SMS marketing, also known as text message marketing, is a great way to stay in touch with your customers. SMS stands for ‘short message service’. It means you send short text messages of 160 characters (136 in Canada) or less to your target market’s cell phones with specials, deals, updates, news, and anything else you think they should know about your business.
You can use SMS marketing in several different ways. Many companies use it to increase sales by offering special offers to their customers and for lead generation to build their database. Increase customer loyalty by keeping you in touch with them. You may literally put your marketing message directly into the hands of your current and potential customers.
The best thing about SMS marketing is that 80% of all mobile users have their phones on them at all times. This means that they receive your message immediately; it doesn’t end up in an email inbox waiting to be seen. did you know about Are 95 percent of all text messages read in ten minutes?
Building your text database
It is extremely easy to create a list of SMS subscribers. Usually all you have to do is ask. Tell your customers that if they sign up, they will receive promotions and special offers. Most of them will be happy to receive them. You must make people “OPT IN”
to receive text messages from you. Contest giveaways are quite effective in getting people to participate.
You should also use your online presence to get new customers. On your website, blog, and social media profiles, let people know they can get exclusive deals. You can speed up the process by offering a special incentive just for signing up to make your text promotions, giveaways or discounts on your services effective.
The SMS marketing challenge
Remember that SMS stands for ‘SHORT message service’. As I mentioned, these messages must be 160 characters or less.
It takes a bit of skill to craft such a small message and also give it some impact. The best way to do this is to focus each message on just one thing. If you have a special sale and a new product line to promote, turn that into two broadcast messages. The best messages contain 3 key bits of information:
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The details of the deal, promotion or sale.
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How does it benefit you?
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What they must do to achieve it (the call to action).
One more thing about your messages: don’t use text jargon (ie LOL) to make it shorter. It looks silly and unprofessional.
How to refine your campaign
To do SMS marketing, you need to hire a bulk messaging provider. They will send the messages for you cheaply and also keep track of your results. The results are extremely important because they will help you improve your campaigns.
At first, do some testing to see what works best. For example, try sending messages at different times of the day or on different days of the week to see which gets the best response. The statistics will tell you how many people opened and read your message. This will tell you how to refine your campaign.
Text message (SMS) marketing is a great way for offline businesses to gain new customers and retain old ones. Now that everyone is going mobile with their smartphones, it’s an even better way to stay in touch and make sales.
you can contact me for a Free ebook on texting Marketing or to answer any questions you have about text message marketing or mobile marketing in general. I can help you develop and implement your text message campaigns.
