Have you tried using SMS marketing for your business? SMS marketing is a form of mobile marketing that uses text messages to promote products or services.
It is commonly used by businesses to send promotional messages, discounts, and special offers to their customers. You can use it to remind customers about upcoming events, such as sales or product launches, etc.
But this form of marketing will need you to have people give you their contact numbers where you can send them your marketing messages. Just like in email marketing, you need to have your lead’s email addresses; SMS marketing is no different.
If used strategically, SMS marketing can instantly help you boost your conversions and increase your sales. That’s because you can have a direct and immediate way to communicate with customers through your SMS.
You can send the messages directly to your customer’s phones, which means they can be seen right away. Additionally, these messages tend to have higher open rates than other forms of marketing, allowing businesses to reach their target audience quickly and effectively.
So how does SMS marketing work? In this post, we’ll talk about it and further discuss 4 best practices that can make your SMS marketing campaign a success.
Let’s get started.
How Does SMS Marketing Work?
Ideally, in SMS marketing, the marketers send out messages from “short codes” of 5-6 digits as opposed to full telephone numbers. These numbers can be of one sender or of multiple senders.
There are two types of SMS marketing –
1. Campaigns – SMS campaigns are a type of marketing strategy that involves sending promotional messages to customers via text message. They are often used in order to engage customers, promote products or services, and build brand awareness. SMS campaigns can include offers, discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, or exclusive content. These messages are sent by one user to many.
2. Transactional – Transactional SMS are messages sent to customers to pass on information necessary for using your product or service. Examples include order confirmation messages, payment reminders, account updates, and shipping notifications. These messages are meant to be informational only and are not meant to be promotional. Such messages are usually exchanged between a sender and a recipient.
So basically, you run an SMS campaign to market your product, but transactional SMS are sent once you have converted a customer.
Best Practices of SMS Marketing
Now let’s look at some of the best practices of SMS marketing.
1. Start with an Opt-In
The first important point to remember when running an SMS campaign is to start with an opt-in. Opt-ins are important for SMS marketing campaigns because they allow businesses to ensure that their customers have given their consent to receive promotional messages from your end.
This helps to protect the company from potential legal risks associated with sending unsolicited messages. Additionally, opt-ins allow businesses to build a more targeted list of contacts who are likely to be interested in the content being sent.
This helps to ensure that the messages are actually reaching people who are likely to be interested, rather than just randomly sending messages to a large list of contacts.
2. Keep it Short and Sweet
The next thing to do to make your SMS marketing effective is to keep your messages short and sweet, no more than 160 characters. There are several reasons for that.
First, SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, so it’s essential to be concise and to the point. Additionally, short and simple messages are more likely to get the recipient’s attention and make them more likely to read and respond to the message.
Finally, such messages are easier to read, understand, and remember, which can increase the effectiveness of the message.
3. Personalize Your Messages
Another major point to consider when strategizing your SMS marketing campaign is to personalize your messages.
By personalizing your messages, you can make them more engaging and increase the likelihood of customers taking action.
It allows you to build a relationship with the customer, making them feel valued and appreciated. Personalized messages can also help target specific customers based on their interests, purchase history, and other factors.
This allows marketers to deliver more relevant and timely messages that are more likely to be successful.
4. Include a Call to Action
One of the most important elements that can help you boost your conversions in your SMS marketing is your CTA. Including a CTA(call to action) in your SMS message is very important to prompt customers to take action.
Without that, it’s like promising your users to offer something and not giving them a way to get it. This can confuse them, which you don’t want to happen.
Over to You
So that was about SMS marketing and some of the best practices to follow when running an SMS marketing campaign. But before you start your campaign, remember that it’s important to respect your customers’ opt-out requests. If someone wants to opt-out, make sure to stop sending them messages right away.
