June 22, 2018 Posted by Pocketstop in Other Social Share
By 2020, 48.7 million consumers will opt in to receive text messages from businesses. With 7 billion messages due to be sent out this year, and an open rate of over 90% within three minutes of receiving each SMS, there is a huge amount of exposure on offer for businesses.
With more mobile phones than people on our planet today, there has never been a more appropriate time for businesses to embrace SMS marketing. SMS marketing gives every business an opportunity to reach their customers on a level that they know and trust.
While many businesses rely on email for their marketing efforts, statistics are proving that SMS is over three times more effective and efficient for influencing and increasing ROI.
For instance:
- 49.7% of all email is spam
- Email open rates are 20%
- Emails have a 6% response rate
- SMS have a 45% response rate
- It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email
- It takes the average person 90 seconds to respond to a text
With SMS marketing being adopted by many businesses on a daily basis, it’s safe to say that this type of communication is here to stay. However, as with all methods of marketing, there is a science behind SMS marketing that makes the difference between success and failure for businesses.
We’ve pinpointed six rules that will enhance the success of any SMS marketing campaign if followed succinctly. Firstly, think about what kind of messages that you would like to receive after opting in to receive businesses SMS marketing messages.
Give Your Customer Value
It’s a golden rule to remember that consumers seek valuable offers. Ensure that any SMS that you create and disseminate create offers that are hard to pass by. Try and put yourself in the shoes of your customers or prospective customers and ask yourself, is this interesting? Will this SMS encourage people to take action?
Nobody wants to receive a pointless offer from a brand that they feel connected to, you want your customers to love and trust you… They’ve already taken a trusting step if they have opted in to receive your SMS, don’t lose this trust!
For example:
20% off all products all week at Eastpark Retail Store for all of our Platinum Txt members. Simply show this txt to any of our staff when making a purchase to receive your exclusive discount. Thank You.
Start The SMS With Your Offer
Get straight to the point, remember that you are giving value to customers and they may not have a lot of time when skim reading messages. SMS marketing is designed to be concise and to the point. People are busy, so dancing around the true value on offer will be a turn off for customers. Placing your offer at the start of the message beckons maximum attention.
Example:
20% off all products all week at Eastpark Retail Store for all of our Platinum Txt members. Simply show this txt to any of our staff when making a purchase to receive your exclusive discount. Thank You.
Make Sure It’s Exclusive
In order to get the best possible ROI from your SMS marketing campaign, make sure that what you are offering makes the recipient feel exclusive when they receive it. You want your audience to feel as though they are part of something special. If you are promoting an offer that is available to everyone, the offer becomes less attractive and urgent. The best way to choreograph a sale via SMS is by ensuring your audience feels special and valued.
Example:
20% off all products all week at the New Entity Shopping Mall for all of our Platinum Txt members. Simply show this txt to any of our staff when making a purchase to receive your exclusive discount. Thank You.
Create A Sense Of Urgency
You’ll potentially see a sharp rise in footfall, web traffic, and revenue if you create a sense of urgency amongst your audience. If you leverage this opportunity and give your audience enough reason to, then they will take time out of their day to pursue your offer. The viability of an offer is a combination of the expiry date and the remuneration displayed in the SMS sent to your database.
Example:
20% off all products this week at the New Entity Shopping Mall for all of our Platinum Txt members. Simply show this txt to any of our staff when making a purchase to receive your exclusive discount. Thank You.
Location Is Paramount
Mentioning the location is the single most important element of your text message that your audience will need to know in order to redeem the offer. Do not miss out on stating the exact location of your store, even if it is an eCommerce store. Your audience would lose respect and willingness to engage with you as a brand if you grabbed their attention with an offer, without telling them where to go to get it.
Example:
20% off all products all week at the north Boston Eastpark Retail Store for all of our Platinum Txt members. Simply show this txt to any of our staff when making a purchase to receive your exclusive discount. Thank You
Include a Call to Action
A call to action is vital in order to lead the customer into your sales funnel. Keep your call to action clean and simple and easy to follow. Assume that your audiences are lazy, but a clever call to action will spring them into action.
Example:
20% off all products all week at the New Entity Shopping Mall for all of our Platinum Txt members. Simply show this txt to any of our staff when making a purchase to receive your exclusive discount. Thank You
If you include a link, 19% of customers will follow it from an SMS compared to just 4.2% in emails. In fact, 30% of SMS campaigns receive a 30% response rate!
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