it to drive revenue.

Here are just a few:

Acquisition – Brands are using different opt-in techniques (that we’ll cover in a future lesson) to increase the number of subscribers on their lists.

Activation – Brands are then using smart automation and campaigns to turn those subscribers into first-time customers.

Retention – Brands that are attracting new customers also need to extend the lifetime value of that customer. Text marketing is a great way to deepen your brand’s relationship with your customers, generating more loyal fans and repeat customers.

Support – The beauty of text marketing is that it’s a conversational channel. It’s a two-way channel. That means your audience can ask questions to help them make a purchase or troubleshoot an issue. In many ways, you’re mimicking the in-store experience of speaking with an associate to help you make a decision.

Brand Building – There are plenty of short-term ways to benefit from text marketing, but one long-term way to use text marketing to increase your brand affinity and word of mouth is to provide other indirect value to your audience.

We’ve seen everything from interactive text games, to Starbucks gift card barcodes, to educational resources that help support the transformation that your customers are seeking.

As you can see there is quite a bit of potential in text marketing.

Over the next few posts, I’ll show you how you can begin to realize much of that potential.

For now, I’ll leave you with this question.

How much money might you be leaving on the table by NOT doing text marketing or by doing it poorly?