Five SMS marketing mistakes you need to stop making immediately

SMS is one of the simpler marketing channels out there. It consists of a small bit of text usually no more than 160 characters. But despite the simplicity of the channel, there are still plenty of mistakes that can be made in using it. Here are just five which, if avoided, could improve your SMS marketing efforts.

No sender info

When your customers opt-in to receive your text messages, they do so by texting a keyword to your registered shortcode. Some may save that shortcode in their contacts list under the name of your brand but you can’t count on it. And since customers may have a dozen or more different shortcodes in their texting history, they may not be able to determine the sender just based on the shortcode alone. A simple way to fix this mistake is to begin every text with the name of your brand followed by a colon. It takes up very few characters and it lets recipients know right away who is texting them.

No personalization

SMS is an inherently personal channel. After all, you’re sending a message directly to your customers’ SMS inbox via their mobile phone number, something people usually only give out to friends and family and close acquaintances. So why not make it more personal? One way to do this is to use a bulk SMS service that has the option to automatically address the recipient by name if that information is stored in the database. Simply starting off a text calling the person by name makes it feel more personal. Another way to offer personalization is to send a congratulatory offer to customers on their birthday. Finally, you might try segmenting your audience according to demographic or interests and tailor different messages for different segments of your audience.

No call-to-action

It’s not enough to just inform customers about a new product or a special deal or a mobile coupon–you have to tell them what you want them to do as a result. Tell them how they can get that product, to act fast on that special deal before it expires, or to claim that mobile coupon in store today. The call-to-action is what drives the desired response and simply telling them what you want them to do is surprisingly effective.

No hook

Most mobile phones will display the first few words of a text message when it’s received. Those first few words may be the difference between that text being opened immediately and that text being opened several hours later when the recipient stumbles across it again. Text messages are most influential when opened immediately so you want to include some kind of hook in the opening line of text that makes it near impossible for the recipient to ignore.

No two-way option

Millennials and Gen Z prefer texting to speaking on the phone. Despite this, the majority of brands who use SMS to communicate things to customers don’t allow customers to text them back. Most bulk SMS services only recognize and respond to incoming texts if the text is the keyword to opt-in or the word “stop” to opt-out. Advances in chatbot technology have made two-way SMS a more practical option where customers and brands can actually interact. SMS no longer has to be a one-way channel. Give your customers the option to text back and many will take advantage of it and that two-way engagement will improve the effectiveness of your SMS marketing efforts.

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Source: business2community.   com/email-marketing/dont-common-email-marketing-mistakes-01918761#EfBOFxFFWkAfrb7v.97

Six reasons your text message marketing efforts aren’t as effective as they could be

 

Text messages are limited to just 160 characters. When you send a text to your customers, it’s crucial that every single word is helping and not hurting your cause. Language in marketing is always important but it’s even more so when the channel calls for very concise messages. The following six mistakes might be keeping you from achieving maximum success with your text message marketing efforts.

Too many words

Even if SMS allowed for more than 160 characters, you wouldn’t want to use them. The nature of the SMS channel demands a concise and clearly worded message that can be read in seconds. The research shows that people will only give about five seconds of their time to looking at promotional content before moving on to something else. You have seconds to get and hold their attention. That means no filler words of any kind.

You use jargon or textspeak

Unless your business is in a highly technical field and your target audience is well educated in it, you shouldn’t be using larger or jargon words. Aim to use language that virtually any person on your recipient list will be able to understand. For the same reason, you shouldn’t be using textspeak either. While clever little acronyms and emoticons might convey more with fewer characters, you can’t count on your audience understanding it and it tends to come across as juvenile and annoying rather than hip.

The wrong focus

Everyone’s favorite subject is themselves. So while it may be tempting to make your messages about your brand and about your products, it will come across as shameless self-promotion. People opt in and stay opted in to receive your texts when they’re getting something out of it. Craft your messages so that it stays focused on the customers and how your brand will make their lives better.

Passive voice

In active voice, the subject of the sentence is acting upon the object. In passive voice, the object of the sentence is being acted upon by the subject of the sentence. People prefer the active voice while the passive voice tends to make people lose interest.

Emotionless language

Good writing is compelling, not just convincing. You should use emotionally charged words that are going to be more likely to get your audience to have an emotional response and more likely to get your audience to take action.

No sense of urgency

Every text message needs a call to action and a sense of urgency. If recipients aren’t immediately persuaded to redeem a coupon or “like” your Facebook page or do some other action, the chances of them remembering to do so later drops significantly. Immediacy is an important trait of the SMS channel. People receive, open, and read text messages within a couple of minutes. If you suffuse each message with a sense of urgency, they’ll be the most likely to take the course of action you are striving for.

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Source: entrepreneur.   com/article/298766

SMS marketing checklist: 15 best practices you need to follow

Nine out of every ten text messages are opened and read within three minutes of being delivered. But if your business is in the habit of sending ineffective, irrelevant, or untimely text messages, you’ll see those numbers drop and you may even see open rates decline and opt-outs increase. The following 15 best practices can ensure that your customers will be excited to receive and read your texts.

Include your company name

Even if you register a shortcode, the average person won’t memorize the five or six digit number and remember who is texting them. You don’t want to count on them saving your shortcode as a contact and assigning a name and you don’t want customers to have to search through old texts to find out who’s texting them so make sure your company name is in every text you send.

