SMS marketing campaigns are effective. More than two-thirds of people say they find SMS messages helpful. You can use them to make announcements, reminders, and alerts, or simply keep in touch with customers to build loyalty. If you want to start an SMS campaign but don’t know where to begin, this article is for you.
Here are the best practices for creating an effective SMS marketing campaign that will grow your customer base and help you meet your business goals.
Decide who your target audience is and who you’re trying to reach
Before you start an SMS campaign, it’s important to identify your target audience. You want to think about what type of people you would like to connect with and how frequently they will receive messages from you.
An example would be a retail company that wants to send weekly offers and deals via text message. You could set up a time for your messages to go out on Tuesdays at 3:00 pm, for example.
Another example is a restaurant that may want to send information about daily specials and updates on upcoming events. If the restaurant wanted these messages to be sent out daily at 5:00 pm, they could set up their campaign accordingly.
It’s also important for you to identify who you are trying to reach with your campaign—that is, who do you want to respond to? Is it current customers? Prospective customers? Suppliers? Donors? It’s important to know this before sending any messages so that your contact list can be narrowed down accordingly.
The more specific your target audience is, the more targeted your messaging will be and the higher chance of response rates will be.
How often should you send SMS messages?
You can send SMS messages to your customers at any interval. The frequency of the messages you send depends on your business goals. For example, if your goal is customer retention, then you might want to send an SMS campaign more frequently than if your only goal is brand awareness.
In general, it’s good to send SMS messages as often as you can. This way, people will remember to check their phones for updates from you and they’ll be less likely to forget about your business.
One question that frequently comes up is how often people should receive a message from a business they have subscribed with their phone number. There isn’t a perfect answer for this because it depends on what type of business it is and whether or not the person has responded positively in the past.
If you think the customer has responded positively in the past, try sending an SMS campaign every few weeks or months depending on what type of service it is and what response rate previous campaigns have been getting.
Use images to capture attention
If you want to be successful with SMS marketing, you need to use the right images. The images should be eye-catching and attention-grabbing.
You need to make sure that your phone number is still visible because your customers will see this first before they read any other information on the screen.
It’s also important to think about what you want the customer to do after they open up their message. Do you want them to visit your website? Purchase a product? Check out your company profile on social media? There are many options that can help you improve your SMS campaign.
Use visuals like photos or short video clips that will grab your readers’ attention and encourage them to take action. It can be anything from sending an exclusive promo code for their next purchase, announcing a special promotion, or simply thanking them for their loyalty.
Stay focused on one message at a time
Keep your SMS campaign focused on one message. You want to keep it simple and concise, just like your content.
When you send an SMS message, the goal is to provide enough information so that the receiver can take action. If you send a customer an SMS asking them to sign up for your newsletter but also mention a sale going on, they might not notice or care about the sale because it’s not what they signed up for.
You should focus solely on one demand at a time in your SMS campaign. That way, customers know where to find the information they need and will be more inclined to respond to your call-to-action.
If someone is interested in hearing about new products, include a link for them to click on that will update their profile with a notification of new products. If someone has already signed up for notifications from your business, link them directly to those new products without having them go back through their inbox or missed messages.
That way, customers don’t have to dig through previous messages looking for the right one—they can simply go back and look at previous text messages sent by you.
The best way to create an effective SMS campaign is by being clear and concise about what you
Keep your content short and sweet
The best SMS messages are those that are short and to the point. A lot of people open SMS messages on their phone and only read a few words before they put their phone down. It’s important to keep your content brief and succinct so your customer doesn’t lose interest.
If you want them to read your message, make it compelling by including a question or some other element that will entice them to continue reading. This isn’t just for email marketing, this is for all of your marketing efforts!
One way to do this is by asking the recipient an important question that they will want to be answered. For example, “Do you want more information about our special promotion?” Or “Are you interested in hearing how we can help you grow your business?”
Another option is creating a sense of urgency: “We’re having a clearance sale—buy now while supplies last!” The more intriguing and action-oriented the subject line or introduction sentence, the more likely it is for someone to read beyond your first few words.
Summarize your call-to-action (CTA)
People don’t always read the entire SMS message, so it’s important to keep your message concise and clear. The CTA is the most important part of your message and should be placed at the beginning.
Let’s say you’re starting a new promotion for a pizza franchise and want customers to enter their email address and zip code for a chance to win free pizza. Your SMS might look like:
Text PIZZA to 555-5555 for a chance to win! Enter by 10/31
The inclusion of the CTA will encourage people to take action and enter into the promotion.
The inclusion of an expiration date encourages people to act quickly or risk missing out on their chance for free food. If you don’t have an ending date, include other details about how long people have before they miss out on your offer.
Include a link in every message
One of the most effective ways to increase the number of people who click on your SMS messages is by including a link.
Simply include a link to your website in every message you send out, and watch as your click-through rate skyrockets! Including links will also help build your business’s online presence. Your SMS campaign is an opportunity to share information about your company with all of the people who receive one of your messages.
Most people don’t have time to read long texts, so including a link with valuable content is a great way to get them interested in clicking through. And if they do click through, they’ll have an opportunity to learn more about your business!
If you want high response rates for SMS campaigns, make sure you are always including links whenever possible. It’ll make it easier for people to learn more about what you do and demonstrate an interest in what you offer.
Linking to another post or landing page
Being able to link to another post or landing page is one of the best features of creating a blog. You can make your blog as long as you want as long as each post has a link to another related post.
If you write a blog post about “How to Use SMS Marketing Campaigns” and want to write a follow-up article on “10 Ideas for an Effective SMS Marketing Campaign,” then you can link back to your original blog post from the second article. This way, people who have subscribed to your blog will be notified every time you publish a new article.
Linked articles also have SEO benefits, because it gives you the opportunity to include keywords from other posts within one article. If someone searches for your company’s name and finds one of your blogs, they’ll likely click through and read more about your company.
Linking to another content marketing campaign
One of the most effective ways to engage customers with your SMS is to link it to a content marketing campaign.
Link your SMS campaign to an email or social media post that is relevant to the message you are sending. This will help you increase customer engagement by keeping them up-to-date on your business without having to go through additional steps.
Let’s say you have a monthly newsletter that you send out via email, but you also want to include some of those same messages in SMS form. You can link the two campaigns together by sending an email with the subject “SMS Newsletter” and including a link for subscribers who want more information about receiving texts from your business.
This way, the people who are interested in receiving text messages from your company are able to easily opt-in at any time.
Linking to an affiliate
One of the best ways to grow your business is by using affiliate marketing. You can use a variety of different affiliate programs to promote your products and services and offer an incentive for customers to purchase from you. However, you should always follow these three simple rules if you want your affiliate program to be successful:
- Affiliate links must be unique.
- Affiliates must not mislead customers about how they will be compensated.
- Affiliates must not create content that promotes competing companies’ products or services.
If you’re going to have an affiliate program for your business, it’s important that you have these three rules in place so that it’s a mutually beneficial experience for everyone involved!