Usually, SMS marketing is associated with the B2C segment, when businesses like big retail chains reach out to their customers through SMS messages. However, it might also be a powerful instrument for B2B companies as well. 

B2B SMS marketing might help you with lead generation and relationship building, as well as support your other marketing instruments. 

In this article, we will contemplate how SMS B2B marketing works and how you can make the most out of it.

What Does B2B Mean in Texting?

There are a lot of use cases of SMS marketing in the B2C segment. Companies use it for loyalty programs and special offers, to send appointment reminders and different types of notifications. We are used to receiving SMS messages from brands communicating with us as their clients. 

But what about commercial texting mobile marketing? It is common to send B2B outreach emails and newsletters, offering services for businesses. In some niches, we see the same with social media: some B2B service companies promote their services through appropriate content and paid ads. In comparison, SMS messages are not so well known as a channel for B2B marketing. However, it brings real sufficient results, and we will explain how later in this text.

In general, we will say that B2B text messaging means that you add an SMS channel to your B2B campaigns to generate and nurture your leads.

Does B2B SMS Marketing Really Work?

Though there is a small number of companies that leverage mass texting B2B, it can bring additional value to your marketing and supplement your other point of contact with a business customer. 

Why do business marketing text messages work? Even when we are talking about a business-to-business relationship, we are still encountering people who make decisions. 

Hence, SMS marketing strategies will appeal to business representatives, however, the approach should change drastically from the one you might use to B2C communications. 

What Is the Difference Between B2C and B2B SMS Marketing?

To create efficient B2B messages, you need to understand the nature of this type of relationship and communications, as well as comprehend the difference between B2B and B2C SMS marketing.

Both B2B and B2C marketing are aimed to sell a product or a service to a customer. However, business marketing models of how to do can’t be the same, as well as SMS campaigns.

B2C SMS messages are designed for quick contacts and quick results: for example, an announcement of a flash sale, a release of a new product, or a discount for a client’s birthday or other remarkable dates. 

Strategically, it is all about brand building. Through mass messaging and occasional personalization, a B2C company can create an interesting and efficient customer journey to win customer loyalty and retain customers to guarantee a stable or increasing flow of revenues.

On the other hand, B2B demands more customization, time, and attention from your company. The focus of phone marketing B2B is on lead generation. The more expensive is your product or service, the more effort you need to dedicate to nurture your leads. 

The same will go for SMS campaigns: you won’t sell anything to a business client only through several SMS messages, even if they are written in the most optimal way. 

The key to success here is to avoid sending commercial messages you would prefer for B2C, share relevant and useful business content (articles, videos, invites to webinars), and implement nurture techniques you would use through other channels. 

The Benefits of B2B Text Messaging

So, what are the advantages of B2B SMS messaging that can highlight its value?

Strong Engagement

Due to its nature, SMS drives higher engagement from recipients than email. It is mainly connected to the fact that almost every SMS is opened by mobile users in the shortest span of time, they are short and contain concentrated data, hence, demand not much from customers to interact with them. 

As you can see, SMS can reach your lead when you are unable to contact them through email or other channels that are traditionally considered “professional” and “business-oriented”. And combined with a strong and well-directed call to action, you will be able to receive a reply and establish contact with your prospect.

Cost-efficiency

SMS is a cost-efficient option if compared with other marketing channels. Basically, you need to secure a budget for SMS marketing software, and an SMS testing service that will ensure the efficiency of your campaigns and help you get detailed SMS delivery analytics.   

You won’t need high budgets for content created specifically for SMS or any other expenses. Moreover, a lot of email providers also offer bulk SMS services for small prices if you use them both. 

Great Opportunities for Personalization

Personalization is a key in B2B sales, and SMS can grant you a lot of chances to implement it in your campaigns. For example, specific content pieces can be efficiently delivered to a client’s decision-maker quickly through SMS. 

Leverage the high speed and open rate of SMS to reach out to B2B clients with messages and appeal to you tailored specially for them, providing that you have studied your customer’s company and collected enough data.

B2B SMS Marketing Use Cases

How can you use B2B messages? Here is a list of possible options you might implement:

— use autoresponse for those who decided to join your SMS list;

— provide customer support through SMS;

— set up dates for appointments with customers;

— send reminders on upcoming meetings, payments, events, etc.;

— send regular follow-ups;

— share surveys for clients to fill in to provide feedback on the quality of your services;

— share links to useful content pieces of different formats.

You may also come up with other ideas for your SMS campaigns. However, we again suggest avoiding typical commercial messages directly asking customers to buy from you: it would look like spam and would only drive clients away.

7 Tips & Strategies on How to Use SMS Marketing For B2B

We collected the main suggestions you should pay attention to while working on SMS mobile marketing for B2B companies.

Opt-in

Always ask permission before adding a contact to your marketing list. It is not only due to regulations mandatory in the SMS industry, it is also a question of courtesy. No one likes receiving unwanted promotional messages, so protect yourself from annoyance from your prospects by asking them if they want to become your recipient or offer a short code that can send to subscribe to your campaigns.

Opt-out

The same idea goes into opt-outs: always offer a way for customers to unsubscribe from your messages. Again, it will only help you: firstly, you will clean your subscriber list from inactive users which will only decrease engagement rates; secondly, it won’t let you spoil the impression of your business in the eyes of prospects and current customers.

Bring value

Being useful is essential for B2B communications. It is a basis for a great connection with the customer, so your goal shouldn’t be to sell, it should be to help your clients solve their issues. Hence, sharpen your SMS campaigns to deliver useful advice, suggestions, and use cases your customers can benefit from. 

Strong CTA

Without CTA, your messages won’t drive any results. Think through the customer journey for your B2B campaigns and convey your CTA accordingly: make them convincing, but appropriate for a certain stage of your relationships. 

Start dialogue

Two-way communication will help you transform leads into real projects you will generate revenue with. Do everything to drive answers from your clients: a dialogue will help you to connect, understand the pains and needs of the client, and hence, create a precise offer that is more likely to accept than a general one you might show to every other company.

Use automation

Nowadays, SMS solutions offer to automate your campaigns. It is a great way to optimize the resources of your marketing team: instead of setting up and managing campaigns manually, you might rely on software. Moreover, it will also reduce the possibility of mistakes: the tool won’t miss to send a follow-up message or mix up mobile numbers.

Use testing

A/B testing will help you generate a perfect campaign that will drive great results. Delivery testing will provide you with accurate SMS delivery reports, help to detect fake DLRs and choose the optimal tech telecom infrastructure.

How can Testelium help?

Testelium is an SMS testing platform designed to check your SMS providers. We help to detect unreliable routes with low delivery rates, and vendors that forge delivery reports and undermine your efforts for SMS marketing. 

With Testelium’s help, you will be able to build an ecosystem of reliable SMS partners and always deliver messages to end-point recipients. The multifunctional platform enables manual testing, as well as SMS testing using the REST API method, so you will be able to automate this process. 

Ensure the delivery of your SMS B2B campaign with the Testelium testing tool!