Customer loyalty programs are a popular way to grow a client base and increase sales. Because of their wide use, businesses are looking for ways to differentiate their programs from those of their competitors. Here's how SMS marketing can be used to do so:

Exclusivity
Text messaging offers an immediate and direct way to send your loyal customers exclusive content and offers. You can also use this when promoting your loyalty program as an extra incentive for people who sign up. This will help increase your subscriber base.

"SMS open rates are near perfect, with messages that are read in minutes."

Groups
One of the reasons businesses offer loyalty programs is because it offers them a way to obtain valuable data about their customers. This data can be used by the text message marketing portion of the program by allowing you to break your customers into groups so you can better target specific sections of your customer base. This is especially useful for businesses that have multiple locations, as messaging and offers can be location-specific.

Engage 
With physical mail most likely ending up in the garbage and email in a spam filter, SMS marketing offers you a way to get through to your customers with more consistency. SMS open rates are nearly perfect, with messages that are read in minutes, so you know your messages are getting through. In addition, the immediacy allows you to send time-sensitive offers that would be almost impossible through other platforms.

Data
As mentioned above, data is a critical part of customer loyalty programs. That data can be integrated with new information from the text message marketing campaign to create better offers that will increase redemption rates.

For companies looking to implement a comprehensive SMS marketing strategy, a robust SMS gateway will provide you with the tools you need.