7 Tips to improve your SMS marketing

How SMS marketing works

Ignoring the power of mobile will hold your business back. We’ve talked many times about how consumers these days are living their lives with their cellphones in their hands rather than at their ears. They may not want to talk to your business but they do still want to communicate. But in their own way – by using text messaging. These are the tips that marketers, particularly those who work in performance marketing, must use to improve their SMS marketing this year.

It’s estimated that 4.77 billion people will own a smartphone this year. That’s two out of three people on Earth!

One factor is important to keep in mind and that’s the heavy regulations of SMS marketing. You’ll find yourself in big trouble if you abuse your access to a customer’s private mobile number. So, handle with caution.

Offer incentives to sign up

This one goes with the problem mentioned above. Offer an exclusive incentive that’ll make people feel special and want to sign up for your texts. Tempt your customers with special codes that are only sent to SMS subscribers.

Valuable

Sending an irrelevant or unwanted message to a subscriber can make them feel like you’ve just invaded their personal space. And this is a big no-no. Make sure every message you send them is relevant, necessary and can’t be found elsewhere.

Encourage your customers to act fast

Do this by creating a sense of urgency. A simple expiration date included within the message encourages subscribers to sign up or act faster than they would have otherwise. Anyone who works in performance marketing will understand this sense of urgency, after all, without results they won’t get paid.

Use a short code for SMS marketing

Do you want to have a number that is always associated with your SMS messages? Of course, you do. And you can with a short code. This is one of those numbers like 14 788 which sends messages from specific companies. They help to make your brand easily identifiable and easy to remember. It also assures your customers signing up to be on the receiving end of your messages that your campaign is trustworthy and committed. And in our world of fake news and cyber hacking, it’s important to appear as legitimate as possible.

Personalized texts

People love personalized messages. And because an SMS immediately feels more personal than an email or direct mail, a personalized message will really get your customers’ attention. Customers will always respond better to messages with their names used. When possible, ask what kind of information they’d like to receive and then send them those messages. They’ll appreciate only receiving the type of messages they want to see.

Always include a call to action

Your message must make it very clear what action you would like your customers to take. This means the SMS needs to end with an indication of the action they should take, options include buying a product or signing up to a newsletter. A link to your website and method for communicating, like a phone number or email address, with you should also be included.

Check your statistics

All of this work is fairly pointless if you don’t check your statistics on a regular basis. This means knowing who opened your messages and who didn’t. The reality is, at least some of your list may no longer be using their numbers. And that means you’re wasting money by sending messages to people who aren’t even looking at them. It’s important then to make an effort to connect with these customers through another channel.

So, you know how to improve your SMS marketing campaign. But do you understand why you should be using this method to communicate with your customers? If not, read our recent article about the benefits of using SMS marketing to your business. It talks all about why SMS communication and Clickatell Platform, in particular, can and should be your greatest marketing weapon.