It’s no secret: we’re more connected to our mobile phones than ever before. Statistics show that, on average, we interact with our mobile phones 2,617 times a day. 

Now: imagine using that abundance of opportunity to promote your products and services? That’s the beauty of SMS marketing. 

People already use their phones far more than any other device to seek valuable information. With SMS marketing, you can put exclusive deals and messaging for your product right at your prospects’ fingertips.

When done right, SMS marketing can play an absolutely critical role in scaling revenue in a cost-efficient way. Here’s how to do it right. 

What is SMS marketing? 

Before we dive into the how, let’s talk a bit more about the what. 

SMS marketing (also called text message marketing) allows businesses to send out promotions, coupons, and alerts via targeted text messages. And while no brand marketing strategy would be complete without the power of email marketing, open rates for text messages are even higher (as high as 98%!). 

When done right, SMS marketing can also convert at an extremely high rate.

Think you’re getting solid returns advertising on Facebook and Instagram? Wait until you experience SMS. 

Why SMS marketing works

Promoting your business through SMS marketing is, hands down, the most effective mobile marketing tactic around. A simple text message puts your product in front of a high-intent buyer that has already interacted with your business. 

SMS is particularly impactful when it comes to targeting Millennials and Gen Zers; which, generally speaking, engage with today’s e-commerce brands at the highest rate. 

Did you know that 83% of millennials open SMS text messages within 90 seconds of receiving them? What’s more, 75% of millennials prefer SMS communications for deliveries, promotions, and surveys.

Why don’t more brands do it? Building an SMS list is hard work. It’s daunting to create a database of prospects. 

Luckily, that’s where a co-branded SMS sweepstakes can help: 

A co-branded sweepstakes is a surefire way to generate a ton of new emails and SMS opt-ins. What’s more, because you’re partnering with similar brands, you can rest assured these new prospects are in your target audience.

Before we dive into co-branded sweepstakes, let’s take a look at a few more of the benefits of SMS marketing. 

High engagement rate

Unlike email or social media notifications, mobile users are likely to read text messages immediately after they’re sent. This means that the likelihood of getting your offer in front of your prospects is far higher when you use text in conjunction with your other marketing channels.

Click-through-rate (CTR) on social media and Google Ads is, generally speaking, not greater than 3%. SMS marketing, on the other hand, can encourage users to click-through at a rate of up to 36%. That’s insane efficiency for a tactic that gets your promotion directly in the hands of a prospect that has already opted-in to your SMS list. 

Reach & accessibility  

When it comes to reaching a large number of consumers, it’s hard to find a messaging medium better than SMS. Every mobile phone is able to receive and send text messages (even if it’s not a smartphone!). Text messaging is more accessible, prevalent, and reaches a far larger user base. 

And because it’s so much easier to redeem a coupon via text message than it is, say, a printed coupon, text message coupons are redeemed at a 6-8X higher rate.

Building high-intent SMS lists through co-branded sweepstakes

The co-branded sweepstakes is just like it sounds. You partner with brands like yours and offer an exclusive deal on your product. To enter the sweepstakes, a person has to opt into your mailing list. 

High-ROI sweepstakes, like the ones we run here at FindKeep.Love, give brands the ability to partner with high-powered, best-in-class brands within their niche. 

Not only does that give our brands the ability to leverage their partners’ credibility; it ensures that every person that enters the sweepstakes and opts into a mailing list is genuinely interested in their and their partners’ brands. 

As brands collect emails and SMS opt-ins and grow their lists, they also receive real-time coaching on how to maximize both their email and SMS marketing strategy--during and after the sweepstakes period. 

Here’s how the process works in a little more detail.

Step 1: Get partnered

We use our abundance of best-in-class consumer brands to partner you with like-minded co-sponsors. Similar to leveraging a PR agency for top news placement, you get access to our large portfolio of Brand Managers, CMOs, and CEOs, all at top consumer brands. 

Step 2: Compliance 

We provide turnkey compliance set-up to make it easier for all brands to partner in cohesive way while complying with US sweepstakes laws. We also handle all technical implications, and make sure brands can launch their giveaways easily and quickly.

Step 3:  Live giveaway mediation

Once live, we closely mediate the giveaway to make sure all brands contribute as equally as possible. 

Step 4: Traffic & sales 

On the user-side, giveaway entrants are taken through an immersive flow in which they have the opportunity to genuinely learn about your brand. 

This includes watching a commercial, taking a quiz, and ultimately opting-in via email and SMS. Then users are taken through a welcome flow that re-introduces them to your brand and drives traffic to your site.

Step 5: Conversion rate optimization

All brands receive comprehensive coaching to make sure their marketers understand the most optimized strategies to convert prospects to new paying customers. We can also feed all opt-in data via API to most email service providers so you can welcome consumers to your brand in real time. 

In the case of SMS, that means thorough coaching on the kinds of offers and messaging brands can use to convert their huge new list via personalized SMS marketing. 

Grow your SMS list by up to 25K

Brands that run co-branded sweepstakes with FindKeep.Love, on average, grow their email list by 5k-25k consumers and their SMS lists by up to 1k consumers. That is a boatload of new prospects that brands can leverage to grow sales through one of the highest converting marketing strategies in the game: SMS marketing.