You might be surprised to hear that, even in today's world, 90% of people read text messages in less than 3 minutes of receiving them. For communicating important information that is time sensitive, SMS is considered the most effective channel.
Research shows that the average time a person takes to reply to an email is 90mins. Even consumers nowadays expect essential and engaging information via messages. It also makes it easy for marketers since SMS is the most direct way to reach a customer.
This is a massive opportunity for marketers that is untapped. Almost 70% of consumers want the companies to SMS them for an appointment, payment reminder, offers, etc., yet only 30% of the companies satisfy this need.
Promotional SMS are those messages that focus on marketing efforts. It could be any SMS that conveys information to the consumers, which might be related to sales, product launch, broadcast campaigns, etc.
Transactional SMS are messages that are mostly based on triggered events. These SMS from companies add value to the consumer since it can be personalized for each customer and provide timely information.
From a marketing point of view, these messages are designed to improve loyalty, prevent lapse buying behavior from the customers and make consumers re-engage with your brand or business. Research shows that reaching the customer through SMS is the most effective way when it comes to transactional messages.
What makes Transactional SMS effective?
Time sensitivity: By automating text messages, transactional messages can deliver essential information promptly. It makes it easy for the business to send SMS immediately after an event without making any manual intervention.
Improved Customer Engagement: Transactional messages are more than just notifications or alerts. It could be established as a reliable channel for communication for businesses with their consumers. It makes a user or consumer feel special and comfortable with the company when they get regular updates about the product delivery that they are expecting.
The reliable channel of communication: SMS is one of the most effective platforms and an excellent opportunity for businesses to reach their client’s device. This way, companies could make sure the information that they want to deliver reaches the customer promptly, unlike emails, as many people tend to mark spam for most of the mails from brands and businesses. As per the research, about 98% of the SMS are read by the recipients.
Easily accessible: Almost everyone owns a mobile phone, and SMS comes as a basic feature in all kinds of mobile phones around the globe. This makes it easy for businesses to reach their customers in any corner of the world and also those who do not have access to the internet.
Benefits attained by using transactional SMS as a channel of communication:
Transactional Messages can be sent using many channels of communication, such as mail, post, phone call, or SMS. But in most cases, SMS remains to be the most effective channel for the following reasons:
Excellent Reach
Compared to other channels, the SMS Platform has a better chance of delivering information to the user. For instance, using email as a channel makes it difficult for the business since 50% of the mails are considered spam globally. And with the ones that get into the inbox, only 21% of the emails get opened. At the same time, almost 98% of the SMS messages are opened by the users giving a larger rate of reach for the business.
Also, consumers today are feeling more comfortable with SMS messages than compared to other options. Millennials in specific prefer transactional messages for any delivery notification or appointment reminder in the form of an SMS.
Improves Customer Loyalty
Since transactional messages are one to one with the customer, it offers an excellent opportunity for the business to establish a better and close customer relationship. This helps the company in many marketing aspects to boost the loyalty of the customer to your business or brand.
Engaging with the customer even after the conversion will help the business to build a strong relationship with the clients and drive sales while maintaining a consistent and seamless experience.
To conclude, transactional SMS allows marketers to reach the customer quickly and deliver important and timely information easily. This dramatically improves the customer experience by streamlining all-time available, and easily accessible communication channels within the business and the customer.
Customers value the availability of this information; businesses that fulfill such requirements can increase the loyalty of their customers. Increased loyalty implies increased sales which is a very significant aspect while running a business.