With all the acronyms and the various ideas and tips for marketing out there, it is advisable to begin to create a clear understanding of each of these terms for yourself. The idea is to be as up-to-date as possible to ensure that your business is making the most of what’s available to spread your brand message and increase sales. This article will examine two of the current heavy hitters in the realm of marketing, the SMS and the SMM, and aims to provide some useful insights as to which way your business should go.
What is the SMM?
Social media marketing, or SMM, encapsulates a wide range of marketing avenues:- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more recently, TikTok are the main players in social media and have arguably become the main form of modern marketing, news, and entertainment. Even the main street billboards point you in the direction of social media pages for more in-depth product information and details. SMM has also become one of the best ways for producers and businesses to provide specific information and marketing material to a specific consumer segment. Making use of video, music, photos, and stories, as well as a mix of all of these, allows for social media to be used as an outlet for all forms of marketing.
SMS Marketing
This is the short messaging service that took the world by storm with the advent of the mobile phone. But as many would argue, it has come of age and is now being used in the mainstream of business as we now know it as a successful marketing and advertising methodology. From political SMS marketing to the promotion of new offers and products the SMS has become one of the best means of getting a message across. Sending text messages can be an incredibly successful way to engage with your clients and customers but must be well thought through. The frequency of messages, nature of the message, and the value to your customers of the information that you are sharing with them will be the critical elements to consider.
The two marketing acronyms discussed above are quite different and yet pretty similar in that they are both related to the immediacy and possible personalization of the message. Furthermore, the two can quite easily be integrated. You can use social media marketing to elicit a return message or vice versa; use the SMS to direct customers and clients to your social media and offers therein.
In order to cogently determine which of these to use exclusively would require your business to be able to monitor and analyze the response rates of each, the read rates, and the ease at which your consumer base is able to access the particular message.
Concluding Remarks
Both of these forms of marketing will be key to the future of any sustainable, successful marketing campaign. Rather than looking to decide between them, the recommendation would be to look at both and use what works from either of these methodologies to create a unique and specific marketing strategy for your business.
