Copywriting Principles for SMS Marketing
In a recent blog 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.
- Unique – is everyone running a sale on women’s shoes? what can you do different?
- Useful – the message needs to relate to the reader. By segmenting and tracking your list you can know if you’re sending that women’s shoe sale to women … or not.
- Ultra-specific – saying “Sale on women’s shoes” is not as good as “25% off women’s shoes”. The specificity helps drive the purchase decisions. That is it will help justify the women’s desire for more shoes no matter how many she already has (and yes I’m a woman so I understand these things).
Tying these all together in one advert or headline to an advert is often challenging, but doing it in 160 characters (or up to 456 characters if you’re using fastsms) can be even more so.
The key of course, is to understand your product or service and the market you’re trying to reach with the text message campaign. Making an offer useful for instance, completely depends on who you send the messages to. As mentioned above, if you send a text about a sale on women’s shoes to your entire list, most men will likely ignore it (if you send too many they may well unsubscribe too). If you’re able to segment your list so the men don’t get irrelevant messages, but instead get one focused on men’s products you’re conversions will go up.
Having a unique twist to your SMS marketing or message can be one of the more difficult things to define and implement. Let’s say just before Valentine’s Day florists may all be offering roses at a discounted price. If every offer says two dozen roses delivered for £15, a customer has no incentive to choose a particular one. Being unique could mean offering a better discount, adding a vase or other perk, or even in how the message is crafted and delivered – something different from everyone else. Perhaps the text message could include a link to a short video ad with the ability to order right on page. Maybe the SMS message is sent in a funny or humorous way that grabs someone’s attention. This is where creative marketing comes into play and the challenge to make it deliverable within the character limit.
Being ultra-specific is potentially the easiest part of the 4-U’s to include in your message. Use specific numbers and names whenever you can. If your sale is only on a certain brand of product with a certain discount, include all of that if you can fit it into your text message. For example, “10% off Clarks, today only” would be ultra-specific with the discount and the brand name.
Integrating all of the 4-Us will help any marketing campaign. Meeting the challenge of doing so in an SMS marketing message could really help conversions take off.
Related Articles
One Simple Trick Can Boost Your SMS Marketing
SMS marketing offers the ability to send time-sensitive offers to your best customers. But are you missing out on the potential of your own brand in your offers? Read this post to see an example of how a simple trick can potentially boost your results.
12 Great Quotes to Start Your 2018 SMS Marketing Campaign
SMS Marketing Best Practice: Do’s and Don’ts
Whilst social media has gained the attention of many small businesses as a marketing technique, SMS marketing has become a highly beneficial way of keeping your customers and clients close and building solid working relationships. According to research, 90% of text messages are read within three minutes, meaning SMS marketing shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to your advertising and customer service strategies. SMS marketing may be an ideal tactic for your business marketing, so here's a list of what to do and what not to do to ensure you're making the most of your campaign.
The Truth About SMS Opt Out Rates
You’ve read all about getting subscribers, the legal and recommended guidelines, and put great offers out to your list. But people still unsubscribe. Should you be worried? Are you doing something wrong? That depends. As the saying goes, you can’t make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time. You will have opt-outs, but whether you have too many is the question you should be asking.
[Infographic] How to Write the Perfect SMS Message
Is there such a thing as a "perfect" SMS message? Yes, there is, but there isn't just one example of a perfect message. There are so many uses for SMS messages that each of them would have their own perfect example. How many different types are there? This infographic includes a short list of some types.
3 Ingredients for Successful SMS Marketing
Do Your SMS Marketing Messages Sound Spammy?
If you aren’t seeing a positive response from your SMS marketing then your list may be thinking of it as spam and just ignoring it like they do much of their email. So take your latest marketing messages and examine them again with these four questions in mind.
What Makes a Great Call to Action in an SMS Message?
Marketing messages, whether in print or electronic have many parts to them. In the beginning there’s the hook that entices someone to continue reading, and near the end is the call to action. That’s where you make it clear what you want someone to do after reading the message. There are many parts in between these two, but these are, arguably, the two most important.
Do Your Customers Want Emoji in their SMS Messages?
Emoji are showing up everywhere. Should you be using these cute, fun, and illustrative icons in your SMS marketing? Your customers probably want you to. Around 72% of people have positive feelings about brands who use emoji. But before you get started, you’ll want to find out the details in this blog.
To Txt Speak, or NTTS. TITQ.
Is it a good idea to cram more information into your precious 160 characters by using "txtspk" acronyms and abbreviations? Yes and no! It depends on the audience and the message. In this post you can pick up some insights into this question and join us in dissecting a real life example.