Companies often don’t seriously consider SMS marketing when looking at their options. Along with thinking that it’s obsolete, companies think that they have a better chance of reaching their preferred customers on social media. While it is certainly true that social media is one of the best ways to reach a wide audience, SMS marketing can do the same while being cheaper.
In this guide, we will cover the different types of SMS marketing, its benefits, how you can implement it, and some tips to ensure effective engagement.
Why Is It Crucial for Using SMS for the Restoration and Construction Industry?
An SMS marketing campaign can offer a range of benefits to any construction or renovation company. From building a list of interested clients to widening their reach to new customers, it can be a great addition to an existing marketing strategy. However, there’s a lot more to this marketing approach than just promoting the company or its services.
Versatility is possible one of the best aspects of SMS marketing, as it allows you to provide better customer engagement through other means as well. Let’s look into the different types of SMS marketing that your company can use, and the utility that they can offer compared to just SEO and social media marketing.
The Types of SMS Marketing
The types of SMS fall into three major categories: promotional, updates, and customer support. Each of these types can offer their unique benefits, while catering to clients and making them feel valued.
Promotional Offers
These are traditional promotional messages that you would send out to your list of subscribers about services, housing options, or investment opportunities. Along with informing established clients of any exciting prospects, it can also reach out to individuals who have a passing interest in the industry. The benefit of the quality of promotional offers is two-fold.
On one hand, you can boost sales and bring in new clients to your existing list. Since you can directly target individuals, you can customize the messages to engage people who are already loyal customers, and people who have yet to hear about your services.
On the other hand, this can be a great way to improve customer loyalty despite common complaints that you might hear about targeted messages on social media, properly catering to and individual makes customers feel valued. “Feeling valued” doesn’t just result in direct sales either, but it can encourage people to spread the word about your business. Construction and renovation companies especially benefit from word-of-mouth marketing since people are more inclined to trust a friend or relative than just a company reaching out.
The promotional offers that you send out can also fall into different groups, such as discounts, free consultation, an open house, and so much more. For instance, renovation companies can offer free repairs and leveling of floors when clients want to add a new finish or new flooring options.
Offering clients incentives to purchase can encourage people to buy into the service and be more inclined to enlist your services for future projects. Trust is the main ingredient here. As long as people have a positive experience with the promotional messages and your services, future messages will continue to reinforce customer loyalty.
Reminders or Updates
The second type of SMS marketing can be updates and reminders. These can include reminders to specific clients about scheduled appointments or meetings with contractors. These updates are especially effective at making individuals feel valued. It shows that you take their time seriously and look forward to meeting with them. Similar to promotional messages, reminders, and updates are only effective on a foundation of trust. Reaching the destination on time and responding to their concerns in a timely manner all ensure that they will feel valued when receiving a reminder or an update.
Sending these reminders also benefit you by reducing the possibility of a no-show. It’s possible for clients to forget about meetings, or come late because they didn’t know when they were supposed to meet.
Therefore, it’s important that a reminder SMS includes all relevant details about the meeting. Time, location, and date should be part of the message, along with a relevant call-to-action like “looking forward to meeting you” or “can’t wait.” If you will be meeting them over a Zoom call or any other virtual platform, you should also specify what service you will be using to contact them. Considering the client’s accessibility is another way to increase customer loyalty.
Important updates like appointment reminders or rescheduling also reduce the possibility of people missing them. Unlike emails or other instant messaging services that rely on the internet, people will receive the message as long as they have service to their provider.
Customer Support
Finally, the last type of SMS marketing concerns customer support. Whether it’s responding to customer inquiries or providing additional information about certain services, it’s both quick and simple. They might be interested to learn about other renovation services that you provide or may be looking for advice on what materials to add during renovation. Either way, this is a great way to engage with customers and make them feel heard.
Customer support can also extend to follow up messages after meeting or an open house event. Thanking them for coming or telling them that you look forward to meeting them is another step to convincing them to engage in your services and create a long lasting working relationship with your company.
Also Read: Importance of SEO For The Restoration Industry!
The Benefits of SMS for the Restoration and Construction Industry
In the previous section, we briefly touched on just some of the benefits that come with SMS marketing with respect to specific types of messages. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at some of the benefits that come with implementing a quality SMS marketing strategy.
