SMS marketing remains remarkably responsive.
Despite being over 25 years old and incredibly basic compared to the host of other messaging apps, more and more companies are using SMS to communicate with their customers and prospects.
Every single phone ever made is able to send and receive texts. It’s the one truly universal messaging platform. No other communication channel has the reach or open rate of SMS.
With SMS being so effective, how can you make sure you get the best possible response?
Here are 8 tips for achieving home run SMS marketing campaigns.
1. Use an attention grabber
Start your text message with a bang. Within the first few characters, you need to arouse the reader’s curiosity and compel them to read on.
I recently received a marketing text from Photobox, they’re one of the dozens of online photo printing services.
It was one of the best SMS marketing texts I’ve ever received and had a very simple and powerful attention-grabbing opener.
’50% off everything’
There’s nothing complicated here, just an easily understood offer telling me emphatically that there’s an incredible offer to be taken advantage of.
By keeping it simple, Photobox have squeezed maximum value out of their attention grabber.
2. Include a deadline
The purpose of your text is to encourage your customers to act without delay. The more time that elapses after your offer lands on their phone, the lower the chance of them responding.
A simple tactic that can dramatically reduce your customers getting distracted is to use a deadline in your offer.
The same text that I received from Photobox used a deadline to great effect.
‘Ends at midnight.’
This ‘deadline’ ruse is as old as marketing itself but it’s still a very effective way of creating a sense of urgency. ‘Unless you order before midnight, you’ll miss out on this fantastic offer’ is the message they’re conveying.
It’s very compelling and is a particularly effective tactic online where offers can easily be switched off after the end time.
3. Personalize your text
Research always shows that if you personalize your marketing, you get a higher response. Whether you’re a fan of this corporate familiarity or not, it’s a proven tactic.
By including your customer’s first name in the text, you’re demonstrating that you know who your customers are and that you’re speaking with them as individuals.
A word of warning though. If you get your personalization wrong and call people by the wrong name, you can expect zero response or worse still you could be held up as an example of how not to do SMS marketing.
4. Include a simple call to action
Make it as easy as possible for your customers to respond. Whatever it is that you are asking your customers to do, it needs to be crystal clear and very simple. The vast majority of texts will include one of the following calls to action.
Click on a URL and visit a landing page
Reply to a text with a key word or phrase
Call a phone number
Whichever call to action you use, make sure you test it so you can be certain that it works before the campaign goes live.
5. Avoid text speak
Faced with only 160 characters to get your message across, it’s very tempting to use text speak to help cram in more information.
It’s almost always a mistake.
Some people feel that it comes across as incredible unprofessional and overfamiliar to abbreviate, even if some text speak conventions have become the norm.
Remember that your audience is diverse and it’s wiser not to do anything that might alienate sections of you market.
6. Segment your audience
Targeting and customer segmentation has long been the bedrock of any direct marketing campaign
What’s often ignored though is that with SMS, you can segment your customers into far smaller and precise categories—meaning a more personalized and responsive message.
SMS has a distinct advantage over all other direct marketing channels in that there is no additional cost to creating multiple version of the same offer.
Don’t send everyone on your database the same message. Investigate the data that you hold and send different messages that are closely targeted to the individual segments.
7. Use a URL shortener for your weblinks
With just 160 to play with, every character counts
An easy and obvious way of maximizing the number of characters you have available, is to shorten the website address using one of the many URL shorteners.
It’s an easy way to win back a few characters.
There’s plenty of choice and they’re all free. Three of the most popular ones are…
- TinyURL
- ly
- Bitly
8. Don’t just sell, be useful
SMS is the most responsive direct marketing channel available and there’s no doubt that it’s very effective for generating sales.
But you can have too much of a good thing. If every text that you send is just trying to sell, your customers and prospects will soon become bored and are likely to unsubscribe.
Mix up your sales texts with other useful information. Try and add some value to what you’re sending rather than overwhelming your contacts with sales offers.
Conclusion
SMS Marketing is still as responsive as it was when it started in the late 90s.
If you follow these simple rules, your campaigns will continue to delight your customers and bring you impressive results.
But use SMS marketing with the respect it deserves. No other marketing channel can claim the high response rates but get it wrong and there’s no faster way to lose hard won loyalty.
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