Text Messaging Marketing: How to Do It Right

Text messaging marketing may seem to be an old-fashioned way to go about thing—however, it isn’t. Text messages are actually one of the effective marketing tools for businesses these days.

If you’re a small business owner or running a big company, you can make the most of text messaging marketing by using the best enterprise SMS messaging software and learning how to do it right. This is because text messages can be annoying once you don’t use them appropriately. So, if you want to get the best results from your text messaging marketing efforts, keep the following in mind:

 

1. Get Permission First

 

Over the past few years, text message marketing has continued to evolve. For a long time, spamming people with SMS was considered wrong, but many businesses did it anyway. Nowadays, it’s illegal unless you have consent from your customers or prospects. The days of sending out text messages and buying a mass database of phone numbers are gone. In fact, it’s now considered as a violation that carries an expensive fine and some penalties.

Getting permission from consumers before you send text messages helps you avoid annoying them. Moreover, only take advantage of text messaging marketing if the customers have opted in or supplied you with their phone number. If you contact users unsolicited, you might lose your credibility and may result in more customers unsubscribing to your messages.

 

2. Keep It Direct and Short

 

One of the ways to do text message marketing the right way is to keep your messages direct and short. You can do it by personalizing the messages instead of using generic marketing messages. You must also pay attention to your voice tone and craft every message carefully.  If possible, have a marketing plan for your text message marketing campaigns for better results.

 

3. Add Value

 

Regardless of what you want to send through your marketing messages, see to it that it adds value to the experience of your consumers with your brand. When reaching out your customers via SMS, think of the messages that would please your contacts. Promotions, coupons, and sneak peeks are actually crowd pleasers that your subscribers must enjoy to get.

Providing helpful information aside from promotional offers can create a level of surprise and anticipation. As a business owner, you should see text message marketing the same way your customers look at joining conversations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. With this in mind, you’ll be able to add value without being intrusive to your consumers.

 

4. Never Forget to Offer an Unsubscribe Option

 

Even if you don’t want your customers to opt out from your messages, it’s important to make it simple for them to unsubscribe, so they could be more willing to stay subscribed. 

So, ensure that you make it easy for your users to opt out anytime. You may provide this option by offering them an unsubscribe link or letting them reply with the word “stop” to unsubscribe immediately.

 

5. Right Timing Matters

 

See to it that your customers don’t feel like they’re trapped in subscriptions or flooded with many messages. You should pay attention to when you’re scheduling your messages. For example, you should not send a text message too early in the morning or late in the evening. Consumers might feel that you’re being intrusive—even unprofessional—if you send texts at some random hours.

It’s recommended that you send text messages during business hours and be transparent with what customers must expect from your program. In this way, nobody would feel resentful to your text message marketing and less people would feel the need to unsubscribe.

 

6. Don’t Forget to Measure What Works

 

If you’re a wise marketer, you should know how your campaigns perform and which prove ROI, especially when implementing SMS. 

One of the amazing advantages of text marketing is that if you have a good SMS solution, it can provide an easy-to-track, direct, and measurable marketing channel. It also enables you to determine which promotions and messages are working and which can or can’t help you refine your marketing campaigns. Aside from that, you may capture leads and other text-based responses as well as inquiries for follow-up sales.

 

7. Never Bombard Your Users

 

While it can be tempting to communicate each piece of promotion or news related to your business, never overdo your text message marketing efforts. Consumers can’t ignore texts like the way they can with social media ads or billboard ads. If they keep getting an overwhelming influx of messages from your business, they would opt out anytime soon.

Instead, make your text message marketing campaigns by scheduling messages only when necessary and limit how you’ll send them to a particular number of customers.

Conclusion

Text messaging is one of the direct ways to reach your customers. When compared to Google or Facebook ads, it’s also one of the most inexpensive. This is the reason why text message marketing is a good marketing tool for many businesses out there. Just make sure that your messages must provide value to your customers to attract more prospects in the long run.