Top 3 Tips for Writing Text Message Marketing CTAs That Convert

Every marketer knows the importance of an effective CTA, and to the untrained eye, it really doesn’t look like much. Hint: the best marketing never does. If you don’t have the benefit of a team of marketing professionals, however, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the basics of writing a good CTA, especially for your Text Message Marketing campaigns!

CTA stands for Call To Action. It is basically like the cherry on top of your marketing sundae. You give your customers all the information they may need, and then you ask them to perform an action. Your CTA should also relate right back to the goal you set forth at the beginning of your campaign. 

While the basic principles of writing a good CTA are still true in text message marketing, there are a couple of differences for this medium when compared to other marketing channels:

Text messages contain less characters- most SMS messages are limited to 160 characters. It can sometimes take some pretty deft copywriting skills to get your message across and still have space to write an effective CTA.There is no CTA button in a text- as opposed to your website or email newsletter, for example, your business will not have the ability to include a CTA button in your text message marketing. Such buttons are used on other channels to make the CTA stand out and to hide the link that the viewer is actually clicking on. Furthermore, many businesses use the knowledge of color psychology to make their CTA button that much more enticing.

While those differences may make it seem like the odds are stacked against your business when it comes to writing CTAs for your text message marketing, nothing could be further from the truth! 

With the right tricks and tips, you’ll be writing CTAs that actually convert in no time!

Top 3 Tips for Writing Text Message Marketing CTAs That Convert

 Keep it short.

Since you’re working with a pretty limited amount of characters, your text message marketing should be pretty short in general. Unfortunately, if you exceed the character limit it will result in your message getting split up and sent as two (or more) separate messages. Now, while that might not end up being a big deal for some customers, for others, depending on their mobile carrier, they may receive your texts out of order. This could be confusing and result in the meaning of your text getting lost altogether.

So now that we can agree to keep all text message marketing short, it is time to apply that to your CTA. Just get to the point! Tell customers exactly what action you want them to perform, and make sure it’s simple for them to do so.

Pro tip: if you need to include a webpage link as part of your CTA, try using a link shortening tool, like bitly. Link shorteners will create a custom link, with less characters, that will look cleaner and take up less space in your text message marketing.

 Add a sense of urgency.

One of the top benefits of text message marketing is its immediacy. Your business sends a text and seconds later, it arrives in the inbox of your customer. Plus, studies show that the average response time for a text is a mere 90 seconds; this demonstrates that not only does your message get delivered immediately, but many customers will see it as soon as it arrives.

However, one potential downside is that your customer may not be ready to convert at the exact moment they receive your text message. Maybe they even plan on making a purchase eventually, but they forget about your message by the time they are ready to buy.

That is why each text message marketing CTA should convey a sense of urgency or FOMO to the reader. If you’re unfamiliar with the acronym FOMO, you probably still know the feeling. FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out, and it’s an element of CTAs that can make all the difference.

Let your customer know why they absolutely cannot miss out on your offer! Maybe it’s expiring soon (sense of urgency) or maybe they’ll be losing out on an amazing opportunity (FOMO). Whatever it is, you need to give your text message marketing subscribers a reason to act now, not later.

 Convey the value of your offer.

Whether the value of your text message marketing is monetary or otherwise, you need to convey that to the reader. And if there is no real value to convey, then you should think twice before shooting off that message.

It’s pretty easy to convey the value of a special discount or deal; there is an obvious monetary benefit to the customer if they act on your message. However, what if your text message marketing is more of a top-of-the-funnel tactic for your business? Perhaps you want to increase traffic to your website or blog as the next step.

In that case, you could send an abbreviated list of tips or infographic within your message. At the end, your CTA directs the reader to head to your blog, but you need to tell them what’s in it for them if they do! 

Your CTA could read something like this:

“Don’t miss out on more FREE TIPS! Subscribe to our blog today!” 

In this example, you are telling the reader what you want them to do, creating FOMO and conveying the value of the action. Plus, you still have 100 characters left over for the content of your message!

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When it comes to CTAs in text message marketing, the formula is simple: 

Keep it short, valuable and time-sensitive.

If you can do that, without coming off as an overly pushy salesperson, you will be one step closer to realizing the full potential of each text message marketing campaign for your business!
If you’re ready to put these tips to good use with a text message marketing strategy of your own, start your 14-day free trial with us today!