Many companies and organizations are adding SMS marketing programs to their marketing mix and with this growing trend, you have every reason to consider it as one of your marketing tools. There is no doubt that apps have been the craze in modern days but the penetration of Smartphones is still not 100%. That means not all your customers have Smartphones.
The good thing with SMS is the fact that almost all devices in the market today are enabled to send and receive SMS. Therefore, it comes in as one of the best channels that provide the widest reach. As a result, SMSs can be used to communicate with customers.
To get into the SMS marketing platform, here is what you need to know:
1. Identify your Goals
Don’t just approach SMS marketing as its own initiative. Take a review of your business and the marketing objectives so that you create an SMS campaign via a lens that brings your business goals on board. Make sure that these goals and the approach you are going to take are communicated throughout the company.
2. Put up an Ark
You cannot manage the entire SMS campaign by yourself. Remember it will affect people from all departments. Therefore, develop a cross-functional team to assist in conceiving and working on the SMS programs. Include members from all sections and make sure they understand the entire concept for a successful execution.
3. Clear Call-To-Action
For an SMS campaign to be successful, make sure that the Call-To-Action is clear. The consumer should be able to understand what they are required to do. These kinds of campaigns are usually driven by a keyword and a shortcode. Make sure that the shortcode and the keyword are capitalized to become visible within the call-to-action. For example SMS COKE to 770770. An SMS marketing platform like UltraSMSScript can be of great use.
4. Manage the Incentives
Remember that a mobile phone is among the most personal devices you will ever come across. In that case, consumers that allow you into their phone through SMS are definitely the most loyal ones. That means you have to trust them with great love. One of the best ways to do so is to incentivize them to opt-in by way of providing some value to them.
5. Get Permission
SMS just like email is an opt-in channel that requires permission. What this means is that your customer should be allowed to opt-in to start receiving the offer you are making. You can either text them a keyword via a shortcode or submit their phone number through a website form. The point is to make sure that customers made this out of their own volition and consent.
6. Compliance with Set Regulations
Find out with the relevant authorities in charge of the mobile industry especially on SMS use. Make sure that your SMS complies with these set rules and regulations. The SMS should in no way force anyone to buy anything. Along with this, you should provide HELP and STOP instructions, frequency, business entity, terms and conditions and so on.
7. Understand the Immediacy
More than 90% of SMSs are received and read within a span of 3 minutes at most. That makes SMS the most immediate means of connecting with customers. This is important for driving the targeted audience to act. Be precise, nice and direct to the point as you write the SMS.
8. Send SMS Consistently
Don’t make mistake by not sending messages consistently. Keep leveraging any campaign you are making for your business. Keep providing value to your customers, not once and then you disappear. Make sure you keep doing this. Otherwise, they may opt-out of your messages and cause your campaign to fail. You can use a bulk text messaging platform to easily deliver your messages.
9. Integrate Media
Promote these SMS programs via media outlets such as on print, radio, TV, social platforms, in-store signage or via online means. See which one works best for the kind of campaign you want to do. Do an audit of all these media assets and see where the calls-to-action of your SMS can be integrated.
10. Evaluate
Keep evaluating and measuring the success of your SMS. Establish whether your subscribers are increasing by the day and track the subscriber churn rate as well. Make use of various SMS keywords inside different media assets to see which media locations and types are doing best to enhance engagement.
Marketing campaigns via SMS are definitely a great option for modern businesses. If you think it’s good for you, here is all you need to know!