It’s a definite fact that marketing is one of the most important tasks for any business owner. How a business promotes itself, along with its products or services, is crucial for its ongoing success. With so many marketing channels available today, it’s essential for a business to find the right mix that works for them. Some channels are very costly, like TV or radio ads, while others, like SMS marketing, are low-cost and highly effective with proven success rates. So, what does SMS marketing cost? The two main cost factors are ‘Time’ and ‘Money.’
Time Cost
Many marketing channels i.e. newspaper, TV, radio and flyers require input from third party professionals; graphic designers, script writers, editors and marketing consultants. Each marketing campaign needs to be carefully project-planned over a number of weeks before implementation, thus greatly increasing the amount of time input required from the business owner. In comparison, let’s consider the time cost of SMS Marketing. An SMS marketing campaign is a succinct, concise offer or promotion which is sent instantaneously to your customer base. The most successful SMS marketing campaigns are less than 160 characters in length and can be created and delivered to your subscribers within minutes of conception. The biggest challenge however, for a business owner, is to keep campaigns fresh, exciting and most of all, irresistible.
Monetary Cost
SMS Marketing has been tried, tested and proven globally to provide the most cost effective, direct communication channel from business owner to targeted audiences. Unlike other media, which rely on a ‘spray and pray’ approach to reach a broad spectrum of consumers in the hope of capturing a mere 1%-2%. Conversely, the return rates for targeted SMS Marketing are between 12% and 15% globally (source: MMA).
Of course you have to purchase SMS credits from your provider, but this is extremely affordable and the benefits far outweigh the costs!