SMS (Short Message Service) is one of the most personal and effective way of reaching out to potential customers. It has become a popular marketing tool for businesses as it is easy to get started with and arguably cheaper. This method of campaigning gained a lot of popularity among e-commerce businesses, insurance firms, and organizations. ***
If utilized justly can be a powerful tool to boost sales and increase customer engagements exponentially, that’s why a lot of advertisers, approximately 56% prefer using SMS marketing in 2022. Below are six tips that to help you your sms marketing be more engaging to your customers.
1. Know your Customers and build lists to group them
It’s important to know who your target customers are for a specific campaign for it to deliver the expected results. A message to the right customer can be profitable while, on the other hand, the same message to the wrong customer can be destructive. SMS are so personal to the customer so it is crucial that you are sending an sms campaign to the right customer.
To know who to connect with, making a contact list is the right way to go. A different list for different types of customers that you have like loyal, present and “customers to regain”.
2. Go straight to the point to no waste their time
SMS campaigns are supposed to be short so you have to quickly offer value that is worth the time of your customers. You campaigns should not waste the time of your prospects by giving offers that are not valuable to them nor should it take long for the customer to get a hint of what the campaign is all about. A senseless message risks irritating customers/clients driving them to opt out which can lower ROI.
The best structure of an sms campaign message includes
- A greeting (should be short, eg. Hey, Hey there, Greetings! ) best to include name of the customer to make it more personal
- If it must contain a URL, then make sure to shorten it using url shortners.
- Should contain a few sentences to make it short. Customers don’t read a lot.
It is best to track the outcomes and see how many of your customers follow your call to actions to see if your campaign is offering value.
3. Personalize your messages
Personalizing your messages for each client by utilizing their name is considered more effective rather than using a generic term like ‘client’. SMS should feel like messages from a good friend. Other variables like gender, age, location and purchase history play a very significant role. Like, you can’t offer lipstick discounts to males.
Utilize variables when creating SMS templates to send out
4. Send messages at the right time
To increase the possibility that your client/customer will read the message, it is important to know when your messages will be impactful. Send offers when clients expect them, just at the right time so that they’re not seen as spam.
- Clients have more available time during the weekend
- Some messages are triggered to be sent when a client does an action (eg. purchase, register)
It is important to know the frequency to send SMS, either daily, per week or monthly. But do not take a long silence in-between messages so that clients do not forget about you or forget why they even subscribed in the first place.
5. Don’t leave your subscribers hanging
Use clear call to actions at the end of your messages after grabbing your customer’s attention. Tell them exactly what the next step to take is before they loose interest. Call to actions can include links to sign up, or a link to a Sale. It is irritating to a client to read an offer just to end up with nothing to do to take advantage of it or making it hard for them to follow up.
6. Use SMS keywords for Opt-Ins
To grow your subscriber list, using sms keywords is a fantastic way. This gives you a way for customers to engage with you after they have left your website. It is important to set expectations on how often your subscribers get updates. And give an incentive or make the value of joining clear to your audience
