The best industries for text marketing include travel and tourism, retail, restaurants, health care, non-profits, real estate, subscription services, and financial services. But we believe every business can benefit from SMS marketing. Chances are you’ve got some clients in these industries. Maybe you already have some ideas about how you want to use text to support them. But if not, here are some industry-specific SMS marketing examples to get you brainstorming.
SMS Marketing Examples for Healthcare
Today, healthcare providers operate in a different world than their predecessors. New models of healthcare delivery, such as tele-health and home-based care, are making healthcare more accessible, convenient, and patient-centric than ever before.
But just as healthcare services are evolving, marketing and communications have to do the same. Traditional methods of reaching and engaging with patient populations aren’t as quick, efficient, or personalized as our digital society demands.
Healthcare services can use SMS communications in a variety of ways to reach their patients as HIPAA doesn’t prohibit the use of text messaging in healthcare. However, a HIPAA-compliant text messaging platform must be used. Some examples of how healthcare services are using SMS marketing include:
- Promotions and special offers on visits or procedures
- Appointment and prescription reminders
- Links to helpful resources for people managing chronic conditions
- Alerts about regional disease outbreaks
- Notifications about lab results
- Patient surveys and feedback requests
The impact of texts from healthcare services is quite substantial. Research shows healthcare organizations that have adopted text messaging have reported improvements in productivity, quality of care, reductions in patient stays, patient attendance, shorter waiting times, fewer medical errors, improved continuity of care, reduced costs, and improved staff morale and patient satisfaction.
As another study illustrates, in 2020 during the pandemic, a medical group started using text messages to communicate with patients whose surgeries had been postponed. The group found that:
- Engagement rates averaged 90%
- 98.2% of patients expressed that they liked getting text messages
- 95.5% of patients said they felt more connected to their care team
Just Make Sure Texts are HIPAA-Compliant
When adopting SMS marketing for a healthcare organization, make sure to use a HIPAA-compliant texting platform that provides access and audit controls. Also, make sure to follow the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) which governs and regulates texting. Finally, always make sure patients opt-in to receive text messages from your organization and that you include an opt-out or unsubscribe option at the end of each message. Learn more about SMS compliance here.
To sum it up, SMS marketing in healthcare helps meet the changing needs and expectations of healthcare consumers today by customizing communications to the individual, communicating through a preferred channel, and removing friction from interactions.
Bottom line: with mobile devices so readily available and central to consumers’ lives, and texting such an accepted and ubiquitous form of interaction, it would be a mistake for healthcare organizations not to utilize SMS marketing.
A Comprehensive Guide to Texting Patients
SMS Marketing Examples for Restaurants & Retail
Restaurants and retailers depend on getting a steady flow of new and repeat customers. There are traditional advertising and marketing tactics they can deploy, but to be truly successful they need strategies that immediately engage customers — without burning through resources.
As a result, the most well-known SMS marketing examples are within the restaurant and retail industries.
The COVID-19 pandemic most certainly had the biggest influence on the adoption of SMS communications for restaurants and retailers. Consumers were spending more time at home and avoiding brick-and-mortar stores. They were using their phones to order delivery from their favorite restaurants and shop online with any retailer that had eCommerce capabilities. When it was all said and done, Americans were spending over three hours per day on their smartphones in 2020.
Just a few examples of how a restaurant or retail location can use SMS marketing:
- Cart or order completion reminders
- Order status updates
- Sending deals and discounts at peak times or after a purchase
- Menu or product line updates
- Reservation reminders
- Customer feedback after a visit or purchase
Using SMS marketing in the ways above, restaurants and retailers have been able to improve the customer experience, prevent cart abandonment, turn first-time buyers into repeat customers, and re-engage buyers.
A Comprehensive Guide to Texting Diners and Buyers
SMS Marketing Examples for Real Estate
Text messaging is also common in real estate when there are so many time-sensitive aspects. Realtors can use SMS marketing to build listing interest, reach more buyers, and close deals faster. In fact, 90% of realtors prefer to communicate with clients through text because of its speed, ease, and convenience.
Realtors can automatically send:
- Property information
- Renovation updates
- New listings
- Price drops
- Open-houses
- Follow-up messages after a showing
Considering how many clients a realtor may have and how many listings they have going on, SMS marketing can help them manage their workload and improve their productivity.
SMS Marketing Examples for Home Services
Growing a home services business is a challenge. Whether you’re talking a plumber, electrician, roofer, contractor, cleaner, or offer another service, they’re likely competing with a lot of local businesses in their region. To acquire more customers and retain the customers they have, visibility and being top of mind is the name of the game.
That’s where SMS marketing for home services is so impactful. Here are some common examples:
- Quotes or estimates
- Appointment reminders
- Promotions, special offers, or discounted services
- Customer support responses
- Customer surveys and feedback requests
With the text examples above, home service businesses can reduce or prevent missed appointments, get valuable feedback that can help them improve the customer experience, and engage customers with personalized communications that help drive loyalty.
eGuide: SMS Marketing for Home Services
Scale Your SMS Marketing Services
There are plenty of tools out there that your agency can use to send text messages to customers. However, not all of them will provide you with the customization and analysis that can personalize, track, and improve your strategy across clients. GatherUp can help you easily scale your SMS strategy across accounts.
Additionally, GatherUp extends the impact of SMS marketing by combining text marketing with reputation management. With GatherUp you can gather and listen to customer feedback, then engage them through strategic SMS campaigns. You can send targeted text campaigns based on feedback, track performance, and glean valuable insights to drive better customer experiences for your clients.
Using GatherUp for your SMS marketing needs allows you to:
- Create segmented lists of customers for more personalized communications
- Test and schedule messages to improve engagement rates
- Use customer feedback and insights to inform your SMS campaign strategy
- Incorporate Net Promoter Score data to identify and win back detractors, thank promoters, and influence neutrals
- Track all your client’s customer feedback and SMS marketing efforts in one platform for a holistic view the customer experience
GatherUp is one platform you can use to support your clients’ local business and improve the customer experience. If these industry-specific SMS marketing examples leave you ready to learn more, schedule a demo with one of our product experts.