Direct Communication
One of the best things about using SMS marketing is that it offers a direct link to between the company and the client. You can create messages that specifically cater to different types of clients, like inexperienced, enthusiasts, and investors. Its versatility also allows you to follow up with specific clients and talk to them directly, ensuring more personal engagement.
Another important factor worth considering is that this more direct form of communication means a faster response on their part. Whether that’s replying to the message, clicking on a link, or attending an event. And since this message is coming directly on their phone, they’re less likely to miss it or ignore it.
Wider Reach
Social media remains one of the easiest ways to reach as many people as possible. However, one major segment that this ignores is people who stay off social media, have limited use, or don’t engage with construction or renovation content.
These platforms will often show ads based on people’s interest, which is information that it gathers by looking at the type of content people engage with. So, while this is a good way of reaching people who are already in the loop, in this instance, you will be competing with other companies for the same pool of customers.
On the other hand, SMS messages can reach people even if they don’t happen to use social media. Older generations, especially those with more capital to spend on construction and renovation, have limited use for social media or don’t use it at all. So this can help you reach markets that other companies might be overlooking.
Saves You a Lot More Time
SMS marketing also has the advantage of saving you a lot more time than other forms of advertisement. Designing, developing, and distributing effective social media marketing material takes time. Along with writers to create slogans, you will also have to work with designers to make something interesting and captivating.
The simplicity of SMS messages, however, means that you only have to write engaging content. You don’t have to design any unique elements to grab people’s attention since the message is already reaching them directly.
More Accessible
Along with being more direct, SMS marketing can also be more accessible in a number of ways. For one, messages only utilize text, so people who have trouble hearing or seeing can still find out about your business. Phones usually come with features like text-to-speech, which can easily read out a message instead of a pamphlet or post on social media.
Furthermore, text is inherently mobile-friendly. You don’t have to worry about pixilated images or formatting issues when sending your message. Regardless of who receives your message or how old their phone is, they can still read what you’ve written and engage with your material.
Better Engagement
This point is an extension of the previous benefit of direct communication. Sending an SMS to potential clients will send them a notification that they will have to check and pay attention to. One of the biggest issues that companies have to deal with when implementing a social media campaign is the lack of engagement. This problem stems from a lack of concentration since most people who are on different apps are not paying as much attention to what they’re seeing until it visually stands out to them.
SMS marketing is different, though, since you have a direct link with individuals. You can tell them about an event that you’re hosting or about a promotion, and they’re more likely to pay attention. It also helps that they’re more likely to respond or follow a link that you added to your message.
More Cost Effective
Another benefit to using an SMS marketing campaign is that it is relatively cheaper than other forms of digital and traditional advertising. The cost-per-message is usually pretty low, and you also have the ability to send messages in bulk. This reduced cost matched with higher engagement result in a better return on investment or ROI.
Construction companies that are just starting out especially benefit from this more cost effective approach. Since the market that they’re operating in has a higher barrier to entry in most cases, even low engagement from a pool of possible clients is more beneficial, since they have the means to make a purchase or enlist your services.
Generate New Leads
SMS marketing is very effective at both reaching new customers and engaging existing clientele. You can send out promotional messages to enthusiasts as well, who can then spread the word about your company. Well-written and consistent messages are also more successful at converting new leads into loyal customers.
Every company needs to have a strategy in place to generate new leads and then convert them into regular customers, especially construction companies. Clients are rarely looking to construct or renovate their space more than once in a single year. Therefore, finding new clients ensures a steady stream of income for the company, and SMS marketing is one of the more effective ways to do it.
Increase Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty can take on a different form depending on the industry. For renovation and construction companies, while it doesn’t always guarantee continued business with the same client, it can encourage them to refer friends and family to your business. This can help you generate more leads, and the quality of your services can also contribute to a longer chain of individuals referring your company to their relatives.
Ensuring customer loyalty is all about making individuals feel valued, which is especially possible with direct communication. Through follow-up messages, appointment updates, and check-ins with clients, you can contribute to a much better customer experience.
How to Build an SMS Marketing Strategy?
The benefits of SMS marketing make it very enticing to add to your overall marketing strategy. In this section, we’ll cover the steps that you can take to effectively implement SMS marketing, while taking measures to improve it.
Set Realistic Goals
The first step to implementing SMS marketing for your business is setting realistic goals. It’s important to understand that, as a construction and renovation company, it is highly unlikely that the messages you send will result in new clients. Or, you might not even be looking to bring in new clients. Instead, you want to gather feedback about your current services and see how you can improve.
