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31 Comments

📲 Trends #0046 — SMS Marketing

  1. 4

    Are people in the U.S. really not annoyed by SMS marketing? I once gave out my phone number when I supported a democratic candidate and this year I have had my fair share of spam. Maybe it's my Zoomer way of thinking, but to me SMS is sacred and personal. I would hate for this frontier to be tainted with more advertising.

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      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  2. 4

    SMS is an intimate, immediate channel. Reserved for high-affinity brands or urgent messages.

    Bingo. The cultural barrier to receiving marketing communications via text message might be hard to overcome.

    But many of us are increasingly blurring the distinction between our "personal" and "professional" contacts, which is very hospitable to SMS marketing.

    For example, Telegram is so much better than standard SMS apps (replies, hashtags, message editing, etc.) that I've been inviting just about everyone I regularly talk to — friends, family, business partners, niche interest groups, etc. — to connect with me on it. The result is that my SMS environment is far less intimate than it used to be, and with that reduction in intimacy comes a reduction in my expectations around marketing material.

    So it's no wonder Telegram is launching its ad platform early this year.

    1. 1

      So it's no wonder Telegram is launching its ad platform early this year.

      Super interesting. Added to notes for v2

      Thanks Channing

  3. 3

    If any company sent an SMS to me, I'll stop using it the very moment I read the text. Happened multiple times.

  4. 2

    Well, SMS might be sacred, but they are clearly on the rise. Reports shows that in Q3, there was a 237% lift in SMS messages sent over the same period in 2019, accompanied by a significant increase in both click and conversion rates. Customers are increasingly asking for real-time engagement and support.
    For raving fans, they offer a personalized experience. Uncommon Goods, the marketplace, is actually a good example of how brands leverage text messaging to build engagement with their customers and how Gen Z is increasingly accepting real-time com channels.

  5. 2

    You missed https://dirtylemon.com/ it's entirely on SMS. I first heard about SMS marketing from a case study about them.

    It also played a huge factor in the success of MVMT. They used SMS a lot during their pre launch campaign and it worked for them.

    1. 1

      Thanks for reading Dinakar

      Did you make it through the report? The bottom shows that the pro version has more players.

      1. 1

        Fully read, good read it was. Oh okay, not part of the pro subscription.

  6. 2

    I lived in EU and now in the US.
    This are my conclusions:
    US loves text/sms, It's normal for me to receive SMS from service providers once in a while.
    On the other hand, while I lived in EU, eeeeeh not so much, I would get EXTREMELY angry if some SaaS/ecommerce texted me anything other than a 2FA code.

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      I live in the US and I too would also be extremely angry. Maybe I’m old and younger demographics are more open to it.

      1. 1

        Yeah - I feel you, I just think I got used to it here in the US where issues like robocallers and spammers are much much more of an everyday reality!

        1. 1

          Yeah. At this point, I have my iPhone set to mute all unknown callers. It's annoying because on occasion I'll miss a call I actually wanted to get, or I'll need to disable it if I request a callback. But it's better than being bothered by all the spammers.

      2. 1

        I think it's a matter of how helpful or relevant these messages are.

        Most will be happy to hear from job boards about new jobs but will be mad if it's from a SaaS that they (or me) just entered their phone for billing information.

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          Wouldn't you rather get new job notifications via email?

          1. 1

            I would. But I was using it as an example and with email marketing becoming cheapsy + easy access to marketing resources leads to email getting crowded so much. SMS is not cheap and is not crowded, not yet. I spend atleast 20 mins a day reporting spam emails and politely asking remotely relevant cold emails to stop/change the way they email. The same hasn't happened with my SMSes yet.

            Job seekers in this case would love to get hand-picked openings via sms so that they won't miss or apply before anyone does and be front in the line. It renders true for any other information that you don't want to miss because of a crowded inbox.

            1. 1

              Yeah, that makes sense. I guess as long as the user opts in, that's fine. But I'm also worried that sms will eventually start getting heavily spammed.

              My inbox is actually quite clean due to gmail's effective spam filters. I still check it once a week or so in case it flags a false positive.

              But I'm not familiar with any effective spam filter solutions for sms which is why I mute everything except for my contact list.

  7. 1

    Interesting.

    From a fairly quick read most of the examples in the article are extremely opt-in. This is good.

    I recently looked at adding a "enter your phone number on our web page to get a text to download our app" functionality and opted not to implement it because of the legal risks. Unsolicited SMS has pretty big fines - larger than for email spam in many states - and there's no way of knowing if the phone number on the web page actually belongs to the person getting the message.

    So maybe SMS is growing as a way to interact with businesses, but I would be extremely careful of using it for "marketing" the way we use email for marketing.

  8. 1

    Sms marketing is one of the most effective ways to get people to read what you are trying to communicate. It's more effective than email, in my opinion. It's less annoying than cold calls but is more aggressive than email. If you have a great product to sell alined with the right offer/strategy, SMS mkt will bring you lots of cash.

  9. 1

    Is there a tool for sms marketing we can send in bulk?

      1. 1

        Haven't really tried, have you tried ?

        1. 1

          Not yet. I still have no intention to use SMS marketing.

    1. 1

      Yes. Many. I run a commerce focused sms marketing platform (still in private beta). Let me know if that’s relevant and would be happy to give you a tour of it.

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      @fajarsiddiq i'm building a tool for this actually, with the ability to schedule both sms & email at the same time - Would it be something you are interested in trying?

      I'm nearing a 'alpha' phase where I have a few people going to test it out and see if it provide them value :) if you are working on something I'm keen to try that too!

      1. 1

        How does it work? you have link..

    3. 1

      You may find this interesting. textbelt.com

      1. 1

        is there a way for no-code or beginners can use?

        1. 1

          For no-code SMS, I can only think of zapier+twilio.

  10. 0

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 4

      Not necessarily the case always.

      For example, when Jason Fried said ideas cannot be validated you said it's the pish influencers say, ideas can be validated.

      Jason says ideas, as in, commercial space travel that Elon Musk does. Cannot be validated for another decade probably : (
      You're saying ideas, as in, commercial electric cars that looks great and does stuff! Can be validated :)

      So it doesn't mean what he said is bullshit on Twitter nor what you said is bullshit on IH.

      Happy new year, Mick.

    2. 1

      Thanks for the engagement :)

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