Years Ago, Phone Calls Were The Most Direct Way You Could Reach Customers, Short Of Going Door-To-Door. Something shifted around the time people started carrying around SMS marketing works cell phones. Caller ID made it easy to filter out marketing messages and cold calls (or as people commonly herald them today, spam calls), and it was the end of an era. Today, marketers have found major success meeting consumers where they are — their text message inboxes.

SMS marketing works in the sense that it’s less intrusive than a phone call but not as easy to ignore as an email. Still, it’s a delicate balance. You want to send enough messages that your audience absorbs the heart of your campaign, but you don’t want to send so many that they’re annoyed. At best, your customers will look forward to your texts (a whopping 75% of consumers want to receive texts with special offers). At worst, it’s as intrusive as if you’re barging into their home while they’re trying to have dinner.

There’s a right and wrong way to approach SMS marketing — and these companies have it down to a science. Here’s a look at some masterful SMS campaign in the wild.

#1: Facebook

One brand that’s using SMS marketing in an interesting, utility driven way is Facebook! That’s right, even the largest social media giant in the world is using SMS in combination with social media ads to win the hearts of their audience.

The way they’re using SMS is by allowing people to choose to receive an SMS every time they sign into their Facebook account. This is to add an additional layer of security for users, so no one else can hack into their account.

This method of SMS marketing or messaging by a brand is part of the ‘2 factor authentication’ method. Rather than receiving a message on their device, they receive a message via SMS with a 6 digit code that they can use to log in. Simple as that! It’s unique, it’s secure and allows users to log into their account safely.

#2: CNN

CNN is  great at getting people to subscribe to their news updates via SMS. All you need to do is send an SMS to a phone number to subscribe to start receiving news updates on your mobile device. It can be a great way to know what’s happening around the world if you don’t make an effort to jump on their app or website.

Now the thing to learn from them is to understand that they only send out these messages if people subscribe to them. The act of sending a text message to CNN shows people want to hear from them. If you dig deeper, the reason why people want to hear from CNN is because they want to be aware.

So if you have any information that makes people aware, well educated and knowledgeable about any topic, you should try this method!

#3: The American Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals

This is a not for profit organisation in the US that’s using SMS marketing very effectively. They use SMS as a medium to inform pet owners about pet care tips, while also attracting them to donate funds to their organization.

All pet owners need to do to subscribe to the service is to send the word CAT or DOG to a the number 27222 in the US, in order to start receiving the messages. On average, about 5% of the SMS recipients donate funds via the SMS campaign, so clearly it’s effective!

#4: The Hub, Co-Working Space

“The Hub” is a coworking space for independent creatives, small business owners, startups and other small companies that are interested in hiring an office space. They also run several events to engage their members and make the office experience fun.

Their approach to utilising SMS marketing is by collecting the phone numbers of those who come in to attend their events. This way they’re only collecting the numbers of those who’re interested in being part of their community.

Once they’ve collected these numbers, they regularly send out SMSs, both, for informing members about upcoming events, as well as sending them reminders about attending them. This not only keeps members informed, but also boosts attendance rates at events.

Clearly, if you’re in a business where you organise events, or appointments with your customers, this could be a great approach to building a meaningful relationship with your customers. It might also be a great way to engage in meaningful conversations with customers if you don’t have too many, and want to adopt a personal approach.

#5: Hays Recruitment

A lot of recruitment agencies are using SMS marketing to find and hire candidates for their clients. They usually have two types of messages: one is where they ask potential candidates to give them information about the type of job they’re interested in.

The other is where they send out potential job ads to their SMS talent pool to attract them to apply. One of the agencies that’s doing this well s Hays. If you’ve ever visited one of their offices, you would’ve been asked to fill out their form with your mobile number in it.

Once you’ve given them your mobile numbers, they can send interesting job opportunities via SMS as they arise. All you have to do is click on the “Apply” button on these messages to apply to them and express your interest.

Wrapping it up

SMS marketing that’s done right is leaps and bounds away from the spam messages that give the practice a bad name. There are a lot of options people actually look forward to receiving such as customer service chats, special offers (particularly on items they’ve abandoned in their cart) and appointment reminders. Actually, research has shown that 83% of consumers want appointment reminders via text, but only 20% of companies offer them. There’s a lot of room for growth, especially when you consider the fact that 82% of people open every single text message they receive — yes, every single one.

At the end of the day, a successful SMS campaign takes a little creativity and a well-thought plan, but it won’t be long before you see a positive impact on your bottom line.