More than five billion people worldwide are reported to own smartphone devices. Compared to other gadgets, smartphones are the easiest and most portable ones a person can use anytime and anywhere. But how does this fact benefit you as a WordPress site owner?
If you’re looking for a way to directly reach your target audience and boost your website’s online presence, you may leverage this frequency of smartphone usage among users. On average, a person checks their phone at least once or twice every 10 minutes or 96 to 190 times a day. If you can find a way to promote your site on their smartphones, you can drive more traffic to your website and open more opportunities for your brand. And one way to do this is via SMS Marketing.
Short Message Service (SMS) Marketing: At A Glance
SMS Marketing, also known as text marketing, is a type of mobile marketing that businesses and brands can use to send text messages to their customers and prospects. Your text messages can be anything from sharing promotions and discounts to sending appointment reminders and asking for feedback.
To make it easier and quicker for you to send messages to your customers and prospective clients, you’ll need software to automate it. Text marketing services like Drop Cowboy and other text marketing software can assist you in sending bulk text messages to your customers. You only need to create a contact list, integrate them into the text marketing software, and schedule the delivery of text.
How Effective Is SMS Marketing From Other Marketing Strategies?
As per statistics, 48% of consumers prefer to receive and read brand updates and promotions via SMS. Meanwhile, only 22% prefer emailing as their channel, and 20% opt for app notifications. The same report also showed that SMS messages have a 98% open rate to emails which only have 20%. Unlike email or social media channels that require an internet connection, your customers won’t need the internet to receive your text messages.
These numbers show that your customers are more likely to read and analyze your business-related messages when sent through SMS than through email or other communication channels. For that reason, SMS can be a powerful channel to drive traffic to your WordPress site.
Furthermore, when doing SMS marketing, you must only use one business mobile phone number to represent your WordPress site and stay consistent with your branding. By consistently using a unified business number associated with your website, you will build trust and reputation among the recipient of your SMS, helping you drive traffic to your WordPress site.
If you don’t have a business mobile phone number or a local virtual number yet for your website, check out Call Cowboy or other VoIP providers to help set up a mobile phone number for SMS marketing.
Which Business Industries Utilize SMS For Their Marketing?
The following are the top industries that use SMS to reach out to their customers and boost website traffic:
- Real Estate: 73%
- Entertainment and leisure: 63%
- Home construction and machinery: 57%
- Utilities and energy: 53%
- Airlines: 50%
- Logistics: 50%
- Education: 47%
Although they operate from different industries and offer various products/services, they have one goal in mind: to motivate customers to check their sites and buy their products/services.
A great example of this is the real estate industry. Real estate agents will need to do their best to be at the forefront of their client’s minds, especially since they only get paid if they can sell a property.
SMS can be the perfect medium for them to quickly communicate with their home buyers, give updates about an available property, or send reminders about the scheduled open house. They can include a link in their text message to redirect their clients to their real estate website, containing more details and photos of the property. SMS gives that sense of urgency that will make the clients want to check on your website immediately before they miss out on anything.
How Can SMS Marketing Help Increase Traffic To Your WordPress Site?
Now that you know how effective SMS marketing is in connecting with your target audience, it’s time to learn how to use SMS to increase your WordPress site’s traffic. Here are several ways SMS marketing can drive more traffic to your website.
- You Can Make The Most Of SMS Integrations
A great place to start your SMS marketing campaign is through SMS integrations. SMS integration is when you embed SMS messaging into a digital platform that you currently use. This is done using an SMS Application Programming Interface (API) to connect your SMS-sending software to a particular business or digital platform.
For example, by integrating your WordPress site with Shopify or other e-commerce marketplaces, you can quickly send your customers welcome messages, new product updates, and shipment confirmations. If a customer abandons their online cart while shopping on your Shopify store, an SMS software automatically sends them a text message reminding about your product in their online cart and encouraging them to resume shopping.
With SMS integration, businesses can rely on computers to send SMS messages to customers, making your SMS marketing campaign more efficient. Plus, SMS integration allows you to maintain regular communication with customers, which helps boost engagement and encourages them to revisit your WordPress site.
- SMS Marketing Supports Hyperlinking On Text Messages
Humans are said to only have a short attention span. This means there’s a risk that your recipients will forget about the content of your text message if nothing spikes their curiosity. Fortunately, both SMS and MMS marketing campaigns support hyperlinking to help promote your website to your recipients. You can include links in your text messages to stimulate your viewers’ curiosity and redirect them to your WordPress site.
For example, suppose you recently published a new article about a product review or a ‘how-to’ tutorial on your site. You can send text messages notifying your audience about the new post, including a link to your website to make it easier for them to access your recent articles.
If you’re having problems incorporating your WordPress links due to the limited number of text message characters available, you may use an URL shortener to solve this problem. Use URL shorteners to create a credible but catchy link that reflects your site’s personality.
