The activity of using mobile devices has now reached almost the highest indicators. This is not surprising, because they perform dozens of important functions that help in solving various everyday tasks. Thus, most owners use gadgets at least once a day, and at the same time view new notifications.
This behavioral tendency is the basis for using one of the effective marketing tools – SMS messages. To make sure how important it is to the success of the brand, it is enough to familiarize yourself with Attentive’s statistics. It says that 93% of consumers in America are interested in receiving messages from brands.
This impressive figure confirms the fact that SMS marketing, similar to email marketing, can be an effective way to significantly increase conversions. However, it is possible to see the benefits of implementing this advertising channel only if you create really interesting messages that attract attention and do not repel. We suggest considering several ideas for creating such SMS.
Source: Integrity Connect
Bonuses and pleasant surprises for the birthday
By sending a holiday offer, the brand shows its respect for the customer and makes it clear how valuable they are. In addition, such an approach is to a certain extent personalized, which enhances the effect. Opening such an SMS, a person receives positive emotions that automatically increase his loyalty to the sender. The message should be written in the form of cheerful wishes, adhering to the voice of the brand.
It is better if they are short and to the point. However, you should not forget about certain data about the client. For example, it is important to consider his age and interests to create a successful message that does not cause surprise. A great solution would be to contact a person by name if this data is in the database.
This allows the client to feel special, which means that he is valuable to the company. Various beneficial additions will help to increase the chances of appeal:
- Discounts on services/goods
- Promotional offers
- Holiday promo codes
- Additional points on the client’s card
- Gifts
You can offer other pleasant surprises. Everything depends on the capabilities of the brand and its direction of activity.
Interesting tips and news
SMS can work for a business even when it doesn’t contain a sales/order offer. These are messages through which the addressee receives entertaining and interesting content.
It can be brand new, interesting tips, information about certain events, and other materials that can arouse interest or for organizations recruitment marketing purposes. Using these types of SMS, you can create trust and ensure that the client can independently decide to contact the company. The last factor in most cases is decisive and contributes to a positive reaction.
Permission request
Most modern users appreciate a delicate approach to sending promotional SMS. That’s why it’s a good idea to first ask the person if they don’t mind sending a message. By sending such a request, the brand once again confirms its respect for the user and his personal space. The result of this approach is increased interest and a positive response in most cases.
This solution is especially relevant for SMS marketing aimed at people who are not customers and do not know about the company’s existence. If you start with a direct offer, there is a high probability that the message will be ignored. The reason may be that the client will perceive it as spam.
Sending a “reasonable” number of messages
When using the SMS advertising channel, especially if you’re using automation to send them, it is important to understand the limit at which messages are considered intrusive. For gadget users, there is nothing worse than receiving dozens of identical offers and other annoying SMS from the same brand. The reaction to such an approach can be extremely negative, in particular, ignoring the company in principle and blocking channels.
That is why you need to maintain a balance and endure pauses between sending messages. In addition, sending only the most important information will be a winning strategy. It can be an offer with a significant discount, a notification about an important event, and other such SMS.
On top of beind mindful of the numbers of messages, you should also consider the context. One of the best practices, is to have the whole buyer experience mapped out, so that it’s easy to stop messaging opportunities. If you ever struggle with designing a cohesive buyer journey, consider hiring a ux design agency.
Short-term offers and deals
To increase the effectiveness of your message marketing, consider sending time-limited offers. These must be unique incentives that are not sent via e-mail or other advertising channels. Thanks to this, their value increases, and the chances of its consideration by the user increase.
A short-term offer may contain favorable purchase conditions that are valid for a certain period. For example, a clothing store may offer a certain percentage discount on products until the end of the month, week, or other period of time. Catering establishments, digital companies, beauty salons, and other types of businesses can also create messages according to this principle. In any case, a time limit has a strong effect and motivates action better.
Personalized appeal to special customers
SMS marketing can be an effective tool for influencing customers who have already contacted the brand and interacted with it in a certain way. Unlike average visitors, they are a group more prepared for targeted action. This means that they do not have to explain the advantages of the company and the benefits that they get from the cooperation.
