10 Tips to Fire up Your SMS Marketing Campaign

Unless you’re just rolling out of bed (and even then!), chances are you’ve already checked your cell phone at least a couple of times. The average person interacts 2,617 times a day with their mobile device, and in the U.S. alone, 6 billion texts are exchanged every day. 

Now, let’s look at some marketing statistics: 

• 75% of clients want to receive offers via SMS.
• The CTR rate for offer messages is higher by 9.18% compared to any other digital channel.
• Compared to email marketing, SMS has a 98% open rate.
• 60% of customers read texts within 1-5 minutes after receiving them.
• As of 2021, 67 million Americans redeem coupons via mobile phones.

Source

These stats alone should make you want to implement an SMS marketing strategy immediately. Texting is personal, and it reaches people in a way that email can’t, so using best SMS marketing practices is essential. You want your brand to evoke joy in your reader, not contempt, so it’s necessary to do it right. Below, we will look at ten tactics to help you bring your SMS marketing to another level, to boost your response rate and create the perfect platform to interact with your audience.

But first, let’s quickly break down what SMS marketing is.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS Marketing (also known as Text Marketing) stands for short message service marketing and uses text messaging as the primary channel to reach an audience for marketing purposes. This strategy allows brands to contact customers and prospects through text to generate sales, raise brand awareness and increase engagement. 

SMS marketing is fast, cheap, mobile-friendly (obviously!) and has a much higher CTR than other marketing and advertising options.

10 tips to fire up your SMS Marketing Campaigns

1. Get Permission to Reach Out

When clients enter their phone number while completing a purchase on your site, they consent to receive SMS marketing content, correct? Not exactly. Contacting clients who have not opted-in to receiving text messages is violating the trust they place when giving their personal information, and it is illegal. Make sure you get consent before sending out SMS campaigns.

There are a few ways to obtain consent, such as placing an opt-in section in your email marketing campaign. This often works well if you offer to text a special promotion or discount to all clients who opt-in. The same idea should be applied to your website. When clients see the value, they will be more willing to share their contact info. 

2. Bring Value

Texts are disruptive and lure the user away from their activity, so make sure that every time your company “pings” them, that it’s worth it. Sending a text to wish customers Happy Holidays will probably be met with confusion and an increase in opt-outs. However, wishing them a Happy Holidays and including a special holiday offer they can’t refuse will pique their curiosity and boost engagement.

3. Get Personal with your Message

When reaching out to your audience, try to target them as individuals rather than as a collective group of nameless and faceless people. Use their names in your text, keep in mind their location when sending offers and promos, and try to reference any recent activity or action they might have taken with your brand (a saved product, an abandoned cart etc.). You want them to feel like the text message was tailored for them.

4. Identify Yourself

Have you ever received a text from an unknown number with a link promising something great? Did you click on it? Neither did I. Clients need to know who is reaching out to them and why. Receivers of unidentified text messages are more likely to ignore them or opt out, so neither will bode well for your campaign and your brand visibility. Make sure to identify yourself at the beginning of the text to avoid any confusion or doubt on the receiver’s end.

5. Keep it Short

Save the long explanations and company PR for your newsletters; texting should be short and sweet. You have to get your message across in approximately 160 characters, so get right to the point and make your message stand out. Be bold and be direct with an attention grabber like *EXCLUSIVE OFFER* or *24-HOUR FLASH SALE*. You’ll increase your chances of them taking some form of action instead of having your message “left on read”.

6. Frequency

Marketers are a hard-working bunch, always promoting, promoting and promoting! People are inundated with vast amounts of advertisements, sales pitches, and statistics daily, and some are relevant and useful, and others irrelevant and useless. You want to fall in the former category. Don’t spam readers with texts, or you risk being permanently blocked from reaching them through their phones. Sending texts less frequently but of better quality is a win-win for everyone, and customers will know that a message from you means something good is waiting for them.

7. Timing

Timing is everything if you want to retain your customers. Even loyal ones will choose the opt-out option if they are awoken by a promo text at 3:00 am. Make sure your list is divided by time-zone so that your east and west-coast customers aren’t receiving information at odd hours or during precious family time, such as during Sunday night family supper.

8. Have a Clear Call-to-Action

Make your intentions clear. If you are offering a coupon, say so; if you want the reader to visit your site for more information, make it clear. It might be evident to you what action you want the reader to take, but it might not be as apparent to them. Just like you use CTAs in your other marketing campaigns to drive conversion, the same applies to SMS marketing. Tell the reader what action you want them to perform.

9. Have an Opt-Out Option

Don’t forget to mention that the reader can opt-out of all future text communications. If we put the whole legality issue aside, spamming people who do not wish to be contacted reflects poorly on your brand and will not lead to the type of actions you want your reader to perform. A simple reminder to *text STOP to cancel* will ensure that your text communications are received only by those interested and delighted to interact with your products and services.

10. Use Text to Follow Up

SMS marketing campaigns are great ways to promote discounts and special offers; however, the power of text can also help with your other marketing and customer experience efforts, such as an order confirmation follow-up or an appointment reminder. People often have both email and text activated on their mobile devices, so you’re sure to reach them quickly and directly.

SMS Marketing is the future; it’s powerful and allows you to connect with your audience and send all important information directly to their most precious device – their cellphone. Customers will be more than happy to interact with your brand if you respect and honor the privilege you were given when they opted-in to receiving texts. Many companies are still not integrating SMS marketing into their marketing plan, so increase your visibility, give your business a competitive advantage by using all the best practices to create a powerful SMS marketing strategy.