Getting started with text message advertising?
Want to make sure you get the best results?
SMS marketing techniques can be a great way to attract and connect with potential customers and clients. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. It’s important to know a few tricks and tips for making the most of this unique and modern marketing method.
Below we’ll look at the 8 best tips for utilizing text message advertising effectively.
1. Set Expectations
The first thing you need to remember when using text message marketing is to set the right expectations from the start.
A well-crafted SMS marketing campaign can be a very efficient way to communicate with customers, but you need to let them know what to expect. Will they be getting occasional special offers or will they be getting endless marketing messages every day of the week?
Let them know what to expect going in and they’ll be less likely to ask to be removed from your list later on. A customer should know what types of messages they’ll be receiving and how often they’ll be receiving them.
2. Ask Them For Permission
Similar to email marketing, it’s important you don’t send unsolicited and unwanted text messages to customers. There are a few laws and regulations you’ll need to follow for your SMS marketing campaign.
Remember there needs to be a way that a customer can opt in or give you permission to send them SMS messages.
You’ll only end up making people upset if you send unsolicited texts to potential customers. Besides, you’ll have better results anyway if they already have given you permission to send them marketing messages and promotions.
It’s important to stay on a customer’s good side with an SMS campaign, and asking for permission from the very beginning is a great way to let them know you care about their needs.
3. Give Your Customer a Way Out
Sending your customers text messages that don’t give them a way to opt out can be a big mistake. If there isn’t a way for them to remove themselves from your list, you’ll quickly get on their bad side.
You also may be getting on the bad side of the law as well and may get in trouble if you don’t give them a good option for stopping communications. Be sure to include information for how to opt out of your list when sending each message.
A simple message that tells them to text back “STOP” if they want to be removed from the list can be a great idea and is all you really need.
4. Provide Value
When you send text messages to a consumer, it’s important you’re not just marketing your services endlessly without offering anything to them in return.
You need to look for ways to provide value to them and to make them happy to have read your text. One of the easiest and simplest ways to do this is to simply offer valuable discounts and promotions to them.
Offer them a discount on a product or on your services instead of just telling them about them. Your SMS campaign will be much more effective as a result.
5. Pick Your Battles
Different avenues are more suited to different marketing strategies. It’s important to think carefully about what type of promotion, offer, or marketing campaign would be best suited for use with text message marketing.
Keep in mind that text messaging works best when marketing to customers who are already familiar with your brand or have purchased from you before. Text messaging is a very personal medium.
Text message marketing will work well when you’ve built a more personal relationship with a customer already, whereas email marketing may be the better choice if the customer doesn’t know your company as well yet.
6. Choose the Right Hours
When you start an SMS campaign, it’s important you choose the hours that you will be sending your messages out to customers wisely. Some are definitely better than others.
You need to be respectful and don’t make the mistake of sending customers messages in the middle of the night. Sending a marketing message to your customers when they’re in bed asleep at 2 am is a quick way to get them to leave your list.
Sending your messages during normal business hours is usually a good, safe choice, that will ensure you’re not bothering anyone too much during their week.
7. Let Them Breathe
While you should choose the right hours to send your messages, you also need to be careful of how often and how many messages you’re sending them.
If you send one message right after another every day or even multiple times a day you’re going to get on your customer’s nerves very fast. Even multiple messages a week can be overwhelming for your subscribers.
It’s ideal to stay around 2-5 messages a month. This will allow you to choose your messages more wisely and they’ll each be more effective as a result.
It’s also a good idea to let your customers know when they opt in what frequency you plan on sending them messages. This can comfort them and let them know that they won’t be getting a message every single day if they sign up.
8. Use Everyday Language
SMS messages are one of the most personal lines of communication out there and they require much less formality than an email does. Because of this, it’s important you’re always being conversational and using everyday language in your marketing messages.
When you move beyond traditional marketing methods, remember that your language needs to change too. Drop the spammy marketing speak and write your messages conversationally as though you’re speaking to a customer face-to-face.
This will be much more effective in getting their attention and will decrease your chances of them unsubscribing from your list.
Mastering the Art of Text Message Advertising
By using the above tips, you’ll be far ahead of your competition when it comes to text message advertising. It doesn’t have to be difficult to market to your customers using SMS messages, but you do need to take the time to understand the medium.
Text message marketing comes with its own unique characteristics that can make it highly effective, as long as you play by the rules and do it right.
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