SMS Marketing: 10 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Your Marketing Strategy
SMS marketing has become one of the most popular forms of marketing in recent years and according to a survey carried out in September 2016, 81% of mobile phone users send or receive text messages on a daily basis. Due to this finding, sending SMS messages has become a highly effective marketing technique over the years. In order to gain success with this form of marketing, certain strategies need to be put in place.
Here are a few top tips on what not to do when marketing your business through SMS messaging:
1. Don't forget to identify yourself
Before you send out your first SMS message to a customer or client, always ensure you inform your customer of your identity. This is essential for both brand recognition and also common courtesy towards your customer. Customers can then engage with you and can expect your texts if you decide to send SMS messages at certain times throughout the day.
2. Don't spam your contacts
In order to get the best responses from your customers and clients, ensure that you don’t spam them with irrelevant offers and deals that may not be suited their individual needs. Try not to send your SMS messages out in bulk, as this type of text is often too general to gain a great deal of interest. Personal texts which are more important will end up getting lost amongst the general messages, therefore your SMS marketing strategy won’t be as effective. Using words such as ‘free’ and ‘win’ are often read as spam, therefore limit these wording choices to a minimal amount.
3. Don't explain everything
Many marketers try and squeeze too much information within their SMS messages, however, this could be a real mistake. Texts should average at around 160 characters in order to grab attention instantly. Short, snappy SMS messages are much more likely to grab the attention of clients than having to read through lengthy paragraphs of information. Mobile users have an extremely short attention span, therefore are only likely to read the first line of your text before contemplating whether to continue. Don’t beat about the bush – get to the point. Despite this, it is never a good idea to abbreviate words within business communication. Abbreviations may not be understood by some clients and won’t portray a professional image of the company.
4. Don't send at unreasonable times
In some cases, text messaging is a less formal approach to marketing, therefore it is essential to get the balance in sending messages at the appropriate times. Your business may have a policy to respect your customers’ privacy, therefore a consideration of timings should be included within these policies. Always aim to maintain a certain distance between your business and your clients in order to remain professional. 90% of texts are read within six minutes of being received, consequently sending your texts at suitable timings will also boost your success rate.
5. Don't harass your customers
Although it is tempting to update your customer with every offer and deal that your business has going, don’t harass your customers by sending texts more than a few times per week. You may have differing relationships between individual customers, so tailor the number of texts you send to each individual on that basis. Aim for less frequency and higher quality with each text that is sent.
6. Don't forget to give customers an instruction
Sending a customer an SMS message without a clear instruction would be an extremely pointless act. You need to use a call to action within every message you send so that your customer is led to make an action. These actions don’t always have to be sales-related but may guide your customer to read a blog post rather than directly to a product. It is all about keeping the balance right, rather than constantly opting for the hard sell. Despite this, ensure you keep your marketing campaign as simple as possible and don’t give your customers too many choices on which action to take. Consider your main objective and aim to achieve a target.
7. Don't forget to measure your success
Ensure you set yourself goals so that you are able to see whether your SMS campaigns are proving successful. When estimating your success, consider the delivery and conversion rates. By recording your success, you can change up your strategies when things don’t work out the first time around.
8. Don't send the same message
When sending SMS messages to your customers, try not to send the same message or offer twice in close proximity. One of the real negatives is that your SMS marketing campaign may lose impact over time. If customers are already aware of what to expect, your customers may not act upon the action. Provide value in each and every text so that your customers feel they will benefit from the information provided.
9. Don't use SMS marketing only once
Many businesses sign up to SMS marketing to promote one single campaign, for example a deal or competition, but later forget about this fundamental business marketing strategy and decide to leave it to one side. Businesses should use SMS marketing as a form of loyalty to their customers, by building relationships and engagement through using this unique platform. Customers may expect regular texts from your business to find out key information and failure to do so may damage long-term customer engagement.
10. Don't focus on the hard sell
Sending constant sales-based messages too regularly won’t help build your client relationships. Allow your customers to feel valued by your company by sending more personal messages, which are tailored to their specific interests and desires. Once you build up client relationships, you may wish to ask questions and queries to gain insight into what the individual customer is looking for.
To gain more information on business SMS or how to use business text messaging within your company, please contact www.fastsms.co.uk today. Or, to read more posts on SMS marketing, check out our blog.
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