5 Good Practices for SMS Marketing
SMS is an innovative marketing channel that allows businesses to communicate directly and efficiently with their customers. Here are five suggested practices for an effective SMS marketing strategy.
1 - Be aware of compliance requirement
Your business can start a direct conversation with your customers as soon as they opt in. The subscription process provides a unique opportunity to qualify your leads. The data they provide can also give you key details for your future SMS campaigns.
In some cases, customers may forget that they accepted to receive your commercial SMS messages. To avoid inadequacies, and comply with legal guidelines, provide clear details on how to opt out of receiving your SMS messages.
If you intend to communicate with an international audience, you should look for the right partner to support you navigating the telecommunications regulations of the country where you wish to do business.
2 - Brand updates, offers, polls, and reminders are welcome
Firstly, remember that you should identify your business every time you send an SMS message. When using a short code, you can do that by personalizing the sender ID.
It is important to create a conversation: greet your customers, thank them for their business or ask for feedback on their past purchases.
Plus, appointment reminders, urgent event updates, and customer inquiries fit perfectly into an SMS marketing strategy.
You should also send updates about the brand and selected product suggestions. Even if you are not conducting physical store business, you can invite them to your e-commerce business, for example. Add a touch of exclusivity by sharing a special deal.
When you include links in your SMS messages, you should use a custom URL shortener. Unlike generic short links, custom short URLs let you add a CTA to the link itself, which can increase click-through rates by up to 39%. Also, use UTMs to track the results of the campaign.
In general, be friendly and pleasant with SMS marketing messages because that is what customers expect from this communication channel.
3 - Consider frequency and communication times
There are 15.2 million SMS messages sent every minute. If you over-communicate about your brand, customers may unsubscribe. Here are two adages to follow:
Less is more: treat your customers like your friends. They chose to give your brand their phone number to receive messages from your company. Use this one-to-one communication channel to send updates and content that is relevant to them. Don’t forget to use the information you have about your customers.
Be careful with time zones: Optimizing the time you send messages is key to an effective SMS marketing campaign. It is safer to share your SMS marketing messages in the mornings or afternoons, integrated into your customer’s time zone.
4 - Make it short
You are dealing with a channel that has a character limit. Keep your SMS messages precise and sharp to be more effective. If you need to provide additional information, try publishing an original blog post and sending the link via SMS.
5 - Automate and make your communication relevant
Using a marketing platform will help you get your message out there, while still being relevant to your customers. For example, if you know when your customer’s last visit to your shop was, you can invite them to come back again with a special discount without having to prepare the communication manually.
Discover Go4Mobility messaging solutions here
SMS marketing remains an important marketing channel. We encourage you to use and integrate it at every stage of your customer’s journey, creating an engaging customer experience.
Our support
Our commercial and technical teams are ready to assist you by providing an end-to-end solution – ensuring from number and technical set up, to compliancy requirements, as well as campaign configuration and management.
Operating in the digital field for more than a decade, Go4Mobility is committed to driving sustained growth within the mobile communication markets, developing an increasingly convenient and secure experience for consumers.
If you are looking for more information on our messaging solutions and their opportunities and standards, or are interested in knowing more about Go4Mobility worldwide payments services, visit: go4mobility.com