Sending personalized messages may seem like a great plan overall. But if an informative message isn’t sent to the relevant people at the appropriate time is vital to deploying a successful mobile messaging campaign.
SMS is a direct and concise form of communication. As marketers, we all want to know the most efficient and effective practice when it comes to building campaigns. It’s good to know what to avoid as well.
Contents
1. Strategy? What’s that?
Not having a plan to reach your goals means you won’t.
In order to reach your business goals, you must understand what you want to achieve, anticipate challenges, implement relevant tactics, and assess your progress along the way.
Measuring the outcomes of a campaign is essential to ongoing success. And mobile marketing campaigns are no different.
Without a communication strategy, your text interactions may seem unguided and shallow. The lack of organization translates effortlessly into the final product.
It can damage your audience’s trust in the brand for good. For example, an irrelevant message sent at an inappropriate time can lead recipients to unsubscribe from your messaging service and leave a bad taste in their mouths.
Approximately 90% of people who receive SMS read it within the first three minutes, and is used as an immediate and practical method of communication for this reason. Text is perfect for ensuring your recipients receive your message directly, at the perfect time, every time.
Answering these questions can help build your strategy:
- What do you want to communicate to your audience?
- When and how often should you send messages?
- Is the message appropriate, relevant, and concise for your audience?
Track your success
Empirical evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of a campaign and how vital it may be to your business’ success. Setting goals and metrics in advance can help when it comes time to evaluate how your strategy operated and how it can improve.
For example, during a sale, using a specific promo code in text messages can track the progress of your SMS campaign through the number of transactions made with that particular code.
Do not miss the opportunity to build a positive connection and unique customer experience that comes with developing a mobile marketing strategy.
2. Shouting into the void
Who are you talking to?
Firstly, contacts must opt-in to receive business SMS by providing their contact details and communication preferences. Understanding and respecting your audience is vital.
Know your audience
Forgetting who you are communicating with could be your downfall. Many people lose interest when content is irrelevant to them. Keeping up-to-date and connecting with your audience is beneficial to strengthening those relationships.
When a customer opts-in to receive SMS content, they usually provide additional information such as location, age, gender, or occupation. Consider the demographics of your recipients when structuring a text campaign as it can assist in personalizing content.
Having an inclusive yet targeted message can make your audience feel listened to and respected. For example, send a welcome message to a new customer addressing them by name, introduce them to the brand, notify them of upcoming events in their area, and offer the chance to opt-out.
Loyalty rewards and VIP programs
Private messages inform loyal customers and VIPs of exclusive deals. Make them feel special and increase sales and brand loyalty by giving big spenders and consistent shoppers incentives to buy when sending SMS promotions.
Do not take advantage of their opt-in preferences or contact them if they are opt-out. They have consented to receive a specific message, and anything outside that is inappropriate.
3. Sounds just like the rest
Sending generic messages that don’t embody your brand can go unnoticed. Having no flavour or personality can deter people from even opening content and also lead them to unsubscribe. Marketing is all about enticing your audience with a product or service.
Who’s texting me?
Consider your tone of voice and brand presence. In a text message, intention, context, and tone are essential to communicate your message.
Your audience already knows, to some degree, when signing up for text messages from a business that it will include content that they opted-in for. That might consist of alerts for important dates, sales, product launches, discounts, etc.
Having a bit of personality makes your content more relatable and can express more than just what’s in the SMS.
A consistent tone of voice allows your customers to connect on a personal level and lead to long-term growth and trust in your business.
Content, content, content
SMS are typically short, concise, and aim to communicate a direct message. With only 160 characters per text to work with, having an idea of what kind of content you want to send is crucial to a marketing campaign.
Sending over 160 characters in a massive campaign can add up. Even though mobile marketing is cost-effective and recent technologies can restore multiple text messages at the receiving end.
What are you trying to say?
Defining your brand persona, tone of voice, and the overall message shapes your content and ongoing campaign. Coming up with a character-restricted message that includes all the necessary information and is on-brand can be difficult. But it can be done!
Do not send an SMS unless it has a message the recipient can connect with.
4. Don’t be shallow
Are you retaining consumers or just promoting fleeting opt-ins? Understanding your customers and what they need from your business is what can keep you ahead of the game.
Doing the bare minimum or not doing your research or being behind with trends can set you apart from the rest – but not in a good way.
Call-to-action
It’s all well and good to inform and alert your customers of events, news, and other promotional content, but it doesn’t always encourage action. Elevating communication with your audience to engage with your brand requires a call-to-action.
Ask your customers to contribute in some way and make it a two-way exchange; for example, ask for feedback on products and services or provide a promo code to use on products for filling out a survey.
Building trust
Providing your customers with an incentive to look at your store could increase brand awareness and exposure. This allows customers to see your brand in a stronger light on your terms in your domain (whether it is in-store or online).
And it also allows the business to provide solutions tailored to the customer and show that they have their best interests in mind. When customers interact directly with a company at any point in the journey, this affects their customer experience (CX).
Don’t be late
Being inconsiderate can cost you, clients. When it comes to SMS, timing and frequency is everything. As a text message is sent and received within seconds, your recipient is more likely to read and engage with content that is accessible and convenient.
Make sure you’re all over the SMS scheduling, so you aren’t sending text messages at any time of the day/night or annoying potential customers.
Do not miss the opportunity to include your audience in something significant.
5. Mediocre practice
Falling short in Best Practice means you are already behind the curve. Whether there are legal repercussions or business losses, following mediocre or black hat practices is an easy way to lose trust with customers.
Are there regulations for SMS marketing?
Yes. However, some legal requirements are stricter in some countries in comparison to others.
SMS marketing is classified as A2P (Application-To-Person) messaging and can be highly regulated, depending on what country you’re based in or sending to.
For instance, in the USA, SMS marketing must follow distinct rules and regulations set out by CTIA Messaging Best Practices and Principles, and this is governed by the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act).
Different virtual numbers are regulated and used for different kinds of content. A2P is used explicitly with shortcode and 10-digit long code (when available).
Yet, Australia’s use of virtual numbers is laxer. Shortcode and standard long code can be used for A2P and P2P (Person-To-Person) texting.
Do not get penalized for not following relevant guidelines and restrictions. Get informed on any regulations for your local area and the location you are sending to when it comes to SMS marketing.
Spam is not just a canned good
The TCPA officially defines spam as the sending of the same or substantially similar, unsolicited messages to more than one recipient. And it’s actually a fineable offence in the USA of up to US$1500 per text message.
Providing your customers opt-in and opt-out services for mobile marketing is considered Best Practice and shows respect for recipients’ communication preferences.
Do not blur the lines when it comes to mobile marketing.
6. SMS Marketing at its finest
Using text messaging through an SMS gateway in your marketing campaign can make your brand more accessible to your recipients.
What not to do:
- Forget about your strategy. Instead, develop an appropriate plan to structure, measure and improve communication.
- Misunderstand your audience. Instead, address customer needs and build stronger relationships.
- Write whatever you like. Instead, tailor your message and provide engaging content that customers love receiving.
- Only communicate one-way. Instead, reach out and make interacting with your brand accessible and fun.
- Use Black Hat practices. Instead, follow SMS marketing Best Practice and regulations and be transparent.
Above mentioned are some of the best SMS Marketing practices that marketers should not do. Did we miss anything? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
