Tag Archives: text message marketing

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Text-to-Win: A Step-by-Step Guide to This SMS Marketing Tactic

SMS marketing is quickly becoming one of the go-to strategies to increase customer engagement for many businesses. Perhaps that is because the open rate of text messages is about 98%. Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that 96% of Americans have a mobile device of some kind. Or maybe it’s because 9 out of 10 people say they actually want to communicate with businesses via text. 

Whatever the reason for utilizing SMS marketing, many businesses are seeing incredible results, including successfully increasing customer engagement. In fact, 44% of marketers say that is exactly the reason why they like using SMS marketing.

One popular strategy for increasing customer engagement with SMS marketing is a text-to-win contest. In this article, we will go through the steps of setting up a successful text-to-win contest for your business!

Text-to-Win: A Step-by-Step Guide to This SMS Marketing Tactic

What is a text-to-win contest?

A text-to-win contest is exactly what it sounds like: a contest in which customers text your phone number or designated shortcode with a keyword to be entered to win a prize. At the end of the set time for entries (be it 24 hours, three days, one week, one month, etc.), one person is randomly selected to win.

As simple as this strategy is, it will take a certain amount of planning and marketing in order to be successful. Much of the way you approach the planning and marketing phases of this strategy will have to do with your goal.

So…

What does your business hope to achieve with a text-to-win contest?

We stated earlier that one common goal for utilizing a text-to-win contest is to increase customer engagement. However, this strategy can be used to accomplish a few different things.

For instance, one goal might be to build up your subscriber list or to gather customer information. In this case, you will want to consult the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) and any other relevant rules or regulations to accomplish this goal legally. The TCPA in particular places certain regulations over the use of SMS for marketing purposes, such as a mandatory opt-in for customers. If you’re enticing customers to text your business to enter a contest, you will want to make sure that they’re aware that this may lead to future marketing messages from your business.

After deciding on the goal, you will need to meet with your team to make sure that everyone involved is crystal clear on the objective, be it increasing customer engagement, generating leads and subscribers or something else. Every action you or your team takes should relate directly back to your ultimate goal, so it’s crucial that everybody understands exactly what that is.

After you’ve decided what your goal is, as well as what the contest winner will receive, you’ll be ready to get started!

1. Choose your keyword.

Through your business texting service, you will receive keywords to implement in your campaign. Choose a keyword that customers can text to enter the contest.

It is best to choose a keyword that is short, easy to spell and that is related to the contest in some way. For instance, if you own a restaurant that is running a text-to-win contest for a free dinner for two, your keyword could be ‘DINNER.’ 

An alternative that might not work as well could be ‘DIN4TWO.’ This option is less desirable because it leaves too much room for error. Someone could easily hear about the promotion and text ‘DINFOR2,’ ‘DIN42’ or any other iteration that will impede their ability to enter. If customers are falling through the cracks in this way, it will result in a less successful campaign for your business.

Your keyword should be as simple as possible to give your business the greatest reach available.

 2. Set up your auto-reply.

When someone enters your contest, make sure that they are receiving a response right away. Through your business texting service’s auto-reply feature, you can automate this process.

For instance, with Text My Main Number, you can customize automated reply templates that will respond to messages based on your designated contest keyword. 

Your automated reply could be something like:

“Thanks for joining! You are officially entered to win [prize]!”

The automated reply not only confirms entry into the contest, but it also gives your business the opportunity to touch base with each and every contest participant right away! 

3. Spread the word.

Once you have the logistics of your contest nailed down, it’s time to start spreading the word! Start making your audience aware of your contest on social media, in your email newsletter, on your website and in your brick-and-mortar location. Make sure that any and all entry instructions are also accompanied by relevant contest rules or guidelines.

Furthermore, you may want to simplify the process for website visitors who want to enter the contest. For instance, using Text My Main Number’s website contact form-to-sms feature, you could allow website visitors to enter the contest online. Although this may sound counterintuitive to your SMS marketing strategy, making the process as seamless as possible is your business’ best bet to gather participants and therefore, reach your goal. Include a field in the form in which the customer can enter their phone number, then send them your automated reply via text. With just a few steps, you will be able to successfully turn website visitors into SMS leads.

 4. Choose the winner.

When the allotted time for your contest has concluded, it will be time to choose the winner! Winners should be randomly selected, so your next question might be, “How can I choose in a way that’s truly random?”

Enter: the internet. Try using a tool like Miniwebtool which allows you to copy and paste the names of contest participants for random selection. If this is the route you’re choosing to go, however, it may be beneficial to include that information in the small print of your contest rules. This type of resource will ensure that the selection process for the contest winner is truly unbiased and random. 

Then, notify the winner via text! Include prize redemption instructions or a web link to such information in the content of your message. Once the winner has been notified, you can go ahead and announce the contest results wherever you like!

5. Touch base with participants who did not win.

Once your winner has been notified and announced, it is best to touch base via text with everyone who did not win. This message can be friendly and simple, yet personal.

Example:

“Hi [name]! Thanks again for participating in our text-to-win contest. You may not have won, but here’s 10% off your next purchase with us anyway!”

Offering a bonus discount or perk is a great way to show your SMS marketing subscribers that you appreciate their business and participation in your contest. And hopefully, it will incentivize them to participate in any additional contests or text promotions that you’re planning!

