Text message marketing is seeing an astonishingly rapid increase in popularity as more and more businesses – big and small – are turning to it for their customer-engagement needs. Given the remarkable open-and-read rate of text messages, there’s no situation in which your marketing strategy will not benefit from text messaging solutions, from when you want to inform your customers about new products or an ongoing sales campaign, to when you are organizing events, starting a loyalty program or asking for feedback.
With text messages having a 98% open rate, employing a successful text message marketing strategy can help an organization emerge with success from all situations related to customer engagement, strengthen its brand loyalty, and contribute to the overall growth of the business. Yet deciding to implement a text messaging-based solution does not guarantee success, as there are a lot of aspects to consider when doing so. Today, we are going to go over the do’s and don’ts of text message marketing, and how you can utilize this knowledge to the best of your advantage.
The Do’s of Text Message Marketing
Text messaging provides an intimate, clean, and immediate mean of getting in touch with your customers as mobile phones are used for more and more interactions each day. If done right, this will provide to be an excellent channel of communication which you can improve upon as your business grows. Here are some of the do’s of text message marketing:
Plan Accordingly to Text Message Marketing Industry Standards
Text message marketing, although highly successful, has a lot of tailored and personalized features which need to be considered when implementing a marketing strategy. So before going into the depths of how your messages should look like, and how to best engage with your customers, make sure that your text message marketing strategy is not only tailored to both the text message and marketing industries regulations, but also to your goals and objectives, and your customers’ profile.
Request Permission Before Sending a Text Message
Text message marketing is governed by a set of rules and regulations, therefore you need to always have your customers’ permission in order to send them text messages, regardless of their content or frequency. You can get that permission either by having them opt-in via a text message to a short code, or by asking for their number in a physical or web form.
Be Brief and Always Send Essential Information
Text messaging is a short form of communication, and part of its appeal comes precisely from this feature, so when you are drafting the messages you are planning on sending to your customers, don’t forget to keep it short and simple, yet comprehensive. You can do so by purchasing mobile keywords, and using a short url in your text messaging, redirecting your customers to more information, if needed.
Personalize the Text Message Based on Customer Profile Data
A personalized message will always do better in terms of engagement, no matter the channel you are broadcasting it through. This is even more important in the case of text messaging, as this channel is a very intimate one. When they receive a text, your customers are expecting to get valuable information and engage in a comfortable manner with brands they love. In order for you to offer them that, you need to always collect feedback and information which will help put a thorough database in place. Send different messages based on demographics, buying patterns, interests, and location. Also, in the interest of creating an intimate, personalized and trustworthy communication channel, try to stay away from marketing tones, and make sure you are not being overly-promotional.
Remember that Less is More
The temptation to make the most of text message marketing through any means available is widely encountered in businesses throughout all industries. Therefore, a lot of them neglect to curate the number of messages they will send, or even aim for more messages in the hopes they will lead to a higher engagement rate. Whether you are sending our text messages to attract customers in slow times, to promote a new product, to invite them to periodic events, or just to collect feedback, make sure to not overdo it and overwhelm your recipients with too much information.
The Don’ts of Text Message Marketing
When it comes to text message marketing, mistakes are easily made as the plans for implementing such a strategy don’t always keep into account either customer feedback, industry progress, or the need to tailor everything based on company goals and objectives. To make sure you are not handling your text message marketing strategy in an unproductive manner, here are some of the most poignant don’ts:
Don’t Forget to Send all the Needed Information in Your Initial Message
Aside from having specific compliancy needs, a first message is the way you introduce yourself to your customers. Make sure to send one containing all the information they need in order to engage with your brand. This is of utmost importance for brand recognition and for your message to not be considered SPAM.
Sending Different Messages Than the Ones for which the Customer Opted-in
One of the most common mistakes when it comes to text message marketing is to send your customers messages with content outside the range of information they opted-in for. If your customers have opted-in for a loyalty program, make sure to only send information regarding the program. If they opted for sales information, only send sales information. If you want to make a more generalized relationship with your customers via text message, you can create an opt-in that states it. The essential idea is that the customer is aware of what they will be receiving, and gives permission for it.
Don’t Send Messages at Inappropriate Hours
There is nothing worse than receiving a promotional text message in the middle of the night, and yet a lot of businesses make that mistake by either not accounting for time zones, or not being aware of the time they are programming their messages for. A text message send at an inappropriate hour will also affect the successful outcome you are expecting from it.
Don’t Forget to Add a Call-to-Action
Text messages are personal, immediate, and need to be engaging. A call-to-action will help you convince your customer into a more active interaction with your brand. Having something like a ‘show this text’ option in which your customer goes into the store and shows the text for a discount is a great way of getting them to not be passive in relation to your brand.
Don’t Leave it for the Last Minute
Although a text message is immediate and increases the chances of immediate engagement, make sure to always plan your campaigns. Don’t send a Christmas sales text message one day before you are having the sale, as by that time most of your customers would have already made their Christmas shopping.
Text message marketing is an ideal way of achieving a high customer engagement rate, implement your strategies wisely and you will soon see the benefits.
