SMS, otherwise known as text message marketing, can help improve the bottom line of your business. But if you’re new to this kind of marketing, you might not know how your business can benefit.
Thankfully, it’s not too hard to drive results with SMS marketing.
In fact, if you keep reading, you’ll learn how SMS marketing works and how you can use this method of marketing to generate results for your business.
Let’s begin!
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is a form of marketing that relies on you sending text messages to people.
If you are going to use this form of marketing, you need to make sure you get phone numbers with permission. If you just buy phone numbers and send them messages, you might be breaking some laws. Plus, if you send people messages, when they didn’t give you permission to do so, your results will be lackluster.
SMS marketing works well because people tend to keep their phone near them at all times. People also check their phone, whenever it produces an alert. This means that if done the right way, SMS marketing can produce incredible levels of engagement.
Choosing a Message Service
If you are going to run an SMS marketing campaign, you will likely need the help of an SMS service. There are many companies that offer this kind of marketing ability. You want to make sure you choose the one that is right for you.
It is important you work with a company that is reputable. If you work with a company that is home to a lot of ‘spammers’ it could hurt the deliverability of your messages. You can learn more about the reputation of a company, by searching for reviews of them.
You also want to use a service that provides a simple and easy to use interface. You do not want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do things. You also don’t want to make any mistakes when sending messages. In doing so, you might hurt the relationship you have with your list.
Some services might provide you with a free trial period. You should try to make the most of this trial period, so you can figure out whether you like the platform or not.
You should also consider whether you need specific features. For example, you may want to send MMS messages (content with images) as well as SMS messages. If that is the case, you will need the help of a company like Betwext texting.
Sending Compelling Messages
If you are going to succeed with SMS campaigns, you need to know how to send compelling messages.
As mentioned, one of the key aspects of success with SMS marketing is that you are sending messages to people who have given you permission to do so. If you are unable to do this, your chances of success are low.
You also want to make sure you are promoting something compelling when sending a message. Think about sending people a special offer that they can enjoy if they take action within a certain time frame. If you want people to take a certain action, be sure to make the ‘call to action’ (CTA) obvious.
If you are going to ask people to visit a website, provide them with a shortened URL. This will make the message look a lot neater. You can use a URL shortening service to help you reduce the size of the URL.
If you need some inspiration on how to create SMS messages, take a look at the messages you receive from other companies. There’s a good chance that these companies have spent a lot of time and money to improve their marketing efforts.
Experimenting and Monitoring Results
You will want to closely track the results of your campaigns. In doing so, you will be able to tell what is working and what isn’t.
If you do not like the results, you might want to consider experimenting until you achieve something better. For instance, try sending messages at different times in the day. Then look at the numbers to figure out which time generated the best results.
You might also want to experiment with the style of the messages you are sending. See what happens if you make your messages shorter. You might also want to look at what happens when you try a different kind of CTA.
If you can, think about running a split test. This is where you will send different variations of a message, within the same campaign. You will then be able to compare the results of the two to see which one performed better. Then you can use what you learn, to improve the results of your future campaigns.
If you find that your campaigns are consistently underperforming, you might want to consider hiring a firm that can help you. There are marketing firms that have experience with text message campaigns. You can use their knowledge to help you shortcut the amount of time it takes to see results.
Time to Run a Text Message Marketing Campaign?
Text message marketing or SMS marketing can be a great way to promote your business. But if you want to achieve great results, you need to know what you’re doing.
In this post, we’ve taken a look at some of the things you can do to succeed with this form of marketing. You need to make sure you have a list of people that want to hear from you. You also need to make sure this list of people is compliant with the rules and regulations of your region.
If you are struggling to achieve results with text message marketing, you might want to hire a marketing firm to help you. They will know what does and doesn’t work, thereby increasing your odds of success.
Want more marketing related content? Check out our marketing section to see some of our latest posts!