Nowadays, the most successful brands are using bulk SMS marketing to reach new audiences and engage existing customers.

The simple fact that hundreds of big brands choose to incorporate bulk SMS marketing into their overall strategy should be a pretty good indicator of its success. SMS campaigns are simple to create, affordable and have response rates that are much higher than most other marketing channels.

Let’s take a look at how they’re doing it and what lessons can be taken from them and applied to your business. 

3 Bulk SMS marketing strategies brands use

The fact that hundreds of leading brands choose to use mass texting as a part of their mobile marketing strategy speaks volumes about the rise of texting as a valuable way to reach customers.

How effective is mass texting? Take a look at these statistics:

1. Texts have a 98% open rate within as little as 5 seconds of receipt.

• It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to email, but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message.
• More than 75% of consumers would like to have offers sent to them via SMS.
• A recent study showed that around 35% of consumers who receive a text message from a bulk SMS marketing campaign click on the link that they receive, and 47% go on to make a purchase. By comparison, traditional online banner ads have a click-through rate of 6%.
• 64% of consumers are likely to have a positive perception of companies that offer communication via text.

1. Case study: Greats.com shows how to grow a list

In 10 months, Greats.com, a footwear E-commerce store, gathered 6,397 qualified opt-ins. Considering the above data, which holds that 98% of people you send a text to will read it, that number doesn’t just equal a lot of people on the Great.com list, but a lot of people who are reading their bulk SMS messages.

How did Greats.com build their list?

They gathered interest with a website widget and on-site banners. Once these subscribers double opted in, they were each rewarded with a $10 off first pair coupon code. Why was this incentive valuable to the Greats.com subscriber? With limited quantities, it encouraged an instant purchase. Pictured below is the official auto-reply that was sent back after a new subscriber joined the bulk SMS list.

Note that Greats.com directly rewards its new subscribers with a valuable offer. It’s important to know that when you do this you should take care not to make your offers difficult to redeem, or you are opt-in incentives too generic. Always provide an exclusive offer for your VIPs.

To experience their continual growth, the Greats.com digital marketing team always turned to MMS messages over plain-text campaigns. Being a footwear retailer, they understood the power of visual representation. These campaigns helped sell the merchandise and build a stronger connection between product and consumer.

Greats.com also followed an SMS marketing strategy similar to Uber. They promoted a huge offer to encourage the initial opt-in, but after that, they just followed up with valuable announcements and new product alerts. This exclusivity worked well for them, as new footwear now sells out in a matter of hours after releasing an early access text blast.

2. Case study: Sportsman & Ski Haus gains after a slow year

In this case study, we’re going to examine Sportsman & Ski Haus, a sports store that made the switch to SlickText from a different bulk SMS marketing platform.

Sportsman & Ski Haus is a multi-store sporting goods organization with locations in multiple states. SlickText was approached by their marketing personnel, who expressed interest in making the switch to a different mass texting app. At the time, they were lacking the growth and acknowledgment rate they were looking for with their current provider.

When SSH started with SlickText, they were coming off a year of slow growth, which left them with only a few hundred contacts. Once teamed up with SlickText, Sportsman & Ski Haus mentioned a 33% increase in new subscribers in the first 10 days of their campaign.

Not only did this help them in their future SMS marketing campaigns, but it also increased foot traffic for large events.

What did they do differently?

• Large banners were placed at checkout points, and stuffer flyers inserted in every outgoing bag of merchandise.
• Front line staff verbally engaged every customer at the point of sale to let them know about the text list. Employees offered an incentive to these customers and then guided them through the instructions on the opt-in flyer.
• Once the customer opted-in, they received an instant response with an immediate special offer.

In the months to come after their initial redesign, HHS launched a “Back-to-School Text-to-Win Campaign” which encouraged subscribers to become more interactive. Below is the flyer that was used for in-store advertising and on various social media outlets.

3. Case study: Mulberry St. Pizzeria shows the power of exclusive offers

In the text marketing industry, restaurants fit the perfect mold for a well-qualified user. Restaurants have loyal and consistent customer flows. Combine that with a highly exclusive text marketing campaign and you’ll have yourself a recipe (no pun intended) for a very healthy opt-in rate.

Mulberry St. Pizzeria is a restaurant that specializes in Italian cuisine with a specialty in pizza. To grow their list they used a very simple concept called, “exclusivity.”

they did create conversions from their bulk SMS message.

• The message provided a high-value offer.
• They included an expiration date to increase urgency.
• They included their name (in case customers forgot who was texting them).
• A succinct message was crafted that let customers know exactly what the deal was.
• It’s time to take a lesson from another Big Brand. Every year Taco Bell saves millions on market research. They let McDonald’s do it for them. Instead of investing in surveys and conducting reports to find the best location for a new Taco Bell, they simply wait until McDonald’s opens a new store. Then they just open one across the street.

Build Your Strategy & Implement Bulk SMS Messaging to get positive returns.

If the SMS messaging strategies of those big brands have inspired you and you’re ready to build your successful strategy.

SMS providers are professional in answering all of your questions. They’ll accommodate you get started running your campaigns within minutes.

Text marketing brings ultimate success to your brand and your business as a whole.

And it’s quite important to note that the use of SMS marketing in the business strategy is essential and it’s one of the fastest-growing and most practical ways to connect with your customers. You’ll learn how to quickly perform big strategies for your brand.