Taking Your SMS Marketing Analytics Further: A Benchmark Guide

You have been running your SMS marketing campaign for long enough to know exactly to which analytical tools to pay attention to determine how effective your campaign is. Studies have come out touting the high numbers texting has for most of these measurements, but how can you apply these numbers to what you see with your own campaign? With a little knowledge and work, you can use the information to benchmark how well your marketing campaign is doing.

Know Your Objectives

Meet with your team and determine clear, defined objectives for your program.

Before you go too far down the road of reading your analytics and comparing them to national, local or even corporate benchmarks, it is essential to know your objectives. According to a report from Forrester, around 57 percent of marketers have no clearly defined objective in place for their efforts. Many who do still have a very vague goal, such as “increase engagement.” These types of goals are difficult to quantify achievement because there is no defined objective or milestones to indicate progress toward that objective.

Always have clear, detailed objectives in place before you start your program. If you have already begun, it is never too late to review your goals and develop objectives for your SMS marketing program. Concentrate on a few indicators to determine your success, especially at the beginning of the process. Ideally, these are the ones that best provide insight related to your objectives.

Understand How Your Customers Use Texting

There is no doubt that SMS marketing is a powerful tool. Between 90 and 100 percent of smartphone users of any age text. Customers are open to receiving more texts from brands. However, the industry of your business might affect the impact of your texting service. People are used to signing up for SMS marketing message offers from retail stores and other customer-facing businesses.

There might be some businesses from which customers do not expect to receive regular updates. This might limit the ability of your business to hit the national average, but you might still have a widely successful campaign compared to your competitors. Therefore, it is important to find the information about mobile use in your industry, when possible. If none are available, consider mobile adoption in the demographics of your customers, as well as other ways that they tend to interact with your company to determine the potential of SMS marketing.

Select Benchmarking Partners

Find companies similar to your own and use their data for benchmarking.

With the above information as background, it is possible to create an actual benchmarking program for your SMS marketing efforts for your business. Creating this means you need to determine what businesses you plan to use as your benchmarking partners. This typically includes companies of a similar size and objective as your own. However, you might also include companies that are excellent in one particular area, even if they are not in your industry or otherwise similar to your company. For example, a company with at least some similar characteristics to your own that has an excellent SMS program might make for a good candidate to include, as long as it is not the only one you use.

You can find some information for your benchmarking data in public records. If you find difficulty, it is also beneficial to contact the business directly and offer to share the information for benchmarking purposes. You might also find resources that provide general benchmarking data for your industry, including SMS marketing.

The average statistics you see promoted in connection with SMS marketing provide a basic idea of the potential of the marketing platform. However, like all channels, not all businesses perform the same way. Therefore, it is essential you create your own benchmarking to compare your analytics with similar companies to see how well your campaign is doing within the parameters and nuances of your business.

Learn more about the analytics you should use to review your campaign with this blog post.

Categories: Group Texting News