New companies can spend up to 20% of gross revenue on sales and marketing costs. For small businesses, that’s a huge chunk of cash that you probably don’t have available.

But almost all small business owners have access to a tiny little tool that makes marketing affordable and simple: smartphones.

Smartphones are the fastest way to communicate with a large audience all at once. Your customers already know how to use them and probably keep their phones with them at all times. This is a huge part of what makes them valuable tools.

Smartphones can also be used to cater to different learning styles, or the ways in which individuals best acquire and retain information. They’re versatile tools that can be used for marketing in three primary ways: text messages, voice broadcasts, and email blasts.

Get Personal With Text Message Marketing

Text marketing is not a new concept. Texting is so widespread that it only makes sense to use text messages to communicate with your audience. Text messages have a 98% open rate, which further supports their use as an incredibly accessible marketing technique.

In addition to being popular, mass text messages are also:

  • Instantaneous
  • Simultaneous
  • Versatile

The versatility of text messages make them ideal for all kinds of marketing material. Texts can be used to share pictures, videos, links, and maps. They can provide your audience with coupon codes, product announcements, news specific to your business or their patronage, thank you messages, or even opportunities to provide feedback on your service or products.

The ability to gather feedback using text messages is particularly important. Successful marketing isn’t just one-way, but provides opportunities for you to build trust with customers as they see you respond to their concerns or questions.

Text messages make it easier than ever to gather feedback. Customers can request feedback forms via a shortcode, or you can request it via text messages that allow open-ended responses. Your response allows customers to know that you’re listening and that you care.

Go Big With Voice Broadcasts

Voice messages cater more to those who gain and retain auditory information, rather than visual. But the biggest benefit of voice messages is the voice itself. Voice broadcasts tend to express emotion and build personal connections better than text messages can.

Overall, voice calls are less versatile than texts. They can only provide auditory information, which is often best suited as a supplement to a full marketing plan. Another issue is that if the recipient answers the call, they have no way to save the information. The message itself can’t be accessed again if the recipient doesn’t write it down or let it go to voicemail.

However, voice calls can help gather feedback. Tools such as hotlines, phone polling, or the ability to talk to a live representative in real-time all speak to your audience’s desire to have a personal connection with your company and make their voice heard.

While individual phone calls are always appreciated and personal, voice broadcasts make it easy to speak with all of your customers simultaneously. It’s one of the few methods of mass communications that still maintains a personal human voice.

Keep it Effectively Simple With Email Blasts

Email blasts are an older marketing tool than text messages, but still a useful one. They continue to be beneficial in aspects such as:

  • A longer form
  • The ability to include “extras” like pictures, videos, and links
  • Greater opportunities for visual graphic design
  • An accessible interface for older and less experienced users
  • Easy ways to share the information (forwarding, printing, etc.)

The longer format of emails is possibly the most beneficial aspect, as it’s what most sets emails apart from texts. Emails don’t have character limits or break up into separate messages if too long, making them the perfect format to use when your customers need a thorough explanation of new information.

It’s also reasonable to imagine that your audience has access to their email from laptops or desktop computers too. This may mean that it’s more likely that an email is read while a recipient has free time, instead of precisely when you send it. This makes emails a great way to deliver calls to action, as the recipient may have time to act right when they read your message.

A Simple Response To A Difficult Task

Mass marketing sent straight to your customers’ phones is a great way to catch their attention at any time. Marketing isn’t simple, but seeing the obvious benefits to text, voice, and email marketing techniques is.

Of course, the specifics of your marketing plan will depend on your business, your product, and your audience. All you have to do is start looking!