In these exciting technological times, text message marketing can become a very powerful tool for any business to use in communicating with customers or for promotions. You can provide them with information they care about, give them reminders and notifications, and promote whatever you please with a simple click of a button.
Of course, you need to ensure that you send them information they’re going to care about and also consider how you can leverage business text messaging to your advantage. That includes when to send messages, building lists, finding ways to interact with customers in a meaningful way, and more. In this article, we’ll teach you five ways to use SMS marketing effectively.
Build A List
Building a list is an important step in your SMS marketing campaign. It allows you to keep track of subscribers, reach them fast, and have an easier time communicating with them, since you can segment your audience based on demographics, location, interests and more. Those are all key metrics for both succeeding and measuring your campaign. You can build a list in a couple of different ways.
You can choose to send them a text message and have them opt in, which adds them to your database. This is ideal for trade shows or anywhere where you might meet a lot of customers. You can also have them willingly provide the information when they buy something. This can work with social media or web pages or some kind of subscription/newsletter sign up.
There are many different methods for obtaining and building a list, so it’s up to you to find what works best for your organization. After that it’s a matter of maintaining the list, letting people unsubscribe if they wish, and handling the data appropriately.
Offer Discounts
Offering discounts is one of the best ways to use text message marketing effectively. Discounts can be used for a specific time period or for a specific item, and they’re a great way to get people to try your business. Discounts are also a great way to increase sales and repeat business. Use them as part of a broad strategy to incentivize customers to return. Craft a high quality message and send it out into the world.
It also can give them something to latch onto that helps them spread the word about your brand. When you want to increase brand awareness, consumer engagement, sales, and more you can’t go wrong with a simple text message promoting an item for simply telling customers about what you have to offer them in return for their patronage.
Think About Message Timing
Just like the best comedy routines, your message timing is critical. Texting can have a significant impact on your bottom line, so you want to make sure you’re using it effectively as often as possible l. Choose times that people are awake and going to be receptive to messaging to send them. After all, you want them to open it and view it or interact with it, so timing is essential. Sometimes sending them after typical work hours can be a great move as well.
You don’t want to send them during holidays, major events, or times where communities might be disengaged from their phones. For instance sending something during the super bowl or the World cup it’s just a bad idea. But since people have their phones on them all the time, you can reach them.
By taking listen to account, you’ll create more conversions and have happier customers. Factor this into your workflow when you’re using software for texting campaigns to get the most out of your texting campaign.
Use SMS and MMS
Use SMS and MMS to get your message across. SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, so use that limitation to your advantage. Craft creative and unique messages that are as concise as possible. MMS messages can include photos and videos, so they can be used for special messages and visually appealing coupons.
Use MMS to send large scale messages that require multimedia. Let’s say you want to wish your customer a happy birthday or mark a special occasion. MMS is perfect for that. For everything else, use SMS. SMS is cheaper than MMS because the price per message is lower (a few cents), but using both can help you appeal to your customers consistently over time.
Don’t Inundate Customers With Messages
For text message marketing to maintain its effectiveness and be something that will actually get your customers excited about a product or service, it needs to be done at the appropriate times. No one wants a ton of superfluous text messages. For instance your marketing messages should only be sent occasionally or at certain times. Messages should also have quality content and be meaningful to your target audience.
Consider employing certain benchmarks based on your customers and their needs. This might mean limiting your text messages to one per day or one per week. You never want to send text messages multiple times in a single hour though. That will annoy customers quickly. You should also not send multiple messages one after another. This is a quick route to annoyance and getting blocked by the receiver.
By sending your messages at the right times with the best frequency for the campaign, you’ll help your customers identify with your products and drive more business overall to your company.
