Here we will look at some of the do’s and don’t of SMS marketing that you should take into consideration before getting started with your marketing campaign. These tips will give you help, confidence and inspiration so you can maximize the potential of your SMS marketing efforts.
Do’s
- Include a call to action
Since a text message has to be short it can be easy to forget the important things, like what it actually is you want you customer to do after reading your message. Having a clear call to action can therefore be the difference between getting mediocre results, and a spanking success! Essentially keep it simple. WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY are key.
- Introduce yourself
This is definitely one of the most important ones. Since it might be the first time your customers receive a text message from your it’s crucial that you state clearly who you are in the message. Just imagine getting a text message with a great offer, but you have no idea who sent it! Confusion and a potential annoyed customer is the result.
- Keep it short and sweet
Less is more in SMS marketing. Since you only have a limited number of characters it’s better to focus on the content and be concise, straight to the point and clear about your message.
- Send at the appropriate time
When should you send an SMS message? Does it matter? Of course it does! No one wants to receive an SMS at 3 in the morning. So spend some time and think about when your audience is using their phones and when they would be the most susceptible to your message. In general you’d want to avoid rush hour and early mornings and late evenings
Don’ts
- Don’t send too often
Be mindful with how often you send your customer a marketing message. The last thing you want is to annoy and be considered spam. Quality over quantity is the general rule the will keep your customers happy and your ROI positive.
- Don’t send the same messages
Be creative! Have variety in your messages and the offers. Keep surprising your customers to make them come back.
- Don’t send without segmentation
Unless you know your offer is truly relevant you your entire database, make sure you use segmentation. The idea is to send the optimal message to the appropriate audience. Use the data you have on your customers to create groups that reflect your different audiences. You’re definitely going to want to send one type of message to a customer that hasn’t made a sale for 6 months and another message to a customer that keeps buying shoes every month. - Don’t send to anyone you don’t have permission to send to
Make sure you only send to mobile numbers of your customers or of users you have gotten consent from. Otherwise you run the risk of facing fines, damaging your brand, and annoying potential customers
