Consumers are regularly bombarded with text messages from friends, work or companies running marketing campaigns. Most of them tend to ignore the marketing texts or delete them if they are not appealing or looks like a scam.
You must create effective campaigns if you plan to use SMS marketing to engage your audience and drive more sales. But how can you do that? Keep reading this article, where we have detailed all the essential things you should consider to get the best from your SMS marketing campaigns.
Get To The Point
People’s attention span is short, so you want to get straight to the point with your message when running an SMS marketing campaign. Besides, nobody likes reading long messages, especially when it does not convey useful information.
One of SMS marketing best practices is to limit your text to 160 characters. In addition, avoid ambiguity and state the purpose of the message early. This way, you won’t be stressing your readers and wasting their time trying to decipher the information you are passing.
On the same point, make sure you avoid confusing abbreviations, or if possible, don’t use any abbreviations. If there is a part of the text you want to call extra attention to, you can highlight it in uppercase. Likewise, shorten any URL you want to add to the text to fit into the 160-character count.
Introduce Yourself
Receiving messages from an unknown source or person is not always delightful. So to avoid this with your audience, introduce yourself or your business. This does not mean you have to write a complete biography about yourself and what you do. Instead, merely tell your readers your brand’s name so they can know who the message is from.
Whenever possible, refer to your recipients in their name, as this adds a personal touch. It will give them a sense that they matter to your brand. This is much better than calling them “customer” or “client”.
Promote SMS Opt-In
In proper SMS marketing ethics, you cannot send messages to every number that comes your way. If you do, it could lead to severe consequences at the end of the day. So how can you get numbers to send your brand’s text messages to? Well, you can use different strategies. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be excellent ways to invite your customers and community to share their mobile numbers and join your SMS list.
Another efficient way to promote SMS opt-in is to offer something in return. Remember that people are always sensitive about sharing personal information like phone numbers. So if you want to encourage them to share their number with you, offering freebies can come in handy.
However, a word of caution here, don’t go overboard with the freebies, so it does not affect your business finances or give your brand a not-so-good image. Some brands also employ influencers to help promote SMS opt-in along with their products.
Add Value
If you want your SMS campaign to be successful, you must add value to your audience. The truth is that nobody wants to receive random texts from brands, and most consumers will unsubscribe from your SMS list if they notice you only send junk. Remember, your customers are not your friends and are not looking forward to random chit-chats from your brand.
Before creating an SMS campaign, ask yourself: “Is the message I want to send my subscribers useful?” “Is it the right time to send the message?” Is the message supposed to go only to a particular segment of my SMS list?” Your answers to those questions will help you ensure your SMS promotional messages are adding value to the right segment of your audience.
Don’t Bore Your Subscribers
Once you’ve gotten customers to subscribe to your SMS list, you want to ensure you don’t bore them. So as much as possible, avoid sending repetitive messages, even about sales or new collections. Instead, find ways and craft messages to keep your customers entertained.
You can invite your audience to participate in giveaways or contests and include the links to your social media pages. Likewise, you can use your SMS campaign to ask for feedback to understand areas where your customers think you can improve your services.
Use Your SMS Campaign to Boost Email Campaigns
According to several reports, people tend to open SMS faster than email. So it may be an excellent strategy to use SMS marketing to boost your email campaigns. For instance, instead of conveying your entire message in a text message to your audience, which can be pretty lengthy, you can keep it a mystery and arouse their curiosity to check and read the emails you sent. However, be mindful not to disappoint. If the content in your email is not impressive or not as promised, there is a high chance your subscribers may unsubscribe from both your SMS and email list.
Conclusion
This article has discussed how you can create effective SMS marketing campaigns. Remember that people’s attention span is low, so you want to get the point as soon as possible. Also, don’t forget to introduce yourself and promote SMS opt-in. You shouldn’t send messages to just about anybody, as this will have consequences.
If you genuinely want your SMS campaign to succeed, ensure you add value and don’t bore your subscribers. Also, it may be a good call to combine SMS marketing with your email campaigns to achieve better results.
Following the tips highlighted in this article can help you create effective SMS marketing campaigns to increase your revenue and brand reputation.
