Since everyone loves to a challenge, SMS challenges are a great way to draw in many participants. Creating a fun SMS challenge series shows your customers that you’re invested in their well-being and it adds extra credentials to your expertise.
But what exactly do these SMS challenges entail? For started if you’re in the fitness industry you can send out a 30-day plank challenge. If you’re in marketing, you can develop a 7-day mini-challenge where your followers must implement one of your tips into your social media marketing. The challenge you develop highly depends on your business.
However, regardless of the industry, these challenges are meant to help your consumers achieve a goal. Whether it’s learning a new skill or attempting to improve an aspect of their lives, SMS challenges are perfect in that case. If you’re wondering how you can create an SMS challenge for your customers, here are the steps you need to take to make it successful.
Why SMS Challenges Work
As we mentioned, people love gaining something valuable from businesses. SMS challenges can be a way to improve customer relations with your consumers while gaining a new audience. 34% of new customers are gained through things like contests and challenges. Additionally, businesses on Instagram that conduct challenges and contests find their follower base to grow by 70% more than businesses that don’t. Needless to say, SMS challenges and contests can do wonders for your business.
Creating an SMS Challenge
- Creating a Keyword
A keyword is a phrase that consumers who want to participate in your challenge would text to your number. Once they text that phrase, they are automatically enrolled in the challenge. For example, if you’re a marketing agency launching a 7-day marketing challenge, your keyword could be “7DAYMARKETING.”
Tip: Choose a keyword that sounds relevant to your challenge. This ensures that customers resonate more with the keyword and relate it more to the SMS challenge you have. - Creating a Welcome Message
As you create your keyword, make sure to include a welcome message that customers can read once they sign up for your challenge. It can introduce the challenge, let consumers know the rules, and other important details you may want to include
Example: Welcome everyone to our 7-day marketing challenge! Every day, we’ll send out a marketing tip that you would then implement into your social media marketing that day. Looking to master social media marketing? Stay tuned for the best tips in the industry and watch your engagement skyrocket! - Set Up Automated Messages
Each day will involve new messages and tips. It’s best to have those set up before launching your challenge so you don’t risk falling behind. With the auto-response feature from Text My Main Number, the software allows you to time your messages. For example, you can set the message to be sent every day at noon to add consistency.
Once you develop all your messages, that’s the majority of the work done. Set your messages to auto-response to ensure that you don’t have to do it manually. If someone responds with a question, you can then reach out and respond directly from the phone number.
Tips: Always explain the challenge for the day and why it’s important and include encouragement. This adds more personality to your challenge and having your support would encourage your consumers to continue. Additionally, when you use Text My Main Number as your SMS provider, you can easily embed links and resources in your text. If you have more to say but feel a text message can’t adequately explain your challenge, you can always send your participants to your website or social media page. - Promote Your Challenge
Do you want to attract more attention to your challenge? First, you want to work with your current audience. You can develop social media campaigns that promote the purpose of the challenge and make sure to include your keyword in the post as well. The more your customers see the keyword the more they’ll be more inclined to join the community signing up to the challenge.
Then you want to target those outsides of your followers. Make sure to embed popular hashtags and post at popular times in your post so you can gain greater exposure. Finally, with permission from your followers, you may want to share photos or progress from those who signed up for the challenge. Whether people want to improve their service or if they just want to feel a part of a community, these pieces serve as great marketing material. - Track the Progress
Keeping track of your analytics is a must in an SMS challenges. You can pull these numbers right from your SMS campaign – number of clicks on links, responses, number of subscriptions/unsubscriptions and more. This data will give a greater sense of the success of your challenge and the changes necessary in your future challenges.
Features to Take Advantage From Text My Main Number
When you sign up with Text My Main Number, there are tons of features you can use to improve your SMS challenges. Below are just a few of the many features to use during your challenge.
- End of Challenge Survey
Want to know what your participants thought about your challenge? You can send a survey at the end of your challenge to understand your customer’s experience. Simply create the survey and include a link to it in your final text message to conclude the challenge. - Scheduled Texting
You can schedule text messages to send at a specific time. Rather than be all over the place when you send your texts, having a set time will be better in your SMS challenge. - Chat Widget
If your participants want an answer to a quick question, you can always use the chat widget to speak to your consumers. With the widget in place, you can engage in many conversations at the same time.
SMS challenges are a great way to motivate your consumers. It keeps them accountable for achieving their personal and professional goals. Furthermore, it’s a great way to show off your expertise and your services as well. If you’re ready to launch your SMS challenge, get in contact with Text My Main Number today!
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