Although cost is a significant factor in choosing a texting service for your SMS marketing campaign, there are many more important considerations you should make to ensure you find the right service for your business. Before you start researching companies, spend some time thinking about the goals of your text marketing efforts. Keep your main goals and the following components in mind when you are looking at potential mobile communications partners.
You can reach your customers almost anywhere with the right texting service.
Look at Success Rates in Your Industry
Although text message marketing is beneficial for many businesses, certain nuances exist within each industry that could affect your campaign’s success. Therefore, you want to partner with a texting service that understands your industry, especially if you plan to hire them to help with your mobile marketing strategy in addition to using their bulk-messaging platform. When you interview potential partners, ask questions about the company’s experience within your industry to determine their level of expertise.
Review the Tracking and Analysis
In order to determine the success of your SMS marketing campaign, you need to be able to adequately track and analyse your data. Some texting services offer more comprehensive data tracking options than others. For example, if you plan to send out a link as part of your call to action at the end of a message, then you want to be able to track your clicks, including who clicked using what device and at what time of day. Reports should be easy to read, especially for the most valuable data, such as which subscribers successfully received the messages.
Ask About the Technology
When you use a texting service, you send out bulk messages to a subscriber list using the service’s online platform. Therefore, it’s important to ask about their technology. Typically, companies offer a trial period so you can see for yourself if the program does what you want. At the bare minimum, you should be able to create a detailed database of your subscribers and create groups to which you can send targeted messages. Some providers also offer the option of sending messages through your mobile phone, making it even easier to distribute last minute notifications in addition to your scheduled messages.
The hardware the company uses to manage your messages also affects its ability to perform to your standards. Ask about the server used to handle the messages, including whether there has been any history of problems with it and what happens if it experiences downtime.
Do You Need Additional Features?
Certain texting services simply offer the ability to send, receive, and track messages, while others provide additional features, such as marketing strategy development, third party integration, keywords, and more. Some programs also can be integrated into third party systems to make it easy to monitor all your customer data. You want to match your service with what you need to ensure your marketing plan goes off without a hitch.
Research the Partnerships with Mobile Carriers
When you launch an SMS marketing campaign, you want to be able to reach as many of your customers as possible. Therefore, it’s important to partner with a texting service that works with at least all the major mobile carriers. This ensures that all your customers can receive your messages, regardless of what carrier they use.
Consider the Payment Plans
Once you are sure that a communications provider offers you the services you need to implement your SMS marketing campaign, then you can start to review the cost and payment plans to select the one that best fits your budget. Some companies offer monthly plans that incorporate a certain amount of texting and services, while others charge per text message. Typically, you pay less per message when you send out a larger volume of messages. When comparing the costs, you want to ensure that there are no hidden fees. Keep in mind that if you choose to also receive messages, then you may need to sign up for an additional service.
Budget is an important consideration when choosing a texting service.
Text messaging is a cost effective marketing solution that can fit into almost any marketing budget. Although the cost of your service is important, you want to make sure that you ultimately choose a partner that offers you the services and features you need to implement your marketing strategy. If you are ready to get started with text messaging, then try FireText for free.