Either way, you first need to answer “why am I starting SMS marketing?” Before you send out that first message, decide why you’re even using this particular channel and how you can make the most of it.
“Talk” To Your Audience
The next step to developing a marketing strategy understands your target audience. Who are the right clients for your business? If the answer to that question is “anyone looking to improve their home or office space,” you need to be more specific.
You need to understand the types of services that your target audience would like. Do they just want to make their home look new again? Are they looking to create a specific mood or ambiance? What types of renovation or construction have they done before? Finding answers to these questions can make it a lot easier to target your messages to specific groups, and ensure better engagement.
Build Your List of Subscribers
Next, you want to build a list of subscribers for your business. Remember, SMS marketing requires people’s explicit consent. While this can mean that you can’t send messages to literally everyone, this can also narrow down your list of possible clients. People who have subscribed to your SMS service are already interested in what your company has to offer, so it’s all about moving them to the next step.
You can encourage signups during open house events or offer discounts and promotions for signing up. But remember, opting in is just the first part of building your list of clientele. The next step is dividing them into relevant groups.
Divide Your Subscribers into Separate Groups
Now that you have your list of subscribers, you need to translate that into more usable data. This means dividing these people into specific categories, like enthusiasts, first-time renovators, experienced renovators, commercial or industrial clients, and enthusiasts who are generally interested in the field.
By segmenting your subscribers, you can now write different messages for each group. This type of targeted messaging can greatly increase engagement while improving customer loyalty.
Choose a Provider
With your goals, understanding of the target audience, and your list of subscribers ready, you now have to find the right provider. Companies can automate almost every aspect of the SMS marketing experience, including the writing. However, this is not always the best option since a core aspect of direct messages is their intimacy.
When choosing a provider, you want to consider aspects like price, implementation time, ability to scale with your needs, and ability to integrate with your existing marketing strategy. All of these factors contribute to better engagement and faster roll out of messages.
Write Engaging Messages
With everything else set, the last step is to write the messages. You want to make sure that you write something different for each group and avoid using the same message twice. Extra steps like a uniquely written message can go a long way in making clients feel valued.
Also Read: Importance of Google Business Profile for the Restoration Industry!
Tips to Improve Engagement
A good SMS marketing campaign is only as effective as its implementation. So, here’s a look at some important tips that can help improve engagement and ROI.
Keep Your SMS Brief
An SMS is only 160 characters. This means that you only have a few words to really get your message across. When sending an update, emphasize the details and add a call to action like “can’t wait to meet.” For promotional messages, you want to place emphasis on convincing people by explaining the event instead of telling them how grand or amazing it will be.
Follow Relevant Regulations
Again, individuals need to consent to SMS messages from a company, so you need to make sure that you are not sending them to someone who has opted out. If someone has already opted out of your service, you should be quick and take their names off your list of subscribers.
Don’t Overwhelm Your Subscribers with Multiple Messages
Along with keeping your messages brief, you also want to make sure that you don’t overwhelm your target audience with regular messages. Messaging people regularly can make them more likely to opt out of the service entirely or just ignore them. Promotional messages once a day are a good balance, especially when leading up to an event. As for updates, you can send one before the day of the meeting, even if you’re looking to reschedule.
Find the Right Time to Send Your Messages
According to TCPA regulations, companies can only send business-related messages between 8 am and 9 pm. Furthermore, there are also times when people put their phones on Do Not Disturb mode, so they’re less likely to get the notification. One of the best times to send is in the afternoon, which is usually when people are at their break having lunch. As for customer support-related messages, sending them following a meeting or an event is also a good option.
Write Unique Messages
It goes without saying that the real thing convincing people about your business is the text. So writing something bland and uninteresting is the fastest way to get clients to ignore the messages that you send. Find interesting ways to captivate clients, while using language that’s appropriate for the demographic.
Include Opt-Out Instructions
This might seem counter-intuitive, but people appreciate when companies also make it clear how they can opt out of the service. Messaging people who don’t want to hear from your business is a quick way to turn them away from your business entirely.
Conclusion
Construction businesses rely heavily on engagement and effective lead conversions. And with the help of quality SMS marketing, it is a lot easier for you to target specific groups and inform them about your services. These messages are also a lot more versatile, allowing you to choose what type of message you want to send to your clients to ensure maximum ROI.