Where, Why, and When B2B Marketers Should Add SMS to Your Marketing Communications

November 8, 2023 Stan

SMS marketing is often overlooked by B2B marketers, but it can be a powerful tool for reaching and engaging with potential and existing customers. SMS messages have an open rate of over 98%, and they’re typically read within minutes of being sent. This makes them ideal for sending time-sensitive messages, such as product emergency alerts, event reminders, and special offers.

We aren’t saying to jumpship with your email marketing. Email is still a great way to communicate with your customers. However, there is a trend with a few generations, Millennials (born 1981-1996) and GenZ (1997-2012), where they prefer SMS for specific work communication. Did you know that Millennials and GenZ combined are the largest members of the United States workforce today? I didn’t. Below, we’ll share the most common types of work communication where SMS makes sense. This includes communication from B2B companies they are engaged with, not just B2C companies in their personal lives. So, B2B marketers should add SMS now, especially with Millenials and GenZ customers, and get ahead of the game or they risk falling behind.

Where B2B marketers can use SMS in their marketing communications:

Send emergency alerts. SMS messages can quickly reach your existing customers to update them on product related emergencies.
Send event invitations, reminders, and updates. SMS messages can be used to send event invitations and reminders to registrants, which can help to boost attendance and engagement.
Collect feedback from customers. SMS surveys can be used to collect feedback from customers on new products, services, and overall experiences.
Promote new products or services. SMS messages can be used to promote new products or services to existing customers and leads.

Why B2B marketers should add SMS to your marketing communications:

To reach a highly engaged audience. SMS messages have a much higher open and click-through rate than other marketing channels, such as email and social media. This is because people are more likely to read and respond to messages that come directly to their phone.
To send personalized messages. SMS messages can be personalized to the recipient’s name, role, industry, and stage in the buyer’s journey. This makes them more relevant and engaging, and it can lead to higher conversion rates.
To drive traffic to your website or landing page. SMS messages can be used to drive traffic to your website or landing page, where you can promote your products or services, collect leads, or generate sales.
To build relationships with customers. SMS marketing can be used to build relationships with customers by sending them helpful and timely content, exclusive offers, and other valuable information. This can help you increase customer loyalty and retention.

When B2B marketers should add SMS to your marketing communications:

The best time for B2B marketers to add SMS to your marketing communications is when you have a specific goal in mind, such as increasing sales, driving traffic to your website, or building stronger relationships with customers. SMS marketing can be used to support a variety of marketing campaigns, but it’s important to use it strategically to get the most out of it.

Here are a few tips for adding SMS to your marketing communications:

Coordinate when to use SMS in your marketing communications. When you add SMS to your marketing communication mix, be sure you have the checks and balances in place to avoid a poor customer experience. For example, you don’t want to send the same event invitation to a person both via email and SMS and with different branding when that person only opted in to receive emails about your events, not SMS. Most marketing automation platforms can manage sending and opt-in preferences for both email and SMS and enable the automation of the checks and balances.
Coordinate when to use SMS in your company-wide communications. If your Product, Finance, and/or Customer Service team uses their own SMS platform(s), you’ll need to integrate it with your marketing SMS platform to avoid a disruptive customer experience. Or, better yet, a Customer Data Platform (CDP) or data warehouse could be the hub that
Be extra careful if you’re using different platforms for email and SMS because the systems need to integrate to keep opt-ins in check and to ensure you don’t over or under communicate with your customers. Get permission before sending messages. It’s important to get permission from your subscribers before sending them SMS messages. This can be done through your website, email marketing list, and/or social media pages.
Segment your list. Segmenting your list allows you to send more targeted and relevant messages to your opted-in subscribers. For example, you could send different SMS messages to potential customers vs existing customers.
Personalize your messages. Personalizing your SMS messages makes them more relevant and engaging to your subscribers. You can personalize messages by using the recipient’s name, role, industry, and/or stage in the buyer’s journey.
Use a call to action. Every SMS message should have a clear call to action, such as “Visit our website to learn more” or “Reply YES to get a call from one of our reps.”
Track your results. It’s important to track your SMS results so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. You can track your results like SMS clicks, replies, and conversions by using a variety of tools, such as Google Analytics or your SMS marketing platform.

Conclusion

SMS marketing can be a powerful tool for B2B marketers to add to your marketing communications, but it’s important to coordinate it carefully and use it strategically to get the most out of it. By following the tips above, you can create effective SMS marketing campaigns that will help you reach your marketing goals and provide an enriched customer experience.

Need help determining how to use SMS to improve your B2B marketing communications? Feel free to Contact Us and one of our Marketing SMS Experts, including myself, will be happy to help.

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