While mobile marketing is a common strategy used by many companies today, it’s still fairly new in the ever-changing digital world. And although SMS has now been around for quite a long time, it’s only fairly recently that marketers have started to take it seriously as a platform. SMS is a trusted and widely used feature for most mobile users, leading to a huge open rate of 97%. The vast majority of marketing texts are opened within minutes of their receipt. However, just like any other marketing strategy, it’s important to consider the best ways to ensure that your SMS marketing campaign is a success. Here are some tips to keep in mind.
Choose the Right SMS Provider:
Getting your choice of SMS provider right is crucial to the success of your campaign. For example, choosing a provider that uses shared short code services might lead to problems since most major wireless carriers in the US are no longer provisioning new shared short codes. It’s a wise idea to choose a provider that uses dedicated short codes to ensure that all recipients will easily receive your marketing messages. Take your time to research your options and find a provider that meets your needs within your budget.
Opt-In and Privacy Issues:
It’s important to keep your customers’ privacy in mind when sending an SMS marketing message. After all, text messages are quite private, and many customers may feel that receiving an SMS for marketing purposes is quite intrusive. For this reason, it’s important to make sure that recipients have the option to opt-in to more marketing messages if they like, or opt-out if they do not want to hear from you via this channel again. Sending marketing messages to people who simply do not want to be marketed to in this way is only going to have the opposite of the desired effect on your business.
Tailor Messages to Customers:
Generic SMS marketing isn’t going to get you very far. Chances are that you wouldn’t be very interested in a letter in your mailbox addressed to ‘the homeowner’ that wasn’t that relevant to you, and your customers certainly won’t be impressed with generic, irrelevant SMS marketing messages either. To get the best results, it’s important to segment your customer data enabling you to create highly relevant, personalized messages based on a range of factors.
Consistency and Good Timing:
Finally, avoid sending SMS marketing messages sporadically and make sure that you time the messages right. Ideally, you should send your messages during normal business hours, but keep your customers’ lifestyles and preferences in mind. If you have previous SMS marketing campaign data, you can use this to figure out which times SMS are most likely to be opened. Avoid sending messages at times where they are more likely to be an annoyance like early in the morning or very late at night.
Today, SMS marketing is becoming a more popular and efficient way to get the word out to your customers and improve engagement. Keep these tips in mind to ensure that your SMS marketing campaign is on the way to success.
