When a brand makes an effort to create a true omnichannel experience for its customers, the goal should be to make things as frictionless as possible. It doesn’t matter how someone interacts with a business for the first time; it could be through online collateral, such as digital marketing, or offline resources, such as print advertisements. Everything should always feel like it’s coming from the same source.
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash
Often, brands have difficulty bridging the gap between our fast-paced digital world and traditional print materials. Luckily, thoughtfully executed SMS campaigns can do this in several ways that are worth exploring.
Why SMS campaigns matter: Harnessing their power
When you use an SMS API platform such as Mitto, you get more than just another way to communicate with someone. You have an invaluable bridge that can fill the gap between the offline and the online experience.
Case in point: QR codes. If a business were to make a print flyer for a product or service to capture in-person attention, there’s no reason why it couldn’t include a QR code as well. That QR code can lead to a form that people can use to opt into SMS campaigns. This gives people more freedom in terms of how they choose to interact with the brands they like and trust. They can start the experience in a store, continue it online, or move back and forth at will. They’re more than willing to take advantage of this flexibility, provided that a business is willing to give them the option.
Another idea might be to use those same QR codes to offer special in-store discounts to people as they shop. Not only are they rewarded for shopping in a physical location in the first place, but a follow-up SMS message can also be used to encourage online shopping in the future. That way, when customers are looking to make similar purchases in the future but don’t have time to make it into the store, you’ve made them aware of their options and thus have increased the likelihood that they will continue to shop with your brand.
All the while, you’ll be collecting valuable data about people that you can use to better serve them in the future. The type of purchase information and demographic data you gain from SMS campaigns can be used to further your personalization efforts for both online and offline marketing, which goes a long way toward increasing engagement moving forward.
Offline and Online Marketing: The perfect pairing
Far too many businesses make the mistake of assuming that when it comes to offline and online marketing, it is an either/or scenario — that you have to go all-in on digital marketing at the expense of old-school, traditional techniques, or vice versa. The truth is that they are not mutually exclusive.
For the best results, you focus on creating a marriage between the two worlds — one that gives people the flexibility that only comes with shopping online plus the comfort, familiarity, and trust that comes with shopping in-person. Always work to give consumers more options, not fewer; that’s how you create an exceptional experience and separate yourself from competitors.
With the right approach, SMS campaigns can be a great opportunity to successfully merge these two realms. It will take a combination of techniques like those outlined above to get to that point, but once you do, you’ll have created the type of cohesive marketing strategy that blends offline and online elements, exactly as it should be.
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