- You Can Encourage Audience With Call-To-Action (CTA) Messages
Similar to hyperlinking, sending text messages with CTA phrases can encourage your recipients to check your WordPress site, driving more traffic. Hyperlinking and including CTA must go hand in hand for better results. Otherwise, your audience won’t understand your message if they only receive a link with no context or a text message without any link.
Don’t be afraid to tell your audience what you expect them to do. Phrases such as ‘visit our website,’ ‘click here,’ and ‘check our latest post’ can be enough to help the audience understand their assignment and know exactly what to do.
Here are a few examples of short but urgent messages with CTA:
- Click here to read our latest product review about XYZ skincare products.
- Check our website to see the newest version of our XYZ product.
- Ready for the summer vacation? Visit our website and book the cheapest flights to your dream destination!
Formatting your text messages like these will let the recipients know what they’re about to click and how it benefits them when they check your website.
- You Can Maximize Your Social Media Following
If you already have a big following on your social media accounts, you can maximize your current followers and include them in your SMS marketing list. Create a post on all your social media platforms, encouraging your followers to subscribe to your SMS notifications or join your SMS list. But for this work, make sure to mention how joining your SMS list will benefit them.
For instance, if they sign up on your SMS list, they can enjoy exclusive benefits like new product alerts, exclusive deals, limited discount codes, first-come-first-serve promotions, and more. The more people sign up for your SMS list, the more traffic you can bring to your WordPress site.
- You Can Promote Online Events
Perhaps you’re running an online event for your loyal readers, such as a Live chat for the virtual session, a webinar, or a grand raffle draw to celebrate your website’s anniversary. You can utilize SMS marketing to promote your upcoming events and get people engaged and excited. Your SMS event reminders must include the following essential details:
- Date and time of the event
- A link where people can virtually enter or register to join
- A CTA to inspire people to sign up or grab limited slots
- A link to your website’s event page
- Details about what they can expect
- Hashtags related to your event which they can use to promote on social media
Promoting your website’s upcoming events via SMS marketing is quicker, easier, and more efficient. Instead of taking up more time to open their apps and check their emails, your recipients will know what’s up the moment they read your text and go directly to your website without any delay. If your website’s event is only open for a limited number of spots, include an RSVP link in your text message so they can reserve their slots immediately.
- You Can Offer Text-Only Coupons To Active Customers
Among the best things about SMS marketing is that you can build a personal and exclusive connection with your customers and recipients to make them feel more special. For example, you can include text-only coupons and discounts besides sending texts about a new product release or upcoming events. Only the people who access your website via that SMS will get to enjoy discounts or coupons.
The exclusivity of text-only coupons creates a sense of luxury and urgency, prompting recipients to take advantage of this offer as quickly as possible. This will also drive more traffic to your site as your SMS subscribers will likely promote your text-only discounts to their peers and encourage others to do the same.
- You Can Send Follow Up Messages After Your Audience Fill Out A Form
When a person successfully fills out any form on your website, most brands usually send follow-up emails thanking them for completing the form. However, with emails having a low open rate of around 20%, your audience won’t likely receive or open these emails immediately. Therefore, instead of sending follow-up emails, you can do this through a text message.
Follow-up text messages can be a great way to drive these people back to your website. For instance, after they fill out a request form for a quote, your SMS-sending software will automatically send a text message with a link to your FAQ page. This is an excellent way to foster excellent business-customer communication.
Even if you haven’t provided any service to them yet, being proactive in sending helpful information can add to their satisfaction, encouraging them to return or bookmark your WordPress site for future use.
- You Can Solicit For Client Feedback
Asking your audience for feedback about your services, goods, or content is one way to entice them to recheck your site and drive more traffic. After your audience has used your service, made a purchase, or interacted with your website, you can send a text message survey asking for their feedback or user experience.
Soliciting their feedback shows that you care about their opinions and experiences and are willing to commit to more improvements. You can ask your recipients to complete a survey via text message or redirect them to your site’s survey page. After they’ve completed the feedback form or survey, they’ll automatically land on your website’s home page or product page, making it easy for them to browse your site again and increase your website traffic.
- You Can Organize An SMS Referral Program
An SMS referral program uses your existing customers and subscribers as marketing tools. In this program, each of your subscribers gets a unique referral link that they can forward to their family, friends, or other contacts. If one of their contacts clicks and uses that link, your subscriber will enjoy a few perks, such as an exclusive discount/promo code or more loyalty points they can use to claim freebies and redeem rewards.
The better the perks, the more your subscribers will be motivated to pass your referral link to more people, leading to more traffic to your website. You can set up tracking to monitor how many people your subscribers were able to recruit and provide discounts or loyalty points based on the number of people they have referred. An SMS referral program can ultimately boost your website traffic, enhance your online presence, and earn more viewers.
Drive More Traffic On Your WordPress Site Via SMS Marketing
SMS marketing can be one of the most effective ways of promoting your brand and driving traffic to your WordPress Site. You have many strategies to choose from to promote your website and encourage more people to see it. Make sure you select the best option that best fits your industry and the type of customers you have. So, set up your SMS marketing campaign.