Personalize the message

Try to segment your phone numbers database according to demographic or interests so that the messages you’re sending feel more personal. A one size-fits all message doesn’t work when one recipient is a 14-year-old girl and the other is a 60-something-year-old man.

Start with a hook

You were taught in school to begin every essay with a hook. That’s good advice for a two-sentence text as well as a five-page paper. The first sentence, phrase, or word should get the recipient’s attention.

Make sure each and every text offers value

There’s never a situation where it’s okay to send a text that does absolutely nothing for the recipient. You’re sure to get opt-outs if you do that. Whether you’re offering a great deal on a product or sharing insightful information or sending a shipping notification, every single text must be doing something to improve the life of the recipient in some small way.

Use clear and concise language

Texts are limited to 160 characters. You can’t afford to be wordy. Carefully proofread each text before sending and make sure there’s not a single word that you could remove without negatively impacting the clarity of the message.

Use dynamic and compelling prose

Study up on creative writing and make sure your writing is interesting and compelling. Use power words like surprising verbs. Play around with syntax to create interesting sentence constructions. Vary your sentence length. Use intentional sentence fragments. Have fun in constructing your text messages.

Use, but don’t abuse, all caps

ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU’RE YELLING. You don’t want your recipients to feel as if they’re being yelled at. You can use all caps for a single word here or there to create emphasis.

Include a call to action

Don’t leave it up to your recipients to guess what you’re getting at. Tell them to redeem that coupon, or to click over onto your Facebook page, or whatever it is you want them to do.

Use a URL shortener

A URL shortener is a great way to make a link to a webpage or video look more appealing and it also makes it easier to stay within the character limit for SMS so your text is delivered in a single message and not broken up.

Include opt-out instructions

It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law. Keep it short and sweet though: “Reply ‘STOP’ to opt-out.”

Make sure offers are relevant

Going back to segmentation of your phone number database, you can ensure that you’re only sending offers that are relevant to the people that you’re sending them to.

Make it sound urgent

If recipients don’t act right away, they’re likely to forget about it and more recent texts will move yours to the bottom of the inbox so make every message seem urgent.

Be mindful of timing

No matter how good the offer, people won’t take kindly to receiving it early in the morning or late at night. People are also less receptive to texts received during stressful situations like sitting in traffic or business meetings. Aim for lunch hours, early evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Avoid text speak

Just because all the kids are typing huge strings of letters that are actually acronyms doesn’t mean you should. Though they help keep your character count under control they’re also likely to be misunderstood by a sizable percentage of your recipients.

Don’t use emoticons

Seriously, just don’t. They’re a waste of valuable characters. Including a 😉 uses three characters and adds nothing of value to the text.

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Source: business2community. com/mobile-apps/12-text-message-marketing-best-practices-business-using-01893467#cRHesEtMBtzioeD8.97

 

How to get more opt-ins for your SMS marketing campaign

SMS marketing differs from most other marketing channels in that you have to obtain each recipient’s permission before sending that first text. Consumers don’t have to sign up to see commercials during the favorite television programming nor do they have to agree to receive emails with promotional messages. But businesses can face fines and or lawsuits if they aren’t compliant with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) which includes the requirement that they obtain permission before texting. This presents a challenge to business owners or marketers because they can’t just go out and buy a list of phone numbers and start texting away. But anything worth doing is hard and businesses can be rewarded big for putting in the effort to build a sizable phone number database for an SMS campaign. The following tips will help you accomplish that.

Register a shortcode and keyword

One of the most common ways to get consumers to opt-in to receive promotional text messages is to get them to send the first text. Instead of setting up a standard cell phone number which is ten digits, you can register a shortcode which is a five- or six-digit number. This makes it more likely for consumers to send that first text because it’s easier for them to remember a five- or six-digit number than a full ten-digit one. Through a bulk SMS platform, businesses can also select a keyword that acts as a signifier that that customer wishes to opt in. So instead of a customer texting “I want to opt-in” they can text “CUPCAKES” or whatever keyword you choose that fits with what your business provides. You want to make the opt-in process as simple as possible if you want lots of people to opt-in.

Offer a good incentive

The promise of future deals isn’t always enough to get people to opt-in. They need to see an immediate benefit like a small freebie or a coupon that’s too good to pass up. An introductory offer can be a great strategy but if the initial offer is too good and future offers aren’t, you can find yourself getting a lot of opt-outs as customers feel misled about the value they were getting in return for opting in. That first offer has to incentivizing enough to get opt-ins without setting too high a standard for future deals.

Advertise your SMS campaign

Now that you have a shortcode and keyword setup for simplifying opt-ins, you need to display that information all over. If you already are doing email marketing or print mailing, display the shortcode and keyword prominently along with a call to action: “text ‘____’ to ###### to receive [your opt-in offer here].” If you have a brick and mortar location where customers come in and shop, place opt-in directions by the point-of-sale (typically the cash registers). If you have online sales, have a place for customers to place their phone number and a box they can check if they want to receive text messages. This can be paired with complimentary order status and shipping updates via text as well.

Don’t stop trying

Never stop building your phone number database. No matter how good your SMS campaign, you will get opt-outs so they minute you stop pushing for opt-ins, your database starts to shrink. You can continuously experiment with new incentives and keywords and new ways of advertising your SMS campaign to see what works.

Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com

Source: vanillaplus   .com/2017/06/20/28056-grow-text-message-opt-ins/