Now that you know how to run a text-to-win contest as a part of your SMS marketing strategy, what are you waiting for? Contests are an excellent way to increase customer engagement, generate leads and build your SMS subscriber list! Plus, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser; after all, who doesn’t like to win free stuff?

For more free tips on how to make the most of your SMS marketing, be sure to check out the rest of our blog!

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How to Use Text Message Marketing to Increase Website Traffic?

In the mobile-happy world of 2020, it is more important than ever to meet customers where they are- on their cellphones. For businesses that make all or most of their sales online, text message marketing is a must-have tool for increasing traffic to your website and therefore, entering more customers into your sales funnel.

Sales from mobile shopping, also known as m-commerce, in 2020 are expected to account for 49.2% of ecommerce sales in the United States. By 2021, that number is predicted to rise to 53.9% with no expectation of slowing down any time soon. 

Now you might be thinking, “I already have an established email marketing strategy, and people check their emails from their phones all the time.” In a way, you’d be right. However, studies show that text message marketing campaigns perform seven times better than email marketing campaigns. 

The reason for this is simply that too many email inboxes are stuffed to the brim with spam! Even the most expertly laid out email campaign will struggle to cut through all that noise. On the other hand, only 10% of text messages are spam, making it far easier to get the attention of your target audience.

Ideally, your business can find a way to use email and text message marketing together. Nevertheless, it is time for your business to begin focusing on text message marketing to drive traffic to your website.

Read on to find out how to do just that.

How To Use Text Message Marketing to Increase Website Traffic?

Optimize your website for mobile.

If you haven’t already taken this step, what are you waiting for? Whether or not you choose to adopt text message marketing, your business needs a mobile-friendly site, especially if you rely on that site to make sales. 

Today’s consumers are used to lightning-fast internet speed and responsive web design. Chances are if they have to wait too long for your site to load on their cell phone, they will move on, potentially to your competitor’s site. 

Not only do you need your site to be fast, but you also need it to be well-designed. Before launching or finalizing any web design, you need to test it on a variety of devices: iPhones, Androids, iPads and tablets, laptops, desktops and any other internet-capable device you can think of. 

Optimizing your website will not only make it more accessible to mobile-shoppers, but it may actually get rewarded by Google. You have probably already heard about the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for getting your website to move up the Google ranks and discovered by more people. Well, responsiveness is an important aspect of that process- not just for mobile browsers, but for Google users on all devices.

Internet browsing and shopping is no longer exclusive to a computer. If your business hopes to keep up, it would be wise to ensure that customers can access your website from any device, especially their cell phones.

Include web links in all text message marketing.

This might sound like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised to hear how often the simplest details can get overlooked! 

If you hope to increase website traffic for your business with business texting marketing, you need to let the people know where to go! It is rather unlikely that someone will take the time to open their mobile browser, find your website and browse for the item that was promoted in a text. Make sure that the product or service that you hope to sell is never more than one click away.

This can become a challenge for many businesses utilizing text message marketing. After all, you only have about 160 characters to make your point, and many URLs will eat away at your character limit rather quickly. 

Luckily, there are a number of free link shortening tools online, like bitly, which can transform your long, messy link into one that is more compact, giving your message a cleaner look. Most importantly, it will leave you with more characters to actually make a sale!

Integrate your text message marketing platform with ecommerce tools.

To really build up the strength of your text message marketing efforts, you need to enable it to work seamlessly with ecommerce tools. Not only will this allow you to increase website traffic, but it will also help to increase overall productivity.

Many business owners feel hesitant about adopting new systems or tools merely because of the amount of time and energy it can take to weave the new way into the old. However, with API access, your business can create a happy union between text message marketing systems and ecommerce tools.

After your systems have been integrated, you will have easy access to data, processes, and automation across platforms. You know what they say- “work smarter, not harder.”

Use text message marketing to send product updates.

Whether you are launching a new product, restocking on a fan favorite or offering a limited-time sale, you need to alert text message marketing subscribers. And of course, don’t forget the web link!

We also usually recommend that businesses offer exclusive deals to text message marketing subscribers. This is a great way to not only build your list, but to ensure that you are continuously providing value with this medium. 

To that end, plan some exclusive deals or flash sales for text message marketing subscribers. Send out a bulk text encouraging customers to take advantage of the deals before time runs out, and watch the website traffic surge!

Write compelling CTAs in every text.

If there is some action that you want customers to complete, then you need to tell them! This is what’s called a call to action, or CTA. If you are still reading this article, then you obviously want to tell customers to visit your site in the CTA of your texts. However, there are a few key elements of a well-written CTA that can make all the difference in meeting that goal.

Each and every CTA should be concise, urgent and valuable. In other words, you need to quickly tell the customer what you want him or her to do, when they need to do it and what they will get out of it!

For example, if you are sending a promotional text for a flash sale, it might look something like this:

“Shop the sale today only to receive 15% OFF select items!”

In just a few words, you will have hit all the key elements of your CTA! If you don’t yet feel confident in writing effective CTAs, try running some A/B tests. Write out two different versions of the CTA for messages that are otherwise identical. Then, send them out and see what happens! If one version performs remarkably better than the other, try to replicate those results for the next time.

When it comes to increasing website traffic, text message marketing can make all the difference. Try out some of these tips in your next campaign for the best results.

If you’re ready to increase your business’ website traffic, check out some of our features to find out how we can help!