Why You’re Failing at Text Message Marketing

December 14, 2018 Posted by Pocketstop in Other Social Share

Text message marketing, an approach praised and implemented by numerous companies worldwide, regardless of their size or industry, is becoming more and more popular as new technologies for it emerge, and customers’ needs for a personalized experience increase. Due to its easiness, versatility, and success rates, text message marketing is the go-to solution for when you need to run a campaign that will improve the relationship you have with your current customers, attract new ones, draw attention to your products and services, or expand brand awareness.

Given that 98% of Americans own a mobile device, it is highly understandable why in the US, text message marketing has skyrocketed to its current status, yet there are some companies that still struggle with understanding how this digital marketing technique works and most of all, with how to implement it in order to drive sales, improve ROI, successfully promote new products, stay in touch with customers’ needs, and any other activity-related goals.

As is the case with all business strategies, whether we are talking about marketing, financial, business continuity, or internal communication, success relies on more than just deciding towards or against a certain approach. For a business strategy to be successful, a company needs to follow a set of essential steps for its implementation, steps that need to go beyond the industry’s average, if you want to do more than keeping your business afloat. But why don’t text message strategies work all the time, since we are talking about such an easy-to-implement and simple method of digital marketing?

Mistakes in the Planning Process of Text Message Marketing

Implementing a marketing strategy means starting with a draft strategy that needs to rely not only on your company’s goals and objectives, but also on the needs of your customers, industry standards, and insightful data about the mean of communication you will be using. You cannot implement a text message marketing strategy without a clear vision on how you will be using it, demographics on your customers, a well-drafted plan, and a modern solution with a wide range of features which will help you improve your strategy, and provide you with data for analyzing with the purpose of developing better new strategies, or understanding the metrics of your campaign, whether successful or not.

One of the biggest mistakes companies make in the planning process of text message marketing is to go with a generic strategy, either inspired by other companies in their industry, or by a momentary demand of business or customers, without looking into all the data that would assure the success of the company. Text messaging is an intimate and easy mean of communication, and customers who agree to provide you with their phone number expect just that: for you to develop a relationship with them based on personalized information, a relationship through which to satisfy their needs and offer them more than others in your industry are doing.

What Are Companies Doing Wrong When Managing A Text Message Marketing Campaign?

Aside from needing a comprehensive and methodologically unassailable plan, you also need to have in mind some aspects of implementing your text message marketing campaign, aspects which you will need to monitor and improve along the way, not just when your campaign is finalized. Text message marketing should first and foremost rely on the quality of content (and offers) and on consistency, and should always avoid spamming customers or breaking text message marketing compliancy regulations.

Here is why you are failing at text message marketing:

• You are not using a modern solution for broadcasting your messages, therefore denying yourself benefits such as real-time data gathering and analyzing or in-depth personalization based on customer demographics
• You are not researching beyond the information that text messages have a 98% open rate, which although it’s the main reason behind text message marketing, needs to be supported by other data, especially when personalizing a strategy based on customer needs and company goals
• You are not offering your customers something valuable through your text message marketing campaigns or you are not offering it at the right time
• You are conducting your text message marketing campaign outside the guidelines of industry regulators
• You are not being consistent in your strategies – a lot of customers rely on their favorite brands to offer them constant discounts and information about new products or services, which is why a text message marketing campaign that is not providing this will have a difficult time in generating a database of loyal customers
• You are using old-school text message marketing language which is mostly focused on the financial aspect of campaigns while ignoring the needs of customers and the need of modern text message marketing communication for providing an intimate and useful relationship for both parties involved
• You are abandoning a text message marketing campaign or a loyalty program as soon as you think it will not prove to be as successful as you wanted, thus confusing your customers
• You are not gathering and analyzing data from your campaign, or you are not using that data to improve your current and future text message marketing campaigns

Regardless of the size of your company or the industry you are operating in – whether you are in retail, the restaurant industry, entertainment, or any other – your text message marketing campaigns need to be drafted and implemented with care, based on modern-day strategies and with the help of comprehensive solutions that will help you reach your objectives with ease. If your campaign is failing, don’t interrupt it and forget about its metrics. Instead, finish your campaign while trying to implement new features or change those which are not beneficial, and always use the data from your campaign to make sure you will not be making the same mistakes in the future.

Text message marketing is a simple, fun, and highly successful digital marketing strategy, which your business should have no difficulty in implementing, as solutions and technologies are available for all companies and industries. Yet, if you do find it difficult to implement a text message marketing campaign, make sure you have taken the necessary steps and that personalization, compliancy, and consistency are playing an important role in your campaign.

Also, don’t forget to make your campaign compliant with the needs of your customers in terms of timing an offer, and providing something of value for what your customers want in a certain moment. Implement your text message marketing campaign alongside a proximity marketing solution and your success will be guaranteed.

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