SMS research and marketing refers to the use of Short Message Service or SMS for conducting surveys related to promotion. This stems from a grand benefit SMS provides. The tool enables for high percentage of text opening rate that lure marketers or businesspeople making use of it as a survey mean.

Surveying people about certain products or services will bring the producers of the products or the services enjoying real-time and on-point feedbacks or suggestions. They will gain the inputs from the people who previously agree to opt into your SMS offer.

Some questions arise, though. Will the advantage be easily reaped? What about the 160 characters rule? How will researchers apply that? We thus make use the questions into our key findings below.

sms research and marketing

1. SMS Shouldn’t Be the Sole Player

Research from Gallup says that SMS shouldn’t play as the single player for doing research or survey. To begin with, you’ll need to obtain permissions from the subscribers joining the survey. SMS research and marketing needs to lay down detailed rules for making the effort benefiting both the companies and the subscribers.

And that doesn’t stop there. To optimize the SMS research and marketing idea, you need to deploy other tools in addition to the SMS. Referring to the research body, at least in the United States, SMS isn’t ready as the prime tool for researching.

Indeed, the tool opens for high percentage for text opening rate. But that doesn’t always translate to high response rate as compared to telephone surveys. We recommend you combining SMS with other means, such as website and email.

2. Text Limitation Matters

Bear in your mind that 160 characters are very short. This what makes SMS research and marketing a challenging option. Suppose you create back-and-forth question and answer method. You’ll need to form sentences less than 160 characters so that the subscribers can read within one text.

3. Minimum Number of Research Questions

In addition to short messages, give selected research questions only. Pick questions that really matter for the whole study. Bear in your mind that the nature of SMS is efficient and concise. Questions and responses are better sent one at a time. You can include a link for providing more questions. But not all of the subscribers’ cell phones are able to launch that web link. And not all of them wish to pay for data to complete the survey.

With the points in mind, we suggest to modify the SMS research and marketing concept. You can utilize SMS as preliminary survey or research tool. Inform them on upcoming survey and ask for their permissions through the initial SMS. You can still depend on the SMS for carrying out researches and support it with other modes, such as email, for comprehensive feedbacks from them. 

Also Read : Keeping Your Bulk SMS Service for Business Effective and Captivating