Running a text campaign can feel overwhelming. There’s writing the content, picking a schedule, and getting to grips with all the software. An SMS marketing agency could be exactly what you need to get your business off the ground.
These agencies take the legwork out of the equation, leaving you to just reap the rewards. Typically involving a monthly subscription fee or upfront project payment, it’s a way of swapping money for time. You get to spend more time on projects you enjoy more or feel more effective managing.
Deciding when to outsource is never an easy decision. After all, there’s often a hefty financial gamble involved. It’s smart that you’re really evaluating whether it’s the right move for you.
In this guide, we’ll help you decide if an agency route is the best option for your SMS marketing campaign. To be or not to be? Read until the end, and you’ll have a concrete answer either way.
What Is An SMS Marketing Agency?
An SMS marketing agency handles all over your texting campaign for you. That means collecting your text list, curating text marketing messages, and bulk-sending them. It’s the reassuring touch of having an extra pair of eyes on the ball. In fact, with the right agency, you can forget about the ball completely.
SMS marketing companies typically run on a monthly subscription basis or offer an upfront project fee. These could be smaller companies run by small groups of (or even individual) freelancers. Alternatively, it could be a major digital marketing agency. It just depends on who you pick.
You can use agencies across all types of industries. SMS marketing for restaurants, retail venues, e-commerce businesses, bars, and cafes exists.
How SMS Marketing Works
SMS marketing works on a simple premise: sending text messages of up to 160 characters. It utilizes a pre-existing text list (we’ll cover building one of these from scratch later) to bulk-send texts.
Marketing software is the secret to success, allowing better tracking and sending messages in bulk.
Of course, SMS marketing also involves writing content, such as these SMS marketing examples. It uses these messages to send out multiple types of content, including:
- Promotional messages advertising new products.
- Retention-focused messages that give discounts to inactive previous customers.
- Birthday or festive messages to build rapport.
- Practical correspondence like order confirmations.
Behind those basic mechanisms of the strategy, businesses have to decide on an optimal schedule. Usually, this involves one to two promotional messages a week and then practical correspondence as necessary. But it’s important to monitor analytics and adjust as and when necessary.
You might choose to outsource this strategy to an agency or go it alone with the help of marketing software. If you need some inspiration, it’s worth checking out some sample text messages to customers. Depending on which software you choose, it might even provide SMS templates.
Is SMS Better Than Email Marketing?
Overall, yes, SMS is better than email marketing. This is because SMS campaigns have sky-high open rates of around 98%. In comparison, email campaigns receive around 20%. That’s a huge difference in people actually opening and reading your content.
Because of those hiked-up opening rates, SMS messages also have a better conversion rate. The stats for SMS campaigns hover at around 29% compared to email campaigns, which receive 15.2%.
In summary, SMS might be snappier, but it’s proven to be a more effective way of engaging with your customer base. In terms of lifecycle marketing, emails might allow more words, but SMS messages keep customers coming back for more.
With that said, the best marketing strategies combine a little bit of everything. Instead of debating email vs. SMS marketing, how about you debate how to launch both?
The combination of long-form and short-form promotional content can be a nice balance. Perhaps you could launch an email loyalty program but use SMS messages for quick discount notifications.
Our advice would be to utilize SMS marketing alongside other strategies, including alternatives like social media marketing. Of course, if you invest in outsourcing to an agency, you’d have more time for things like social media management. That’s one massive pro of agency partnerships and definitely something to consider while reading this guide.
Understanding Budget: SMS Marketing For Marketing Agencies
When investing in SMS marketing for marketing agencies, you’ll spend upwards of $900 a month.
Advanced packages cost anywhere between $1,500 and $4,000 but can reach prices of up to $20,000, especially for large businesses. The sky’s the limit; keep in mind that agencies typically charge high flat-rate fees.
A freelance marketer might be better if you’d prefer to work with lower upfront financial investments. The average rate of an SMS marketer is $50 an hour. This might not work out as cost-effective when comparing the hours you get with an agency vs. a freelancer. However, it does provide flexibility, and freelancers may offer lower-hour commitments than large agencies demand.
You could invest in just a couple of hours a week and cut your monthly cost to around $400 through freelancers. Keep in mind you might not get results as quickly.
How To Collect Phone Numbers
Maybe you want to understand how an SMS marketing agency will collect your numbers. Or maybe you’d like to approach a marketing agency with an already-formed text list. Either way, the question remains: how do you collect phone numbers?
There are two approaches: legal and illegal. The illegal way involves purchasing readymade lists of phone numbers. We wouldn’t recommend this, as harvesting data from third parties skips the vital stage of consent. It’s a legal requirement to obtain prior consent from recipients; don’t land yourself in immediate hot water.
The legal route (which we’d heartily recommend) involves sourcing numbers yourself. While this can seem daunting, it only requires a few basic strategies. Here are a few ideas that you’re more than welcome to pinch:
- Set up competitions online and request phone numbers for entry.
- Create a captive portal system to collect phone numbers from your WiFi.
- Launch an SMS loyalty campaign.
All of these valuable strategies involve engaging with people who are already familiar with your business. Because of this, you won’t be cold texting recipients, and you’ll be legally compliant. That is, they’ve already provided consent for you to contact them — even if savvily obtained.
Beambox: Collecting Phone Numbers Through WiFi
Now for the exciting part: transforming your WiFi into a number-collecting machine. All you need is a single piece of software called a captive portal.
A captive portal is a webpage pop-up that triggers when customers click to join your network. They cannot pass this pop-up and access your WiFi without inputting details into a form.
As a customizable feature, you can request whatever details you need — including phone numbers for marketing purposes. The guest inputs their number, the form closes, and they get WiFi. But better yet, you also get valuable marketing contact.
It’s so easy to launch a captive portal campaign. You simply invest on a monthly subscription basis and enable captive portals in your router settings. It’s a simple add-on for your guest WiFi network, which, chances are, you run already. The best part is that it’s passive once set up: you could literally be collecting numbers in your sleep.
At Beambox, we are passionate about scaling businesses through the power of captive portals. We offer all-in-one WiFi software with customizable captive portals to give business owners more control over their internet.
Start your Beambox free trial today and build your list without an SMS marketing agency!
FAQ
Don’t rush off just yet! We’re about to shed light on the intricacies of collecting phone numbers through your WiFi. It’s a smart system, and once you get going, you’ll have a solid contact list in no time. We’d go as far as to say it’s the most effective approach.
Before you learn all about that, though, check out these FAQ. How many answers can you remember?
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is the process of sending relevant messages to recipients as part of promotional campaigns. The standard message length is 160 characters, including spaces. Therefore, these are brief and snappy forms of communication.
To launch an SMS campaign, you need a list of phone numbers to contact. Building this list is half the battle; you’ll need strategies right from the start.
Why should I hire an SMS marketing agency?
Hiring an SMS marketing agency takes the hassle out of running text campaigns. Instead of tackling all of the list building, contact storing, content creation, and ongoing analysis yourself, the agency handles it.
It relieves you of a huge time burden. It also ensures you get results; marketing agencies are experts in their trade.
How much do SMS marketing agencies charge?
Budget a minimum of $900 a month, with an average cost of $1,500 to $4,000 for advanced packages. SMS marketing isn’t something to skimp on if you decide to outsource. The monthly packages involve a lot of monitoring and hard work.
If you decide this is out of your budget, you could opt for a freelancer for fewer hours. The typical marketer rate per hour is $50. You could purchase a couple of hours a week instead, although results will be slower.
