SMS marketing allows businesses to communicate directly with their customers.
In this short guide, you’ll discover SMS best practices for creating an SMS marketing strategy to boost your marketing efforts.
What Is SMS Marketing?
Text marketing involves sending text messages to engage directly with consumers.
It’s similar to email marketing, but rather than sending an email to an inbox, you’re sending a text message to a customer’s smartphone.
SMS messages are short texts and limited in length, which requires every word to convey value and relevance. Despite being concise, SMS can effectively communicate offers, updates, reminders, and more.
The brevity of these messages ensures that the essential message is easily understood, making it a highly effective tool for building relationships and communicating with your target audience.
What Are The Benefits Of SMS Marketing?
1. High open rates
While some emails (especially those without catchy subject lines) can end up unopened, SMS messages have an exceptionally high open rate, making it one of the most effective channels for ensuring your messages are seen.
In fact, 95% of text messages are read and responded to within 3 minutes of being received.
2. Direct communication
Text message marketing offer speed and are more personal in nature. Since they end up directly with the recipient’s other text messages, they’re a more personal and direct form of communication.
This directness often results in faster action on their part, whether clicking on a promotion or replying to your message.
3. Wide reach
SMS marketing offers a reach similar to that of email marketing. Regardless of internet connection, most mobile phone users can receive and read text messages, making it a convenient and accessible marketing medium.
Remember that, much like sending bulk email campaigns, you must obtain the recipient’s permission before sending bulk SMS marketing blasts from platforms like Mailchimp.
4. Cost-effective
Compared to traditional advertising or other digital marketing channels, SMS campaigns can be cost-effective. With lower costs per message and the ability to send bulk texts, brands can achieve substantial returns on investment (ROIs), especially since SMS boasts high engagement rates.
5. Mobile-friendly
SMS marketing strategies are the most mobile-friendly method for communicating with customers. Texts are inherently designed for mobile devices, ensuring your marketing message is both received and formatted perfectly every time.
6. Increases engagement
With their concise and direct nature, SMS messages drive higher levels of engagement. Whether it’s a feedback request, flash sale, or loyalty reward, the immediacy of these messages often spurs recipients into action.
7. Time-efficient
Creating an effective text message is typically faster than designing intricate digital marketing campaigns or elaborate advertisements. This efficiency allows brands to react to customers in real-time by sending promotions, updates, or alerts using SMS automation software.
Types of SMS Marketing
Promotional alerts
Promotional SMS messages about special deals or discounts are some of the most common SMS marketing messages sent. A simple message like “Hey Tom! Enjoy 15% off sitewide. Use code SAVE15 at checkout. Offer valid until Tuesday!” can encourage customers to take action immediately.
Flash sales and limited-time offers
SMS marketing strategies that use messages to promote flash sales can create a sense of urgency and drive sales through limited-time promotions. A message like “Flash Sale Alert! Get 30% off on select items for the next 24 hours! Shop now” can encourage customers to take action before time runs out.
Reminders
An SMS marketing strategy can also be used for appointment reminders. For instance, an apartment leasing office might send a message like “Hi Alex, just a reminder about your scheduled tour with us at 3 tomorrow. Reply ‘C’ to confirm” can remind customers about services they won’t want to miss out on.
Transactional messages
Transactional SMS messages can improve communication between businesses and customers. For instance, e-commerce customers typically like to know when their package will be delivered. Your business can send a message like “Hi, Mark! Your package will be delivered tomorrow by 9. Track your order with this link” to provide essential information.
Feedback
Sending customers an SMS survey allows them to provide immediate feedback on their experiences, products, or services. For instance, you can send SMS customer service feedback requests asking them to rate their experience. Businesses can quickly gather feedback by integrating quick, simple questions and a rating scale. Plus, since text messaging is convenient for your customers, you can typically expect more responses.
How to Create an SMS Marketing Strategy
Define goals and objectives
Before launching an SMS campaign, you should understand your goals and objectives.
Do you want to boost sales through limited-time promotions, or are you looking to gather feedback? Defining the precise objectives of each individual SMS marketing campaign can help you compare metrics over time.
Understand your target audience
Your messaging must be precise and relevant to your target audience. Whether using SMS marketing automation strategies like reminders, cart abandonment messages, or promotions, you should understand who you’re speaking to.
Past purchase patterns, product preferences, and feedback allow you to tailor your SMS campaigns to different audience segments based on their preferences to make your messages more impactful.
Build a quality subscriber list
Whether sending an email or an SMS message, you must build a subscriber list and send only solicited communications. SMS marketing requires explicit consent.
