Build Brand Loyalty with SMS Messaging
In a world where your competition can be found in just a few seconds, instilling brand loyalty in customers is a greater challenge than ever. One bad social media faux pas and you could find yourself losing customers quickly.
One way to proactively reach out to customers is via SMS messaging. The personal nature of SMS messages, combined with high read rates, gives you the opportunity to develop relationships with each customer. And it’s that personal relationship that can make the difference in whether your customers stay with you, or jump to the company with the lowest prices.
You see, we all want to feel important, respected, and valued by those around us. And there’s a point where we perceive a company as “caring” about us. It’s usually due to amazing marketing, but also comes from great customer service. With SMS messaging, you can merge the two.
How?
By sending personalised text messages based on information you have about the customer. This goes way beyond using a first name in the message – that simply isn’t enough. Here are some examples of what you can do if you have the information, and the customer’s permission to use it.
Send coupons for specific events or dates – birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, holidays are all times when a quick message with an offer just for the customer will mean a lot. If you can offer them a small something for free just to say “Happy Birthday!” they will be all smiles when it comes to your brand. Remember people are looking for an experience not just a business relationship.
Information on something that interests them – As an example, let’s say you run a sports shop. From your customer’s profile you know they are interested in golf, but not cricket. You can send them a message with a link to your review of a new graphite club just about to hit your store shelves. They’ll be impressed you know they are interested in golf (even if they are the ones who told you so in their profile), and appreciate the heads up on when the new club will arrive. As long as you only send information they want (don’t send messages about cricket if you don’t know if they like cricket!), and not too often, they are more likely to think of you first the next time they want to make a purchase. Of course, you could send them an email with a link to the review, but they may never read it.
Follow up after a purchase – If a customer makes a significant purchase, just send a text asking how it’s working out for them, and let them know you’re there to help if they need it. Obviously you don’t want to use this for inexpensive or frequently purchased items. Resist the urge to just send a text with a link to buy accessories or add-ons. Remember customer loyalty is built on relationships, not sales.
The key to making this approach work is balance. Like anything, if you use it too much the customer may get annoyed. And always make sure you have permission to send them messages first.
Related Articles
Oops! What to do When You Send the Wrong Message
Sending a text message to the wrong person can be embarrassing. I've done it many times. Thankfully though, they were just simple messages like "be home soon" or "I'll tell you later". Innocuous, harmless and easily explained away. But what if you make a mistake with your business SMS messages?
5 Marketing Trends That Matter for SMS in 2018
A Demonstration on How Not to Build Your SMS List
Over the last month or so I've signed up for quite a lot of webinars. I'm always trying to learn more about technology, marketing, best practices – you get the idea. So I've been excited to see many organisations offering SMS reminders for webinars. But there is one experience I had with an SMS reminder for a webinar that I simply had to share.
What Your Customers Want From SMS Marketing
Mobile marketing offers an unprecedented access to your customers virtually any time, anywhere. This is particularly true for SMS marketing because it is “always on”. Customers don’t have to be surfing the web, or using an app to receive messages. Instead, they see the marketing messages right alongside ones from their friends and family.
3 Common Errors That Will Ruin Your SMS Marketing
You worked hard to get those customers on your SMS marketing list. But now they are unsubscribing like crazy, or maybe just no longer responding to your messages. What happened? Maybe you’ve committed one of the following common, but easy to fix, errors that can completely drive your customers away.
Copywriting Principles for SMS Marketing
In a recent post I covered how to create urgency in your SMS marketing messages. It didn't feel right to leave out a few other key components - the U companions. In copywriting circles they are often called the 4-Us. They are: Urgent, Useful, Unique, and Ultra-specific. So to make sure I don't leave anything out, here I'll show you how to use the others in your SMS messaging.
5 Reasons SMS Marketing Matters Now More Than Ever
5 SMS Marketing Ideas for Volunteers Week
Personalising Your SMS Marketing
Using people’s names in marketing is great. It does provide a certain level of personalisation that can get people more interested in what you’re sending them. Of course in text messaging, you don’t always have the room for a name, your message, and the required opt out information … usually there just isn’t enough room. So how can you make your marketing messages personal?
Are Emoji the Next Big Thing in SMS Marketing?
One of the best things about instant messaging is the ability to send emoticons and emoji to convey a feeling with just one image. Many companies are trying to use them in their SMS marketing. There are technical issues with using them though, as well as questions on whether it’s good marketing practice.