3 Important SMS Marketing Concepts You Need to Know
![important sms marketing concepts](https://dox4euoyzny9u.cloudfront.net/images/fastsms/3-important-SMS-marketing-concepts-you-need-to-know.png)
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
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.
The most effective mobile marketing example messages
Advantages & Disadvantages of SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is very different to most other more traditional marketing tools, specifically because of its short-form, text only nature. This certainly shouldn't put you off though. We have put together our guide to both the best things about SMS marketing and some of the potential problems, and how to work around them.
Do Your Customers Trust You?
I think for much of the last decade, people used the Internet and then mobile devices, without giving too much thought about what they were doing. Or more accurately, what other people were doing with their information. But then came Edward Snowden in 2013 who revealed governments were collecting and using our personal data in ways we hadn’t imagined.
Have IM Apps Made SMS Messaging Irrelevant?
Earlier this year there was big news. WhatsApp users were sending more messages each day than SMS users were sending. According to the Telegraph, WhatsApp was 50% more popular than SMS messaging. And the truth is the number of SMS messages sent each day has declined over the last few years. In the UK it was down almost 25% from 2012 to 2013. But is that the whole picture?
Proof SMS Messaging Gets Results: Giveaways and Contests
Companies use contests and giveaways all the time. It turns out that doing them over SMS messaging works really well, and offers some advantages over other channels. Read our blog to see the types of results various companies achieved when using SMS giveaways.
Why SMS Marketing Should be Part of Your Mobile Strategy
Small screens increasingly equate to big business. 30 years ago, when mobile phones were still in their relative infancy and tended to be both expensive and as big as a rubber-bound brick, Vodafone predicted that the market would support around a million units. Fast forward to 2016 and mobile phones are a daily part of life for a majority of the global population.
Top Tips for a Successful Christmas SMS Marketing Campaign [Infographic]
SMS vs. Instant Message App Marketing
It seems there's a new messaging app popping up every month. It's hard to keep track of them all, but it's also hard to ignore them if you're looking to use mobile marketing. When you've got limited marketing resources, should you spend them advertising on the latest IM app, or go with SMS marketing?
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.