3 Important SMS Marketing Concepts You Need to Know
Are you really ready to get cracking on your SMS marketing campaign?
You’re probably thinking, “Of course I am!”. But slow down a minute and take a look at three concepts that you might not have heard about, or at least not thought about using yet. All of them can help make or break a marketing campaign – and your business if not done properly.
Autoresponders
You may be familiar with email autoresponders. Well, SMS autoresponders are similar in function, but just a little different conceptually. There are two basic ways to use an SMS autoresponder: a single reply or specific replies based on keywords received. Here are the differences:
Single reply
Every time your virtual mobile number (VMN) receives a message, a previously created autoresponse will be sent to the sender. This would work great if you wanted to send a standard message to everyone – like an out-of-office notification or a receipt confirmation (i.e. “Thank you for your message, someone will be in touch shortly.”.
But the true power of autoresponders comes in the ability to customise replies using keywords.
Keyword reply
When using a VMN you can specify any keyword you want to use in your campaign (if you’re using a shortcode you’ll have to restrict yourself to the keywords you’ve purchased – unless you own the shortcode too!). For this, you could run an opt-in campaign using the keyword JOIN.
Anyone who sent the word JOIN would get your welcome message. If someone misspelled JOIN by accident – say they sent JOINT (autocorrect possibly?) – they would get no response – so it’s a good idea to think about the common misspellings and set them up as keywords also.
Using keywords, you could have customers opt in to other lists so you can segment your marketing to make it even more effective. You could also use a series of autoresponders to create a short survey that varies the questions based on the reply received. To do this sort of survey you simply need to ask participants to pre-pend their answers with A1 (for question 1) and then have the keyword ‘A1’ trigger question 2, and so on.
By creating autoresponders based on keyword processing you’ll be able to keep the people on your list informed, make them feel like they are interacting with you (even if they know it’s an autoresponder), and also help you make the most of every message.
Blacklisting
Blacklisting means to put someone on your black list. In common usage, blacklisting someone means to exclude them from your group, job, project, or whatever. No matter what, you won’t let them in. But in SMS messaging, the concept actually goes in reverse.
When someone sends you a reply to stop sending them messages, they are putting you on their blacklist – they don’t ever want to hear from you again. But because of the laws regarding electronic communications in the UK, it’s your job to make sure you never contact them again.
Maintaining your blacklist needs to be a high priority if you’re doing any kind of SMS marketing. If you continue to send messages to people who have asked you to stop, they are likely to file a complaint. If the Information Commissioner’s Office gets enough complaints, they can investigate your business and potentially levy hefty fines.
Besides, if these customers don’t want your messages, then you’re wasting money by sending them anyway. Save your money for sending messages to the customers that do want to be on your list and actually make purchases or take action on your offers.
You can even use keywords (e.g. ‘STOP’) to automatically add numbers to your blacklist, then all you need to do is clean your lists against your blacklist before sending.
Linked Messages
You likely already know that a standard SMS message is 160 characters. You may also have also received some really long messages where you’ve had to keep scrolling to read it. That’s got you thinking perhaps you could go beyond that limit – and you’d be right.
Linked, or multi-part messages let you send messages up to 456 characters long, which would then use additional credits. The reason this total character limit is less than 160 x 3 is because some characters from each message need to be used for header information that then tells the receiving handset what order to display the linked messages.
Related Articles
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.
Consumers Prefer SMS Over Mobile Apps
Earlier this month I attended an online webinar session covering topics related to SMS. One of the presenters produced some interesting statistics. I wanted to know more, so I went to the original source and found some great news for everyone using SMS as a key part of their mobile strategy.
5 Great Easter Marketing Campaigns to Inspire Your SMS Marketing
5 Simple Steps to Improve Your SMS Marketing with A/B Testing
Do you ever wonder if your SMS marketing campaigns could be even more successful? Of course, you do! Find out how to put A/B testing to work in your campaigns by following our five simple steps and see your ROI increase
12 Reasons Mobile Messaging is “A Beautiful Thing”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But could text messaging really be considered beautiful? You might argue that it depends on the messages you get! That’s a valid approach, but I recently found a description of mobile messaging that made me believe it is indeed beautiful, so I thought I’d share it with you.
Why SMS Marketing Can Be More Effective Than Mobile Banner Advertising
A recent eMarketer article on the effectiveness of mobile banner advertising reports the main reason people don't click is because they aren't interested in the offer. In fact, only 24% of those surveyed say they clicked on a mobile banner on a website in the last three months.
7 Channels for “Free Promotion” of Your Opt In Campaigns
While there are many ways you can probably think of to promote your SMS opt in campaign, there may be some “free” channels you’re neglecting. Thanks to Google, I can point out seven of them. At the mCommerce Summit Google gave a presentation about app promotion and optimising. I can’t even convey how exasperated the presenter was when he talked about how many opportunities companies just let slip by.
How to Use SMS and The Olympics to Boost Business
Almost any business, or even a not-for-profit company, can take advantage of the frenzy of sporting events, like The Olympics. Especially when you combine it with mobile marketing. That’s because there are plenty of fans, and their devices, here in the UK.
Always Follow Through on Your SMS Marketing Promises
The other day I received a text message promising me ten days of deals. All I had to do was reply “DEALS” to the shortcode each day and they would send me a coupon for their service. This was great I thought, because my kids had been asking about the company for a while. A deal was just what I needed to get me to let my kids have their way...