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 (and I apologise for being vague, but I don’t want to call anyone out). 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.
When I got the message I wasn’t in a position to reply right away, but I was able to glance at it and see what the message was. I’d gotten these SMS marketing messages before so I knew what it was without reading the whole thing. That’s one of the beauties of SMS marketing – because of the limited character count available you have to keep it simple and understandable.
I was talking with my son later on and I remembered the text. So I excitedly told him we could do the activity he wanted because we were going to get a coupon for it. He became excited too as I went to reply to the message on my phone. I typed in “Deals”. I’m too lazy to capitalise everything. And it usually doesn’t matter. But I didn’t get an immediate response like I usually do. I decided to put my phone away as it was time for my son and I to get back into the car. But on the way home I said we’d stop and use the coupon. I fully expected it to be delivered by the time we got there.
But it never was.
Of course I’d already told my son we could go there, so we did – at full price (yes I could have argued to get the discount once we arrived but decided it wasn’t worth the effort or the time). When we got home I looked at my phone and thought perhaps capitalisation does matter. But that would be silly.
So the next day was another chance for a deal. This time I replied “DEALS”, all caps. And there in the blink of an eye was the coupon. Though we weren’t going to go again, I needed to know if it capitalisation mattered. So the next day I replied again, this time with “Deals”. And voila, there was another coupon fast as can be.
So capitalisation doesn’t matter. Which is good because who can expect someone to use all caps, all the time, when they’re texting? People don’t do that, unless they are very, very mad. So what happened then?
I guess my first message got lost along the way somewhere. I’ll never know if it was the mobile network or if there was some technical issue within the company that prevented a response. But if it was the latter, I would expect something from the company in the form of a bonus coupon offered to everyone since they weren’t able to fulfill their end of the bargain for a period of time. Of course that didn’t happen in this case, but I can’t blame them since I don’t know the cause of the issue.
But if something goes wrong on your end during an SMS marketing promotion, do whatever you can to make it up to people. Even if they hadn’t replied in the first place. Proactively managing a failure, even a small one, will endear people to your company. But if they feel you’ve overlooked them, or don’t care, then they may just unsubscribe.
Of course it’s worth remembering that not all SMS service providers are the same. Some save money by using lower quality routes and connections. Their prices look attractive but what good does that do you if the messages associated with your SMS marketing campaign don’t hit their target 100% reliably. To find out what to look for in an SMS supplier read our SMS Buyers Guide.
Related Articles
Building an SMS Inbound Marketing Campaign for Your Hotel Business
SMS flies under many marketers radars when it comes to building an inbound marketing strategy. But if Buzzfeed's news app is to be believed, there are days when SMS generates the greatest percentage of shares on that channel, beating out Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and email. SMS share buttons are reported to have been used 4 times more than Twitter buttons. When you consider Twitter has 317 million active users, then SMS marketing has huge potential for a hotel business.
How Social Media and SMS Messaging Work Together
Social media platforms pop up so frequently it's hard to keep track. And if you're doing any mobile marketing, it can really create some confusion about what to do and which platform to do it on. This blog isn't about choosing a social platform, but it does address how focusing on social and SMS marketing together - but differently – can lead to greater success in your mobile marketing.
Increase Conversion in Your SMS Marketing by Doing This One Thing
Good copywriting is something marketers understand. But it's easy to forget the basic principles when running SMS marketing campaigns. You only have 160 characters after all (or 453 characters if you're using fastsms). While there are many elements to successful copywriting, there's one element that is often either overlooked or over-used. What is it? Urgency.
9 High Conversion Power Words for SMS Marketing
5 common SMS marketing mistakes
SMS Marketing Campaign Basics
9 Football Phrases to Kick Start Your World Cup SMS Marketing Campaign
Using SMS to support drive-to-web strategies
Older Generations and SMS Messaging
50% of people between 55 and 64 own a smartphone and 18% of people over 65 do too. If you’re trying to reach out to these older demographics, it might be time to consider mobile marketing. But what kind should you choose?
SMS Marketing – Should You Buy a List?
Starting an SMS marketing campaign can be a daunting task. Gathering explicit opt ins can take time, as you need to make an investment in advertising. So why not just get a jumpstart and buy a list of mobile numbers from an organisation that already has the opt ins? You could do that, but it’s probably harder than just getting people to opt in on their own. Here’s why.