In April 2024, Textla hosted the first panel dedicated to covering the State of SMS Marketing.
During the course of this 45 minute event, our distinguished panel of marketing leaders at the forefront of business and tech discussed the main trends and keys impacting SMS marketing in 2024.
You can watch the full video here.
Get a summary of each panelist’s key takeaways below.
Meet the Panelists
Luke Brickman: Founder of Textla. Involved in the SMS and CPaaS space for a long time, previously at Twilio where he led North American sales. Now, he helps small businesses reduce SMS costs.
Brandon Redlinger: VP of Marketing at Chili Piper. Though new to Chili Piper, he has been a user and advocate for a while. He specializes in qualifying, routing, and converting inbound leads.
Amelia Taylor: GTM at Capchase, a payment solution provider. She has transitioned from enterprise sales to marketing, focusing on customer retention and acquisition through strategic marketing.
Nick Bennett: Co-founder of TACK GTM. Worked in B2B marketing across tech startups, where he focused on humanizing go-to-market strategies. His aim is to move companies away from generic strategies to create more personalized, impactful interactions.
Summary of Panelist Points
Below is a summary of the top keys to SMS marketing in 2024, as provided by each of the panelists.
Luke Brickman on SMS Marketing
Luke Brickman shared his insights on several key aspects of SMS marketing:
1. Compliance in SMS Marketing: Luke emphasized the importance of compliance, explaining the necessity of securing explicit opt-in from recipients before sending marketing SMS messages. This is to ensure that messages are not marked as spam and that business practices align with regulations like the TCPA. He advised businesses to ensure they have clear consent, especially when sending marketing communications.
2. Transactional Messaging: For transactional messaging, such as appointment reminders or confirmations, the requirements are slightly less stringent. In these cases, implied consent might suffice, as these messages are often expected as part of a service the customer is using.
3. SMS for Inbound Leads at Twilio: Luke described an initiative he led at Twilio to start using SMS for responding to inbound leads—a practice surprisingly not in place despite the company's focus on communication solutions. By integrating SMS, they managed to significantly improve their engagement and conversion rates. He highlighted that SMS had the highest conversion effectiveness due to its immediate delivery and high open rates.
4. Timing and Content of SMS: For someone just starting with SMS marketing, Luke stressed the importance of keeping messages concise to avoid overwhelming the recipient. He advocated for messages that don't require the recipient to scroll, keeping the content brief and to the point.
Overall, Luke’s contributions to the discussion revolved around strategic compliance, the effectiveness of SMS in lead conversion, and best practices for crafting SMS messages that are likely to be read and acted upon by recipients.
Nick Bennett on SMS Marketing
Nick Bennett emphasized several key points about SMS marketing:
1. Humanizing Marketing Strategies: Nick highlighted the importance of moving away from generic marketing strategies that many companies adopt. He advocates for a more human, personalized approach in go-to-market strategies.
2. Personalization and Relevance: He stressed the importance of making SMS communications personalized, relevant, and timely. Nick pointed out that for him, and likely for others, receiving a text message that feels personalized and relevant can significantly increase engagement and responsiveness.
3. Effective Use of SMS in B2B: Nick shared insights into how SMS can effectively be integrated into B2B marketing strategies. He mentioned his previous experience where SMS was successfully used in the construction tech industry at PlanGrid. There, SMS helped facilitate quick and effective communication with workers who might not typically access emails regularly but responded well to text messages.
4. Event Marketing: He discussed innovative ways to use SMS for event marketing, such as coordinating with participants at conferences or scheduling meet-ups, enhancing the connectivity and engagement at events.
5. Partnerships and Influencer Marketing: Nick also explored the potential of using SMS for influencer marketing within the B2B space. By partnering with influencers who can text potential leads or customers, businesses can leverage the trust and authority these influencers have with their audience.
Overall, Nick advocated for a strategic and thoughtful integration of SMS into marketing efforts, emphasizing the need to enhance human connection and personalization in communications.
Amelia Taylor on SMS Marketing
Amelia Taylor emphasized several key points related to SMS marketing:
1. Human Approach and Relevance: Amelia highlighted the importance of approaching SMS marketing with a human touch, emphasizing that messages should be tailored and relevant to the individual receiving them. She shared an anecdote about an SMS campaign where she engaged a potential client by integrating personal and local elements, which led to a meaningful interaction despite not resulting in a sale.
2. Simplicity in Communication: She stressed making communication as simple and accessible as possible. By including her contact information in communications and encouraging texts for simplicity, Amelia advocated for lowering barriers to communication.
3. Importance of Timing and Personalization: Amelia discussed the critical aspects of timing and personalization in SMS messaging. She emphasized the negative impact of inappropriate messaging times (such as late-night texts) and the importance of ensuring messages are well-timed and crafted to feel personal and directly relevant to the recipient.
4. Engagement and Networking: She touched on using SMS not just for direct sales or marketing but as a tool for engagement and networking, particularly around events where timely and direct communication can enhance the interaction.
Overall, Amelia's contributions to the discussion centered on the importance of personal touch, relevance, and ease of communication in SMS marketing, ensuring messages are both engaging and respectful of the recipient's context and preferences.
Brandon Redlinger on SMS Marketing
Brandon Redlinger emphasized the importance of relevance, personalization, and timing in SMS campaigns. He shared insights based on his experience and highlighted key principles for effective SMS marketing:
1. Relevance and Personalization: Redlinger stressed that for an SMS message to be effective, it must be highly relevant to the recipient's needs and interests, and personalized to their specific context. He criticized messages that are generic or fail to align with the recipient's situation, using an example of a poorly timed and irrelevant SMS he received to illustrate his point.
2. Timeliness: He emphasized the importance of sending messages at appropriate times, criticizing a scenario where he received a text message at an inconvenient time (2:06 AM). This example underscored the need for marketers to consider the timing of their communications carefully.
3. Quality Over Quantity: Redlinger advised against bombarding recipients with messages, suggesting that a single, well-crafted message is more effective than multiple irrelevant ones.
4. Integration with Overall Strategy: He pointed out that SMS should not be used in isolation but should be integrated into a broader marketing strategy. This integration helps ensure that messages are part of a cohesive effort rather than random attempts to engage customers.
5. Building Relationships: Redlinger discussed the importance of using SMS to build trust and relationships with customers rather than just pushing for sales. He suggested that SMS could be a tool for nurturing relationships, offering value, and staying top of mind in a non-invasive way.
6. Golden Rule of Texting: He proposed a "golden rule" for SMS marketing: "Text others how you want to be texted." This guideline calls for respect and consideration in crafting messages, ensuring they are something that the sender would also appreciate receiving.
Through these points, Redlinger conveyed a strategic and thoughtful approach to SMS marketing, focusing on respectful, meaningful communication that respects the recipient's time and preferences.
Unlock the Power of SMS Marketing with Textla
At Textla, we understand that in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, engagement is key. That's why we've developed a cutting-edge SMS marketing platform designed to help businesses like yours connect with customers in the most direct and effective way possible.
With Textla, you can:
- Send Timely and Personalized Messages: Ensure your marketing messages are seen and acted upon with our high open-rate SMS solutions.
- Automate Campaigns: Save time and increase efficiency with automated texts that respond to customer actions in real time.
- Segment and Target: Deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, enhancing customer experience and boosting conversion rates.
Join leading businesses across the country that are enhancing their marketing strategies and seeing significant ROI improvements with Textla. Let’s make your SMS marketing effortless and more effective. Reach out today and discover how Textla can transform your customer engagement.
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