Text message marketing is a method of conveying information about your business to customers through text messages. It has incredible reach, as is evident from statistics collected worldwide that predicts 4.68 billion people will use mobile phones in 2019. Also, text messaging is the most used data service in the world.
You can integrate text message marketing into your overall marketing strategy and use automation tools to create, schedule and send targeted messages. You can use it to engage customer interest in your products/services and also to generate leads.
Text messages are delivered immediately and directly. They can urge customers into action, as in making a purchase or answering a survey. They don’t end up in the spam folder like emails and have higher open and conversion rates.
Regardless of all these advantages, many businesses avoid using text marketing. They fear that it would annoy customers or that they might break the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) mandate that you should obtain permission before sending text messages.
Basic Steps
Companies that use text message marketing should be respectful of customer preferences and send content that elicits interest. The following are basic steps to a text marketing campaign.
Set goals: Decide the purpose of text marketing — drive traffic to your shop or your website or buy your product/service straightaway.
Define target audience: Determine the recipients of your messages: prospects, new clients, or repeat customers. Also, consider other criteria, such as age, gender, marital status, and job profile, according to your goals.
Obtain permission: Obtain customer consent and maintain propriety in your messages.
Use the latest technology: Simplify managing huge contact lists, sending bulk messages at scheduled times and tracking results by opting for text marketing software like Mozeo.
Create effective content: Your messages must have intrinsic value besides being clear and catchy.
Follow up, but not too frequently: When adding people to your text marketing list, specify the number of messages they will get and stick to that limit.
Monitor results: You can track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns from online metrics or by asking customers how they found you.
Check and tweak: Change the message content, offers, and scheduled times periodically. Note the differences in responses and adjust your campaigns accordingly.
Ten Tips
When used effectively, text marketing produces great results. Here are some tips for a successful campaign with great response rates.
1. Categorize your contact list according to demographic or psychographic parameters to send appropriate messages to specific groups. Accurate targeting will make your messages more personal, customized and relevant.
2. Ask your customers when they would like to receive messages, and send the messages correspondingly to influence their buying. If you don’t know their preferences, send messages when they are likely to be free.
3. Advertise your SMS shortcodes and keywords across all available marketing channels.
4. Include a clear call to action (CTA) — a web address or mobile number — in your message.
5. Offer discounts, coupons or freebies to your subscribers via messages.
6. Consider Mozeo’s Enhanced Messaging to turbocharge your messages and circumvent the 160-character limit. Send longer messages, YouTube URLs, and/or images to get the point across.
7. Introduce interactive contests, and include your website or social media links in automated replies.
8. Encourage customers to share your messages by offering them discounts or freebies.
9. Announce a deadline to elicit faster responses.
10. Try to reach out to customers from all segments so that you have a good audience for your potential future ventures.
You have the option of automating all tasks associated with text message marketing. The more you use this marketing method, the more interaction you have with your audience. Text marketing is a sure-fire way to success, given the high open and conversion rates.