To build a quality subscriber list, you can use social media, email, or website opt-in campaigns to encourage customers to sign up for communications and SMS alerts. Offering incentives like deals or access to sales can help encourage signups.
Segment your subscriber list
Not every SMS message you send will be relevant to every subscriber.
Segmentation allows you to divide your list based on factors like purchase history, demographics, or engagement to target the right audiences at the right times.
Segmentation also allows for deeper personalization, allowing you to create content most relevant to your SMS subscribers.
Create compelling content
While SMS forces you to be concise with your messaging and carries and naturally grabs attention you still need to have value inside your messages in order to increase conversions, sign-ups, etc.
A clear call to action (CTA) ensures that every message tells customers what to do next.
In addition, you should use urgency, exclusivity, and emotion to make your message stand out.
Choose the right timing
With SMS automation tools, you can choose the timing to ensure your texts reach the right customers at the right time. Consider where your SMS subscribers live and avoid sending texts at odd hours, such as early in the morning or late at night.
Test and optimize
SMS marketing strategies enable you to test and learn from real data to continuously improve. You can use A/B testing with different messages, timings, or CTAs to determine what elements work best. You can also encourage feedback on your SMS campaigns to refine your strategy.
SMS Marketing Best Practices for Sending SMS Messages
Obtain consent
You must obtain consent to send customers marketing texts. You should have explicit opt-ins before sending any promotional message to ensure the recipient has opted in via a signup form, subscription code, or other clear and understandable method.
In addition, you must have easy opt-outs that allow recipients to opt out of receiving your messages at any point.
Keep messages concise
Messages should be clear and concise. Ensure the main offer, CTA, and other relevant information is upfront and easily understandable. Avoid fluff, like unnecessary words or information that can influence the impact of your message.
Comply with Regulations
Familiarize yourself with Australian regulations governing SMS marketing, particularly the Spam Act 2003 and the Privacy Act 1988. These laws are crucial for ensuring legal compliance in your SMS marketing campaigns.
Spam Act 2003
The Spam Act 2003 is the primary legislation regulating commercial electronic messages in Australia, including SMS marketing. Key requirements include:
- Consent: Obtain express or inferred consent before sending commercial SMS messages.
- Identification: Clearly identify your business and provide contact information in every message.
- Unsubscribe: Include a functional unsubscribe facility in all messages.
Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)
The Privacy Act 1988 and APPs regulate how businesses handle personal information:
- Collection: Only collect necessary personal information through lawful and fair means.
- Use and Disclosure: Use personal information only for the purpose it was collected, unless consent for other uses is obtained.
- Data Security: Implement reasonable measures to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorized access.
Subscriber List Management
Regularly update your subscriber lists to remove any customers who have opted out of receiving your texts. If you’re using SMS marketing automation strategies, ensure your software automatically removes those who have opted out from receiving further communications.
Do Not Call Register Act 2006
While primarily focused on telemarketing, be aware of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006, as it may apply to SMS marketing in certain circumstances. Avoid sending marketing messages to numbers listed on the Do Not Call Register unless you have express consent.
By adhering to these Australian regulations, you can ensure your SMS marketing campaigns are compliant and respectful of consumer privacy rights.
Avoid text message fatigue
Like email marketing, SMS marketing should be highly relevant, valuable and timely.
People tend to have a higher tolerance for message frequency when it comes to emails but using that same approach withi SMS will cause unsubscribe rates to soar.
Instead, consider how often to send messages and test your strategy to find an optimal frequency based on your audience and offerings.
Personalize content
Personalizing content can significantly enhance engagement and conversion rates. Address recipients by name whenever possible to make the message feel more personal.
You can also tailor offers based on behavior or purchase history, sending deals and promotions based on the recipient’s preferences.
Maintain consistency
Each message should offer value while maintaining brand consistency. Ensure the tone of your SMS campaigns is consistent with your brand’s voice and other marketing channels. You can also incorporate branding elements like a signature, hashtag, or consistent phrasing.
Analyze performance
Analyze the performance of each SMS campaign you send to determine how successful it was. Measure engagement metrics like click-through rates (CTRs) for messages with links or redemption rates for those with promo codes.
Conclusion
SMS marketing is a direct and personal form of communication between businesses and their customers. Text messages are convenient and fast, providing essential information that’s easily digestible. When used effectively, it can lead to improved engagement, immediate responses, and improved relationships.
Use Mailchimp SMS marketing tools to create effective text message campaigns. Create automated campaigns, segment your audience, and track performance metrics. Sign up today.