Knowing what to include in all Marketing campaigns can become confusing. The key thing to remember with your SMS Campaigns is they are as personal as it gets in the world of marketing and communicating with your customers and it is important that this is reflected within your text campaigns.
In order to help you get up and running with your SMS marketing campaigns, I have gone ahead and put together some super handy dos and don’ts to consider 🙂
Personalise Your Campaigns
The key aspect of SMS Marketing is being able to have instant direct communication with your customers. This is one of the reasons it is so effective. However, when communicating directly it is key to ensure your message is personal to each individual customer, you want to avoid generic bulk campaigns.
By making slight changes, for example, using our personalisation tool, to include their name, or reference their last purchase, you are targeting each customer on an individual basis, which will help you stand out from competitors and therefore improve your results from the campaign.
Consider Your Timings
When communicating with your customers, you need to consider the best time to contact them. Every business will be different, the best way around this is to think about your customers and what their lifestyle is likely to consist of this. You want to base the time in which you send your SMS messages on this.
If you are unsure initially, you could split your contacts in two and send your campaign out at different times. You can then track which campaign has the best response and base the time of future SMS campaigns on this.
Include a Call To Action
SMS messages are designed to be short and straight to the point, they become most effective when you include a clear call to action. This also gives you a good way to be able to track the success of your campaign.
Within your message, you need to highlight to the customer exactly what they need to do next. Whether it’s clicking a link or using a discount code, if it is clear and straight forward you will have an improved engagement rate.
Think About the Appearance of Your Message
SMS is just like any other marketing campaign, you have to stand out from your competitors to be noticed. A big part of this is down to the appearance of your text message. By making very slight changes, you will see a positive impact on your campaign. For example, by including line breaks within your message, it will become easier to follow for the reader.
Another option is including emojis in your message. Emojis instantly add a pop of colour that helps attract the attention of your customers, they are also a great way to easily portray your desired emotion. For example, by adding an exclamation mark, you stress urgency, which would be perfect for a limited time offer.
Don’t Forget to Offer An Opt-Out
When reaching out to customers with a marketing campaign, it is import to give them the ability to be able to opt-out from your list.
At FireText we offer a range of different opt-out options that we can add to your account completely free of charge. You would simply need to include this at the end of your text message and we will do the rest! If anyone decides to opt-out we will automatically remove them for you and you can view these numbers within your FireText account.
You Don’t Always Have to be Selling Something
Don’t get me wrong SMS is an awesome tool to drive traffic to your website and send out last-minute time-bound campaigns, which are great to highlight sales and offers. However, it’s important to remember that you don’t always have to be selling a product or service.
SMS can be used within many areas of your business, as an example, messages could be sent out by the Customer Service team. Instead of reaching out to encourage new purchases, you could drop a text message to check in with how they are doing and if they are satisfied with their previous purchases. You may even find that this indirectly increases your sales because you will have more repeat customers if they have a good first experience with your business.
Introduce Yourself
As well as personalising your text message with the customer’s details, introducing yourself and the business injects that extra bit of personality, that will be appreciated by the reader. Although as a business you can send this out efficiently as a bulk SMS campaign, from the customer’s point of view they will feel valued, as if you have reached out to them specifically.
At FireText we have a friendly team of SMS Experts who are always on standby to assist with your marketing campaigns, so if you wanted to chat through any ideas then please don’t hesitate to get in touch!