Businesses are turning to SMS marketing more frequently to reach their customers where they are — on their mobile phones. However, it takes more than just setting up your service and sending messages to your subscribers to have a successful campaign. With a few conscious actions, you can create a strong foundation for your SMS marketing, increasing the likelihood that you will gain the benefits you want from your program.
Have a Concrete Goal
Before you plan your marketing campaign, it is essential that you know your goal. You may decide to set up an SMS marketing campaign to drive more sales, capture emails, increase customer engagement, widen your reach, and much more. Although a strong campaign can do many things, it is important that you go into it with one major goal. Discuss what you want your campaign to achieve with your team, and then develop a plan that matches that goal. If you try to achieve multiple goals, you could end up doing too much and experiencing minimal impact and success.
Offer Value
One of the most important components of a successful text marketing campaign is to offer something of value to your subscribers. What that is may vary depending on your type of business, location, goals, and target audience. Regardless, every piece of content you send should add value for your subscribers. Examples of valuable content include offers, discounts, deals, exclusive access, and special tips.
Be Clear About Your Intentions
SMS programs are permission-based, which means that you can only text those who have subscribed to your program. To keep your subscribers happy, you need to follow through with your promises. When you develop your promotional material about your campaign, it is essential that you are clear about your intentions. Saying one thing and then doing another can be detrimental to your business. For example, if you ask people to sign up for appointment reminders or transactional messages and then send them marketing texts, you will likely frustrate your subscribers and incite negative feelings towards your business.
Respect Boundaries
Text marketing is a channel that interrupts your consumers; therefore, it is important that you respect boundaries. Generally, your subscribers do not mind the intrusion, as they have signed up to receive your messages. However, you need to respect their time by not texting very early in the day or late at night. Certain days of the week may also be a poor choice for your business. Mondays typically aren’t the best day for marketing texts, and sometimes the weekends should be avoided as well. Rush hour is another time that could be inconvenient for your subscribers.
Regularly Monitor Your Data
Review your metrics to ensure your program remains valuable to customers.
Is it also essential to regularly monitor your text marketing campaign data. You should pay close attention to your opt in and opt out rates. If you notice that they have dipped to lower or higher number respectively, then you may need to make changes to your program. The negative impact could be a result of a specific message, or it could be that your campaign has hit a plateau and it is time to change things up to improve your program. If you frequently check your data, you can continually make small tweaks to keep your program strong instead of having to make dramatic changes at a later time.
There are many other actions you can take to keep your text marketing campaign strong. But establishing a goal, being clear about your intentions, respecting boundaries, offering value, and monitoring your data are some of the most important ways to ensure your program will be a success.
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