[SMS MARKETING SERVICE]
Boost your marketing ROI with our SMS & text marketing service
Send personalized, automated SMS messages and double your conversion rates with Infobip as your SMS marketing provider.
What is SMS marketing, and how can you use it?
Short message service (SMS) marketing allows you to send promotional messages, time-sensitive information, reminders, feedback requests, and more, directly to your customers’ mobile phones via text messages of up to 160 characters.
Much like email marketing, customers must opt-in to receive SMS marketing messages from businesses. With exceptionally high open rates (SMS open rates are 98%, versus 22% for Email marketing), SMS is a cost-effective marketing channel with high ROI.
Reach out to customers with branded and personalized messaging delivered straight to their inbox.
Enhance sales and engagement by offering discounts on relevant products through SMS. These messages capture customer interest and drive purchases effectively, making your promotions targeted and impactful.
Notifying customers of an upcoming sale deadline can drive quick decisions and increase conversions, ensuring they don’t miss out on the opportunity.
Boost engagement by inviting customers to exclusive events via SMS, or ask them to be among the first to try out your new products and services.
Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty with personalized offers sent through SMS. With a personalized offer, you can make customers feel valued and drive repeat visits, strengthening their connection with your brand.
Send personalized updates to loyal customers about their rewards or gifts via SMS. A free gift can increase their engagement with your loyalty program and encourage continued membership.
An SMS marketing provider that goes the extra mile
With industry-leading expertise in all things SMS, Infobip ensures you get all the help you need.
Stay SMS-compliant in all territories with our global compliance engine.
Get local business numbers and short codes for more than 50 countries in a matter of minutes.
Automate and personalize your SMS messages using our customer engagement solution or via a robust SMS API.
Use two-way SMS to encourage engagement and collect feedback or insights from customers worldwide.
Quickly connect to our flexible SMS API
Start sending programmable SMS messages with our comprehensive API and build the experiences your customers are looking for with:
- a basic or fully featured API
- advanced functionalities
- clear API documentation
- support from dev
The main benefits of SMS marketing
Because the vast majority of people keep their mobile phones close to hand, SMS marketing allows you to reach your customers in real-time, wherever they are. Here are some of the key benefits:
Instant engagement
90% of text messages are opened within three minutes, which means SMS marketing is arguably the fastest, and most reliable way to reach your customers.
Cost-effective
SMS marketing campaigns cost less than many traditional forms of marketing and advertising. They also typically see higher engagement rates and higher ROI than many other marketing mediums.
Easy to measure
You can track every aspect of your SMS marketing activity, from read rate to conversion, which makes it easy to understand how your campaigns are performing.
Global reach
95.5% of the world’s population own a mobile phone, and most of these phones (if not all) can send and receive text messages. This means you have the potential to reach almost all of your customers, anywhere in the world.
No internet? No problem
SMS messages don’t rely on an internet connection. They are sent via cellular networks, which means your messages get delivered even if your customers don’t have internet access.
Versatile
There is a huge range of SMS use cases. You can use text messages to communicate onboarding information, promotions, delivery updates, tracking information, appointment confirmations, and more.
How our customers use our text marketing solutions
96% of marketers report SMS helped them drive revenue, generating $71 for every dollar spent. Explore how our customers used our SMS marketing services.
SMS marketing rules and best practices
SMS marketing campaigns are heavily regulated in many countries. To get specific details about your target market, feel free to reach out to our experts.
Make it easy for customers to opt-in
In most countries, customers need to explicitly give their consent to receive SMS marketing messages. As such, providing a range of ways for customers to opt-in is key.
Provide SMS marketing opt-in options at multiple touchpoints, for example, at checkout, when a customer is creating their account, in the preferences section of their profile settings, or as a pop-up during their second or third visit to your website or app. You can also make use of QR codes to encourage customers to opt to receive special deals and updates.
Provide the option for customers to opt-out
Every SMS message you send should include an opt-out. You may choose to do this by instructing customers to respond with “STOP” to instantly unsubscribe, or by including an unsubscribe link within your message.
Clearly identify your business and the purpose of the message
To avoid confusion, be sure to include the name of your business in every message, and ensure the purpose of your message is as clear as possible. If you fail to provide this context, customers are more likely to unsubscribe.
Include a call to action (CTA)
Make things as easy as possible for customers by including a relevant link, and a clear CTA – e.g. check out our flash sale, redeem an offer or coupon, answer a survey, book an appointment, etc.
Timing is everything
In India and France, it’s illegal to send SMS marketing messages—even if people have opted in—after a certain time in the evening. In addition to understanding the regulations in the territories you operate in, it’s also important to consider the timing of your messages in terms of when your customers are most likely to be responsive, and happy to hear from you.
For example, sending a text to your customers to invite them to complete a feedback survey at 2am is not likely to yield a good response.
Embrace the power of personalization
This isn’t just about referring to your customers by name, it’s about sending messages based on their interests, their location (if relevant), and previous buying behavior. Well-targeted, relevant messages will help you build and maintain relationships with your customers, and are more likely to result in conversions.
Align your marketing efforts across all channels
SMS marketing is powerful, but, like many other types of marketing, it’s more effective when used in combination with other channels.
For example, one of our food delivery service clients, dahmakan, were primarily using Email and push notifications to communicate with their customers about order confirmations, delivery updates, and promotions. By incorporating SMS into the mix, they were able to double conversion rates, and reduce costs by 30%.
Tap into analytics and reporting to maximize ROI
SMS marketing tools offer a wealth of insight into how your SMS campaigns are performing. For example, you can learn what times your customers interact with your messages most or what types of messages yield the highest click-through rates. These insights can be used to build out successful future SMS marketing campaigns, and maximize ROI.
Frequently asked questions about SMS marketing
RCS Business Messaging (based on the RCS protocol) allows businesses greater flexibility than both SMS and MMS with the ability to send not just text, but a range of rich content in order to deliver more interactive, compelling user experiences. RCS also offers features like custom branding, suggested actions, and advanced analytics.
You can see a side-by-side comparison of SMS, MMS, and RCS below:
| SMS | MMS | RCS |
|---|---|---|
| Any mobile phone can receive SMS | Not all mobile phones can receive MMS | Supported on Android and Apple devices only |
| Send text only | Send text, videos, and images | Send branded messages which include text, images, videos, cards, carousels, files, URL previews, and suggested actions |
| 160 character limit | Higher limit than SMS (dependent on provider) | No character limit |
| No internet connection required | Requires an internet connection | Requires an internet connection |
2023 saw a 358% increase in RCS messaging, and many brands have seen great results from their RCS campaigns.
For example, with RCS, Club Comex saw a ten-fold increase in click-through rate, and a 115% increase in revenue versus their previous SMS marketing activity.
With Infobip’s vast experience in customer engagement and activities, they were successfully able to help us increase the number of active users in our database by 30% in just four weeks. With their help, we managed to activate a large number of users with high conversion rates.
Sabrina Taelman Martini
Head of Marketing