Did you know that SMS marketing can have up to eight
times higher response rates than email marketing? With statistics like
this it’s clearly an avenue that should not be dismissed but how do you
get started with SMS? Take a look at some of our tips to getting
started…
Data and Consent
When considering SMS marketing majority of Marketers check their data
lists and soon realise that they haven’t got as many mobile numbers as
they would have hoped. Additionally, of the numbers they do have, they
haven’t actually gained the explicit consent to communicate with them
via SMS.
So how do you get started with SMS without this consent and data?
Step one is to harness the data you already have. Your opted-in email
list should be a priority as you can target these subscribers by sending
them an exclusive offer and request their mobile number and consent to
contact them via SMS marketing. In return for these details, you could
offer them special discounts and deals.
Creating a workflow would be a useful way of addressing these
subscribers as you can continue to target users who haven’t signed up
right up until the deadline that you set.
Additionally harnessing your social media following is another way
you can build this offer. Using targeted ads and organic posts, you can
quickly share your special sign up offers and grow your SMS as well as
your email list. You can use email as the starting point for
confirmation to the offers, and then when an offer is live, send your
SMS to all of the relevant consent gained contacts.
Valuable Content
As with all marketing collateral, the content included needs to be
valuable to its recipients. This is very important with SMS messages as
they are clearly a lot shorter than most other marketing channels so
planning and prioritising what you are going to say is key.
Conduct market research into your target audience to see what
information will be most valuable to them. Sending non-targeted content
or lengthy messages can result in subscribers being charged, confused or
annoyed.
Popular SMS content includes:
Offers and discounts
Reminders
Tips and hints
Transactional messages
Timing
With people taking their mobile phones everywhere with them and open
rates of 98% it can be tempting to send subscribers an influx of
messages however, timing is key. The majority of users will open a text
message within 3 minutes so this is perfect timing for sending messages
alerting of limited time offers or flash sales that are relevant to
them.
The send of SMS messages should also be kept to a maximum of one to
two per week, any more than this and you will probably see your list of
unsubscribers grow. People still see SMS messaging as quite personal –
between friends, family or colleagues and too much of that
oh-yay-I-have-a-text-oh-actually-it’s-just-another-marketing-message
feeling can lead to unsubscribes.
Find out more about how you can use SMS as part of your email marketing strategy.
Source