If you’ve recently integrated SMS marketing into your business, you may feel overwhelmed with the number of ways to go about it. It’s more than sending a text when a promotion happens. It’s much more than advertising your business once a week through texts.
At Text My Main Number we want to ensure our customers know the best tips and tricks to make the most out of their business texting. Increased revenue, greater attention to your business, more customer loyalty – here are ways you can achieve all of this through SMS marketing.
The Effectiveness of SMS Marketing
As mobile devices become more prominent figures in our lives, our ways of interacting with one another have changed. The stats speak for themselves – text messages are opened and read within 10 minutes and have an open rate of 98%. Marketing professionals are seeing increased engagement and greater sales after implementing There’s no denying the effectiveness of communicating through business texting.
And as every marketer knows, you have to meet your customers where they are. Higher open rates mean there’s a higher chance your customers will engage with your business. SMS marketing is becoming a popular method to engage and reel in sales.
The Do’s
- Do Ask for Consent
No one wants to be bombarded with text messages from a company, especially when they never signed up for it. Even if customers provide their phone numbers for other reasons (shipping, etc), they never specifically signed up for your texting services. In that case, you shouldn’t use their phone number either.
If you want to collect phone numbers from a potential customer, there are plenty of ways to do it. For example, you could advertise your business’s texting code on your social media. When you sign up with Text My Main Number, we provide you with a code. Customers can text this code to your business number which automatically allows them to receive your text messages.
Alternatively, customers can leave their phone numbers in a form. Your team can continually add these phone numbers to your contact list. The methods mentioned here all have one thing in common – customers voluntarily sign up for your business texting. - Do Start with a Welcome Message
Like the start of a letter or the beginning of an email, you need to include an introduction. You want to ensure your customers remember why they signed up. In the case that you don’t send a message for a few weeks, the welcome text will serve as a placeholder, reminding customers of your business and your business texting services.
Instead of manually texting each customer every time someone signs up, use our auto texting feature. Prepare a standard welcome message and every time a client signs up to your business texting software, the message will automatically be sent. - Do Keep it Real
The ability for clients to text your business number and reach out directly to your business gives an illusion of authentic human interaction. And that’s exactly what customers want.
As such, you want to frame your text messages as though it’s coming from a sales rep or agent (even though it might be automated). This means being genuine, kind while being professional as well. Here’s an example of a good response:
“Hey there, thanks for reaching out! Please fill out the survey attached so we can learn more about how to make your experience between. Thanks again, Emily.” - Do Include Non-Promotional Content
Besides creating authentic messages, you also want to include more personal messages. Not every message has to be sales-focused. Customers don’t always want to be sold something and building a more personal relationship with customers prompts greater customer loyalty.
We highly encourage businesses to take the opportunity to wish customers a happy holiday or link to a blog that would help your customers. Combining sales-focused texts with non-promotional messages is a great way to keep your customers engaged.
The Don’ts
- Don’t Overdo It
The last thing you want to do is annoy your customers by spamming their inboxes. A way to avoid this is by creating purposeful messages rather than texting solely to engage with your customers.
Knowing when and how often you text your customers is key to ensuring you don’t bother them. This means choosing the appropriate time of day to message, messaging once a week, etc. Additionally, don’t overdo the number of words you use in one message either.
For example, maximizing the characters you use is not always appropriate. From our experience, short and sweet messages do the trick. If you need more explaining, direct your customers to a blog or a PDF via links. - Don’t Text During Off-Hours
Texting your customers outside of business hours can be annoying as well. No one wants to receive messages at 2 AM or odd hours of the day. Unless it’s an urgent message, you should send texts during your normal hours of operation (from 9 AM – 5 PM would be the most appropriate). Want to alert your customers about an incredible sale? Chances are that message can go to it during appropriate business hours rather than midnight. As a suggestion, use automated and timed messages as a way to avoid texting at off-hours. - Don’t Forget to Include Your CTA
Remember that SMS Marketing is more than another strategy to implement. If done correctly, SMS marketing can lead to greater sales, more engagement, more followers, etc. As such, make your call to action clear in your messages. Whether that means checking out your new blog post or following a set of tips to maximize sales, customers will find greater value when your call to action is apparent in your messages. - Don’t Forget to Stay on Brand
While your SMS Marketing may not be directly linked to your Instagram or your website, keep in mind that SMS marketing is still a way for customers to recognize and engage with your brand. As such, you should still allow for your brand voice to shine through your SMS marketing. For example, if your brand is energetic and happy, have that shine through your messaging. The last thing you want to do is confuse your clients with mixed branding.
Conclusion
Keep the dos and don’ts list in mind when you carry out your SMS Marketing. While each business may have different techniques and tricks when it comes to it, this list is a fairly standard way to ensure your business texting efforts produce results. If you’re just starting and want to learn more about SMS Marketing, reach out to our team at Text My Main Number to get started!
0 Comment