How To Run SMS Marketing For B2B Businesses

Brands and businesses try their hardest to get their message out there and sell products or services to their customer base. Unfortunately, SMS marketing is typically overlooked, particularly in the B2B sector. Contrary to popular perception, text messaging is not only used in B2C. It can also be an effective B2B marketing strategy to help nurture prospects down the sales funnel.

In this article, we’re going to discuss SMS marketing for B2B businesses, the unique differences of SMS marketing from a B2B perspective, and look at a few tips you can use to improve your existing strategy.

Does B2B SMS Marketing Even Work?

While some content marketers believe that SMS marketing is an ineffective way to promote products to other businesses, the contrary is actually true. Yes, B2B SMS marketing works—and I’m going to explain why.

The main reason many people aren’t convinced about SMS as a B2B marketing tactic lies in the very nature of B2B businesses. B2B focuses on marketing and selling products and services to other companies and businesses; not to direct consumers.

People ascribe a more “professional” mindset to B2B clients, so they feel the approach and content used in SMS marketing aren’t tailored for them.

However, B2B businesses, at their core, also sell to people. In fact, these are people who are less susceptible to impulse buying and emotion-driven purchase decisions. That means to guide them down the sales funnel you need a more personalised and conversational approach - especially businesses on HubSpot, who can utilise a HubSpot SMS Integration to this achieve this.

What’s the best way to be in touch with people on a personal level? Through text messages that reach recipients directly.

B2C vs B2B SMS Messaging

Although both use text messages to reach their prospects, B2B and B2C SMS messaging is different. In particular, there are significant differences in B2B and B2C marketing tactics, content, and delivery.

The graph below illustrates those differences:

Source: Peppy Biz

Because you need to adopt a more personalised approach with businesses, the aim of B2B SMS marketing is to generate leads by recommending your services. As I said, people who represent businesses don’t tend to make emotion-driven purchases. Which means overly commercial messages won’t work. These types of messages will only work with individual consumers where the focus is on brand building, instead.

In B2B sales, it’s best to use a one-on-one approach with businesses. So, for B2B SMS marketing, you should focus on nurturing your prospect through content delivery. In B2C SMS marketing, on the other hand, you want to inform a mass audience about the benefits of your product. Once they are aware of your product, you nurture them to eventually make a purchase.

Ultimately, the goals of both B2B and B2C SMS messaging are the same: to convert and generate revenues. However, the methods to achieve these same goals differ to better engage their target audience.

How to Run an Effective B2B SMS Marketing Campaign

Now that you know B2B SMS marketing works, let’s talk about how you can run an effective campaign. Follow these five steps for more effective lead generation, lead nurturing, and increased conversions, too!

1. Devise your SMS Marketing Campaign

You need to carefully strategise your campaign to launch an effective B2B SMS marketing campaign. At this most crucial part of your B2B SMS strategy, you need to construct a practical framework you will follow as you run the campaign. SMS messaging should exist as part of an omnichannel strategy. In other words, you don’t just send text messages to your prospects. You reel them in with your other marketing tactics. In most cases, according to Trendline Interactive, SMS is best paired with email.

There are many ways you can integrate SMS into your email marketing.

For instance, you can get feedback on email marketing campaigns by conducting polls via text messages. You can use SMS surveys to gather more data about your prospects and make personalised email marketing campaigns. Just make sure they don’t have to give long answers. Questions that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will do. You can also send a text from your Gmail account via the email-to-SMS protocol.

Devise a campaign plan that details the specific marketing tactics you will use so you can execute every SMS campaign with precision.

2. Create a Target List

Building an SMS marketing list is not as complicated as it sounds. You can use your existing list from your email prospecting to announce your plan to build your SMS list. In your email, make sure you include the following:

• What’s in it for them if they subscribe to your SMS marketing list? Offer an incentive.
• Details of the types of text messages you will send and how often you’ll send them.
• A button that links to your sign-up form or a call-to-action that asks them to text a specific keyword to you to subscribe.

There are a few other ways you can create a target list.

On your website, for instance, include a mobile number field on your forms, like this one from Salesforce:

Source: Salesforce - Click this link for our SalesForce SMS Integration.

You can also include that mobile number field in your email opt-in form.

Make sure on all your website forms, you have an unchecked box. Companies interested in subscribing to your SMS marketing list can then check the box to provide expressed consent to receive your text messages.

3. Craft a compelling message in your SMS Marketing

There are many types of text messages you can send businesses. I’ve mentioned some of them already. You can get feedback on your email marketing campaigns by conducting polls. You can ask questions to gather more data about your prospects and make personalised email marketing campaigns. You can also gather more data about prospects just to understand them better and the pain points they wish to solve.

Here are other types of text messages you can send B2B prospects:

• Company announcements: Maybe you have changes to the pricing of your products or a scheduled product launch.
• Content updates: You can send your new content directly to prospects instead. Just give them a link via text.
• Reminders: Remind your prospects about their scheduled meetings or demos with you.

Take note of the length of text messages you send B2B prospects. Don’t make them too long. Remember, people don’t like to read long text messages on their phones, especially if they’re from someone they're not well acquainted with. Plus, staying in the 160-character limit will ensure you don’t get charged for split messages.

4. Segment your Contact List for Relevancy

Don’t spam all your B2B SMS marketing subscribers with the same text messages. You need to segment your list for relevancy first. Divide your target list into categories based on factors such as:

• Industry/sector
• Age of the prospect
• Professional level
• Level of preexisting interest
• Business size

This segmentation will allow you to create tailor-made messages that can appeal to the right B2B prospect.

5. Get the Timing Right

You should send your text messages at the most convenient time for your B2B prospects. That will ensure you successfully engage prospects and achieve optimum conversions.

According to Marketing Dive, it’s most effective to send SMS marketing messages during business hours. That makes sense because that’s when your B2B prospects are working and are therefore willing to entertain anything related to work.

When sending SMS marketing messages you should also consider the following:

• B2B prospects don’t like receiving texts on Mondays: Give your prospects some time to settle into the week. If it’s really urgent, try to send your messages later in the workday.
• Don’t send them too early in the morning: A marketing text message at 4 a.m. will most definitely get a B2B prospect to unsubscribe from your list.
• Don’t send them after work hours: Expect an unsubscribe if a B2B prospect gets your SMS marketing message while they’re trying to unwind from the day.

Once you decide on a particular time, try to stick to it so that your B2B prospect will come to expect your SMS marketing messages. That way, they’ll be more accustomed to your messages coming at that time and are less likely to be annoyed.

Conclusion

While it is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, SMS marketing is still thriving as a formidable channel for outreach, promotion, and even remarketing campaigns. It is a great marketing strategy to reach your B2B prospects, who need a more personalised approach to convert.

The key is to run the B2B SMS marketing campaigns the right way.

So take the tips I gave you to do just that. Devise your campaign, create a target list, and craft a compelling message. Don’t forget to segment your list for relevancy and get the timing right.

Soon, you’ll see all those conversions coming in, and your business will be on its way to success.

This is a guest post written by Owen Baker.

About the author:

Owen Baker is a content marketer for Voila Norbert, an online email verification tool. He has spent most of the last decade working online for a range of marketing companies. When he’s not busy writing, you can find him in the kitchen mastering new dishes.