These people have already tested the service and know what level of quality you can count on. In this case, less effort is needed to get the desired conversion. Sometimes for this, it is enough to send an SMS in a timely manner, in which you are offered to join the loyalty system or switch to VIP service. The content of such a message should be unobtrusive and clear.
Information about future discounts and sales
Text messages sent directly to the gadget are a great way to inform about the date of the sale and set discounts. This approach is universal – it is equally effective for both current customers and potential customers. In addition, it provides two advantages at once: the opportunity to sell outdated products and increase the loyalty of visitors.
Experienced marketers recommend sending messages with this content to different demographic groups. For example, a sportswear store can send SMS to people who actively visit gyms or often go hiking. Each of these messages may contain information about the discount, model range, date, and location of the company.
For instance, a sportswear store can include shipping cost details in their SMS messages to inform customers about any applicable charges and shipping options available. This will enable customers to have a clear understanding of the total cost before making a purchase decision. Additionally, the store can customize messages for different demographic groups, such as offering free shipping to loyal customers or providing discounted shipping rates to frequent gym-goers or hikers. By incorporating shipping cost information into their messaging strategy, the store can further entice potential customers and increase the likelihood of completing a purchase.
Sending a message about the product in the cart
Sending a text that provides information about the order is one effective way to reduce the percentage of cart abandonment. Situations, when the product remains in this section, happen quite often. The reasons may be different. One of the most common is that the cost is too high, including shipping, taxes, or other charges. There is no doubt that SMS marketing is a more cost-effective way of promoting your business than traditional methods, since you do not need to edit your flier through editors, optimize it, print it, and manually send it.
This causes some buyers to abandon the product and look for other offers. However, sometimes buyers are distracted by something and forget to complete the order. In such situations, an SMS message can become a stimulating factor, which will remind about the purchase and help to carry out the targeted action. In this way, the percentage of cart abandonment can significantly decrease.
When using such a solution, it is important to add a direct link to the page where the purchase process took place in the SMS content. If there is no result for several days, you can use another “soft” incentive – a discount. It is not necessary to significantly reduce the cost. Sometimes a client can be interested in even a minimal profitable offer.
Testing and surveying
To significantly increase the chances of increasing engagement, it is worth studying your target audience. SMS can be an effective tool for this task. They allow you to conduct testing of various formats, as well as ask certain questions to potential customers and current consumers.
To conduct a survey, you need to highlight several important questions. They may relate to the level of service, product/service quality, order processing speed, and other aspects. In addition, users respond positively to messages in which the company asks for directions for improvement.
In any case, the question should be relevant and concise. After all, the recipient’s perception of its content depends on this. If the message is too overloaded, and its text contains dozens of points, then the chances of success are automatically reduced to zero. Sometimes companies use additional incentives for completing surveys in such SMS. For example, it can be access to valuable material, a lecture, a seminar, or another useful resource.
Shortcodes that are easy to remember
When launching an advertising campaign via SMS, it is worth choosing numbers that have a small number of digits. They are easy to remember, so the user can quickly understand who the sender is. In addition, it is important to form shortcodes in offers that are sent to potential and current customers. These are discount promo codes, special sets of numbers that need to be dictated by the manager, and other data presented in the format of numbers.
The presence of a minimum number of digits in such offers significantly increases the chance that the addressee will take advantage of the opportunity and contact the company. This is due to the ease of memorization. According to this principle, long codes with many numbers and letters are less likely to be used by recipients.
Conclusion
SMS marketing is a universal advertising channel that is widely used by modern brands. It is suitable for small, medium, and large businesses. In each case, the use of the campaign provides a number of benefits, including increased conversion and increased recognition.
However, they can be evaluated only in the case of building an effective advertising campaign. The basis for it can be testing and surveys, personalized messages, notifications about upcoming sales and promotions, sending profitable offers, and many other ideas.
