There are many different marketing methods and mediums professionals use to build a comprehensive strategy for engaging customers and making sales. One marketing technique that is gaining in popularity is the use of SMS marketing to send text and links to customers about upcoming promotions, to remind them of appointments and much more. This type of marketing can quickly become an annoyance to the average consumer, but when done right, SMS messages can give you a higher ROI than many other techniques.
Start With a Quality Team
Most business tasks are most successful when they start with the right team and building an SMS marketing campaign is no different. You will want to have a couple of key professionals who are experts in SMS marketing programs, social media and retail, as well as digital creative designers, discount budget analysts and a promotions specialist to help build your campaign for success. These professionals can help you develop the right messaging, set beneficial discount rates and determine the YTD meaning of your metrics for the campaign.
Have a Good CRM App
Customer Relationship Management, CRM, apps help you track clients through their purchase journey to show you which messages will have the most impact on the customer. These apps will also help you target audiences more effectively, so you do not end up senior discounts to college students, for example. You can find a variety of CRM software solutions that can be integrated with your business dashboard to see sales metrics and monitor SMS campaigns while updating customer accounts and checking business emails.
Write Short and Clear Messages
SMS stands for Short Messaging Service, and one of the benefits of using this type of marketing system is that the most effective texts are short, clear and to-the-point. When drafting messages, you and your team should avoid superfluous words and focus the message on important information. For instance, “Save 50% on Picnic Supplies” makes a better message than “You can stock up on blankets, baskets and other picnic supplies with half off” for marketing because it is direct and highlights the savings amount first.
Use Calls-To-Action
Using calls-to-action such as “click this link” or “show this text” increases customer engagement with your SMS marketing. This action shows you that the customer is reading and valuing the message they receive instead of ignoring them, but it also imparts a sense of importance and purpose to your customer. Buttons or linked text can also make it easier for customers to access products or additional information online, which can be useful when you are dealing with limited characters for your advertisements.
Pace Your Texts
It is important to keep in mind that SMS and email marketing are vastly different techniques. Where emailing customers twice a week can increase your sales, overwhelming customers with multiple texts a week or sending SMS marketing messages too early or late in the day can quickly land your company on a block list. This can go for messages which are too vague, or which include only a link. The best times to send these texts are 8 am to 6 pm local time because you have a better chance of reaching your customers while they are awake and able to engage with your content. Impulse buys are still the most effective purchasing habits to target, which can be easier than you think through SMS marketing. Try to aim promotional texts for events, like grand openings, or sales close to when they start.
SMS marketing can be an effective tool for your business, as long as you start with a quality team packed with professionals and experts, time and word your messages for your target audience, and engage customers with calls-to-action which reflect their purchase journey. You can use this in conjunction with email and social media marketing campaigns with the right CRM app to have the best comprehensive marketing strategy for your business goals.
