Over the past year and a half, almost every demographic has relied even more heavily on technology to remain in touch with family and friends. Even those who were reluctant to fully embrace digital are now experts at Zoom and FaceTime.
Given how much more people have come to rely on their smartphones and tablets in their personal lives, combining email marketing with text messaging isn’t such a stretch anymore. After all, people don’t leave their phones at home when they go to work — especially if their office is just down the hall from their kitchen. In fact, one survey even found that 97 percent of Americans have their mobile phone within hand’s reach 24 hours a day.
As a result, text messages have officially joined the B2B marketer’s toolset as an additional way to keep prospects and customers engaged.
To accommodate growing interest in this channel, Oracle has introduced native SMS Marketing (i.e. text messaging) functionality within Eloqua this past Friday, November 19 as part of its latest controlled release. With this add-on capability, marketers can use SMS in conjunction with email and other steps in their campaign and program canvases.
Still on the fence about whether to add texting to your marketing mix? Gartner found that text messages can have open rates as high as 98 percent (compared to just 20 percent for email), with response rates as high as 45 percent (compared to only 6 percent for email). That’s not too surprising. After all, when is the last time you didn’t read one of your text messages? Text messages also win when it comes to how quickly they’re read (within 3 minutes!).
Text messaging is simply one more channel that is available to marketers. The good news is it’s already built into most smartphones, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues like you do with email platforms and web browsers.
So, how are B2B marketers currently using SMS to supplement their more traditional email marketing campaigns? Text messages won’t work in every situation, but marketers have found some success with the following use cases:
- Lead generation and new content
- Event registration confirmations and reminders
- Surveys and polls
- Security alerts
- Emergency notifications (e.g., service disruption)
If a customer or prospect registers for a webinar, for example, and they opted in to text message communications on the web form (or already did so in your subscription center), you can send them a registration confirmation text that lets them add the event to their phone’s calendar. You can also send them a text reminder shortly before the webinar begins to help boost attendance.
Below are a few things to keep in mind when launching SMS Marketing in your organization:
1. Get their permission.
Before you start sending text messages to your customers and prospects, make sure they opt in first. In the United States, autodial text messaging is governed by the Federal Communication Commission’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). If you haven’t done so already, update your subscription center to ask your customers and prospects if they prefer to be contacted via email or text — or are open to both. HubSpot offers a handy TCPA Survival Guide, if you’re interested. And be sure to include a way to opt out of receiving text messages at any time.
2. Keep it short and sweet.
Similar to Twitter, a text message has a character limit (160, in this case). Not that you’d want to send anything much longer than that given how much screen space a typical text message takes up on someone’s smartphone. So, make sure your message — and your call to action — is clear and to the point! (If you’re including a link, I’d recommend using a URL shortening service like bitly.)
3. Personalize your message.
People are very attached to their phones, making text messages a more personal form of communication than email (even if someone also reads that email on their phone). Take advantage of your Eloqua database to include dynamic content, such as their first name or other personal or product details tailored to the communication.
4. Get their honest opinion:
Want to get near-instant customer feedback? According to Oracle, text polls get an average 45 percent response rate (compared to only 8 percent for email). Maybe you want to gauge how satisfied your customers are with your product or service, or maybe you want to know what’s keeping them up at night right now to help inform your messaging.
5. Measure your success.
Now that text messaging is available natively within Eloqua, you can quantify your results across an entire multichannel campaign with comprehensive reporting. You’ll be able to see real-time performance for both email and text messaging in one place, as well as setup periodic reports to measure progress over time.
Ready to add text messages to your marketing toolkit?
SMS will be available as an add-on capability for existing Eloqua customers between November 19 and December 4, 2021. If you’re already an Eloqua customer, you can learn more about what’s included in this latest release on Oracle Community. And, if you’d like some help getting up and running, we would be happy to be of service.
Bray Coleman leads the Eloqua practice for BDO Digital. As a Solutions Architect Manager, he designs solutions in marketing automation to help our clients see their campaigns achieve their fullest potential. When he’s not building solutions for our clients, you’ll find him chasing his kids or in the ocean chasing waves.
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