Top Three Things Retailers Should Do to Keep Customers on Their SMS Opt-In List
You’ve run a successful SMS opt-in campaign for your retail store. Now that you have your list, do you have a plan to keep them from opting out? Wait, you mean there’s more to this than just sending out coupon codes? There is if you want to keep your customers from opting out.
Though you don’t want your customers opting out, it’s the law to make sure every SMS message includes a way to do so. That makes it really easy for a customer to get off your list – that’s a good and a bad thing. If you have a high opt out rate then you’re probably doing something wrong. Here’s a short list of what that might be:
- Your messages are too frequent
- You’re sending irrelevant offers or information
- The messages arrive at odd hours, or “after” hours
- You didn’t have permission after all, or the person forgot they opted in
It’s easy though, to avoid losing customers for these reasons (except for the last one. Scrub your list and make sure you have valid opt ins for everyone!). Here are three easy ways to keep people on your list.
- Always tell customers how often you’ll send messages – and stick to it! In mobile, it’s hard to find something more annoying than too many text messages. And though you might not tell them when the messages will be sent, always set it up so messages arrive during appropriate hours.
- Make the offers you send valuable. Everyone wants a deal, especially younger generations where price has shown to be the dominating factor in what and where they decide to purchase. Use email for less valuable, or less immediate, sale messages and announcements. Save your SMS opt-in list for when it counts most.
- Provide a way to let the customer set preferences for what messages to receive. You can do this using reply codes or integrate your messaging with a user profile on your website. User profiles let customers get very specific about what messages they want, which means they’ll probably stay on your list longer. It also is a way for you to gather more information on your customers so you can make sure what you send is relevant to them.
A little planning for long term opt in list management can go a long way towards maximising sales and minimising opt outs. Do you have any other suggestions for retailers to keep their customers from opting out?
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