SMSes, being considered more personal than an email—which callously carries the tag of a spammer—enjoy a high open rate. But that makes it more necessary for you to follow all the abiding rules in SMS marketing. One of them is seeking permission from the subscribers to receive messages from your brand. These permission-based promotions make SMS a brand’s coveted service rather than an inconvenience otherwise.
What is Permission-Based Marketing?
Introduced by the marketing pundit Seth Godin, permission-based marketing allows your consumers to choose what and how they are marketed to. As a part of it, your users opt-in to receive updates on newly launched products, rewards, special occasion vouchers, and news about your brand. And the opt-out option is available and simple.
If a user or a prospective customer shares their contact number during a one-time meeting or event, the contact number is meant only for that event’s updates. Updating them about anything else is unpermitted marketing or, more popularly called, interruptive marketing. Your uninvited intrusion can convert customers into frustrated users due to their violated privacy, resulting in a lost opportunity.
On the contrary, you can fearlessly share your offers, promotions, and announcements with them when you seek permission. Albeit to fewer users, permission-based marketing is much appreciated because those users are your loyal audience. And you have followed various regulatory bodies and policies like HIPPA, CCPA, GDPR, CAN-SPAM, etc.
Let’s dive deeper to understand why permission-based SMS marketing is more effective in engaging your audience.
Why Permission-Based Marketing is Effective
- Cost-Effective
Interruptive marketing is more like throwing the noodles on the wall and seeing whatever sticks. With tonnes of people receiving your promotional messages, most of your SMSes will be drained out because your users have never wished to receive them.On the other hand, when you send SMSes to a handful of your users who had agreed to receive them, they might expect to see you in their inbox. Attracting more customers is always more expensive than maintaining the existing ones for your money, time, and efforts. So, using permission-based SMS marketing is a wise idea.With direct access to your users’ most accessed route, permission marketing helps you to avoid expensive traditional channels like print and mass media. Also, being targeted and more measurable, they have better ROI. - Reach
“By only talking to volunteers, Permission Marketing guarantees that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. It allows marketers to calmly and succinctly tell their story, without fear of being interrupted by competitors or Interruption Marketers. It serves both consumers and marketers in a symbiotic exchange.” – an excerpt from the book “Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin.Who doesn’t love a discount coupon in the month of their wedding anniversary or a nicely crafted personalized SMS on their birthday? Your users would feel pampered with messages or updates they were looking forward to. For instance, tech-savvy users love to learn more about recently launched electronics. Even news about a new version or enhanced features.So, once you seek their permission to share SMS updates, you can strongly bond with them. Keeping them in the loop through an SMS with a CTA link can help you gain more footfalls from the existing consumers. They receive what they expect from you, and you gain better customer relationships. - User Experience
Once you understand what your customers expect from you through SMSes, and you have their permission to promote in their message box, chances of customer engagement are higher. Most of them might even wait for your promotional codes to shop during their birthday months. Some of them would click on the attached CTA links. Many of them would reach out to your helpdesk. The conversion rate with engaged customers is always higher.Moreover, if your user has not permitted you to message them, your efforts will not reap a result. It would be a one-way communication channel with users, ruining your endeavors. So, get onboarded with more customers’ agreement to enter their phones via SMSes. - Trust
According to a report, 54% of consumers want to trust an organization to share their data with them. And permissions strengthen trust between users and a brand. With better and stronger policies in place for data protection these days, when brands have digitally penetrated users’ lives, more than 44% of users are comfortable sharing their demographics and purchase history. No wonder brands seeking permission from their users is just the right step in SMS marketing.
How Textmunication can Help You Gain Trust of Your Users
At Textmunication, we offer a free trial of our product for 30 days. With 23+ plug-and-play features, our Smart Automated Messaging (SAM) platform helps you reach out to your users with utmost clarity. Please reach out to us and initiate a call with our team of experts.
