There are rules to follow for each of your SMS marketing campaigns to be successful.

If you’re trying to promote your product to the world and grow your business, you have no choice but to market to audiences on mobile devices using SMS marketing. This is where your customers are, as mobile usage is now surpassing that of “fixed Internet access” worldwide.

There are countless reasons why your business should consider implementing SMS marketing as part of your overall communications strategy.

  1. It’s budget-friendly – you can send text message from around 2p / 2 cents per text message
  2. It hits the mark – over 97% of text messages are read within the first four minutes
  3. It gets your customers to act – 19% of people will click a link in an SMS campaign rather than just 4.2% for emails
  4. It produces results – 30% of SMS campaign receive average response rates of 30%, compared to 4% for emails

In this post, I will inform you of the rules we encourage customers to adopt as often as possible when building your SMS marketing campaign.

I’ll showcase a ‘How To’, bringing these rules into a real-life campaign example that you’ll be able to adopt in your SMS practice.

Rule 1 – Communicate valuable offerings

Remember that your consumers seek valuable offers. Always make sure that the SMS you send out creates a hard to resist the offer. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers or prospective customers and ask yourself, will this interest them? Will this encourage them to checkout, visit your store, call or email you?

No audience wants to receive a worthless, pointless offer from a brand that they love, and remember, you want your customers to love you.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

Rule 2 – Start the text with your offer

Text message marketing is built to be concise and to the point. Your audience is busy people, and not getting to the point straight away will turn them off. Just cut right to the chase to reach everyone. Placing your offer at the beginning of the text message grabs maximum attention.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

Rule 3 – Keep it exclusive

To make the most out of your SMS campaign, make sure that what your offers seem to be exclusive to the person reading and receiving it. Make your audience feel as though they are part of something special. If an offer is available to everyone, then redeeming that offer becomes less attractive and urgent. Making a sale via SMS is all about ensuring your feel special and valued.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

Rule 4 – Create a sense of urgency

Your business can see rising footfall, website visits, and revenue if you create a sense of urgency amongst your audience. Your audience will take time out of their day if you create enough of a reason for them too. An offer is a viable offer only if there is an expiry date associated with the offer and that this is communicated in the offer itself.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

Rule 5 – Location, location, location

Mentioning the location is the single most important element of your text message that your audience will need to know to redeem the offer. Do not miss out on stating the exact location of your store, even if it is an eCommerce store. Your audience would lose respect and willingness to engage with you as a brand if you grabbed their attention with an offer, without telling them where to go to get it.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

Rule 6 – Include a call to action

A call to action is vital to lead the customer into your sales funnel. Keep your call to action clear and simple and easy to follow. Assume that your audience is lazy, but a clever call to action will spring them into action.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

Rule 7 – State your brand name explicitly

There are different ways to ensure that your audience knows where the text is coming from. The sender ID can be used for this purpose, but what your audience is reading when they receive the text is the text itself, so it’s worth signing off with who you are in the body of the text as well.

Example:

Buy 2 jeans, get 1 shirt for FREE for all Gold text Club members this whole week at the Levi’s Frankwood Shopping Mall outlet. Show this text to redeem this deal. Customer service representatives are waiting for you at the store! Levi Strauss & Co.

SMS marketing brings success to your company if performed perfectly.

Like any method of marketing to your customers, the more time you spend honing your skills, the more interaction you will illicit from your community. If you are able to beef up your response rates, SMS will help you learn more about where your company stands right now. Your analytics should help you with goal setting, understanding your business as it stands, and figuring out where you want to be.

Broadnet believes that there are many reasons to try it out, from it’s relative low starting cost, to the fact that the vast majority of texts are actually opened and read to some extent. When used successfully, it creates an effective platform for communicating with mobile customers.

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