For your SMS marketing to work, your customers need to open the text messages you send them. After all, if they don’t read your text message in the first place, how can they click on your links, respond to your calls to action, or buy what you’re selling?
With the right Contact Consumers software, SMS marketing is a great way to connect with your customers — but there’s an art to it. We know that your business, like ours, thrives on the loyalty of your clientele. As such, we want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to create the best possible SMS experience for them.
You don’t want to give them reasons to opt out or ignore your messages; instead, you should be providing them with reasons to open and read them. We have some tips for you today that we’ve compiled from research on SMS marketing practices.
What Is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is basically just what it sounds like: using text messages to directly engage with consumers. It’s similar to email marketing but far more immediate — after all, people check their phones an average of 47 times per day.
As with any other form of marketing, there’s an etiquette to follow when you reach out to your customers via text.
First, make sure that you have permission to send them text messages. Don’t just add them to your list because they provided their phone number when they signed up for your service or bought something from your business in the past.
SMS marketing isn’t new — companies like Contact Consumers have been using this approach for years — but it’s still important to keep current best practices in mind because there’s always room for improvement.
If you’re looking to optimize your SMS marketing strategy and improve customer engagement, ContactConsumers.com is the best option for you.
Send Messages During Normal Waking Hours
People don’t just open texts when they happen to be awake — they respond most favorably when those messages come in at reasonable times of the day.
The best time of day to send a text message is between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. — this is when most people are awake and ready to start their days. Sending a text message during this time will ensure that your customer reads it and takes action on it.
ContactConsumers.com SMS marketing allows companies to replicate these same experiences for their customers, making them feel valued and trusted rather than spammed or harassed by unnecessary communication.
With an SMS marketing platform like our Contact Consumers Consumer Retention Platform, businesses can segment their consumers based on any number of criteria such as purchase history, location, and other demographics.
Ask for Permission
You can’t just text anyone — it’s illegal, for starters. But even if you have permission, texting customers randomly is disruptive and could get you blocked. Instead, try sending a short message asking if they’re interested in receiving texts from your business.
Let them know what kind of content they can expect (such as deals and promotions), when they might receive texts (daily or weekly), and how often they may receive texts (depending on your marketing strategy).
To determine whether customers are interested, ask them to reply with “yes” or “no.” If they respond with “yes,” then you have permission to send them texts at any time.
SMS marketing etiquette can be difficult, but the Contact Consumers Consumer Retention Platform can help, given that the text messages it sends are more personal than emails. It is critical that businesses be mindful of the language they use when employing SMS marketing.
When a person receives an email, they are mentally prepared to receive promotional information, so they may be more open to receiving messages from a company they have interacted with in the past.
SMS marketing requires a different approach because people are more accustomed to receiving personal texts rather than business-related ones.
Don't Send Too Many Messages
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with SMS marketing is sending too many texts. When a business sends a lot of texts, people tend to tune them out as if it were spam email — even if the receiver opted into receiving those messages.
Texting is an intimate form of communication, so it’s understandable that many businesses worry about bothering their customers with too many texts.
However, the data indicates that most people are fine with more frequent texting, as long as they have opted in to receive marketing messages and are informed ahead of time how often they will receive texts.
This notification is especially important for companies that rely on repeat business because your customers will only continue accepting special offers if they feel like they’re getting something valuable in return.
Make Sure Your Texts Are Valuable to the Recipient
Don’t waste your customers’ time by sending meaningless or irrelevant messages. If they don’t see value in what you send them, they won’t be interested in continuing the relationship with you.
Because people are so used to opening and reading text messages, an SMS campaign can be an extremely effective way to get your customers to respond to a call to action (CTA). These CTAs could include anything from registering for an event or subscribing to a newsletter to making a purchase or visiting a website.
The best way to make sure that the content of your messages is relevant is to segment your customer database. The key is sending out relevant and valuable content at the right time — for example, sending out a coupon when your customer is nearby could motivate them to visit your store.
The Contact Consumers Consumer Retention Platform has options for doing this automatically based on things like demographic information or where customers live.
Know the Communication Preferences of Your Customer Base
In general, there are certain demographics that are more likely to be open to SMS marketing than others. For example, millennials are much more likely to respond positively to texts than older generations — and they’re also much more likely to opt in for SMS communication in the first place.
When you’re going to use SMS marketing, make sure you have a clear understanding of who your customer base is and how they prefer to communicate with companies like yours. If you don’t, you run the risk of alienating customers or lending an unprofessional image to your company by sending texts at the wrong time or in the wrong format.
The Contact Consumers Consumer Retention Platform is an effective tool for reaching out via text message.
Our platform allows you to schedule SMS messages so that they are sent at optimal times of day and set up automatically recurring messages so that you don’t have to spend time manually sending out messages every time you want to reach out with a new offer.
With ContactConsumers.com‘s features, you can focus on crafting the perfect message while we take care of making sure it gets through at the right time and with no hassle on your part.
Avoid the Spam Folder
You know when you’re at a bar, and there’s that one guy who just won’t take a hint? Don’t be that guy. People tend to be very protective of their personal space — especially their phones — because they view it as an extension of themselves. If they’re getting messages they don’t want, they’re not going to hesitate to block or report you.
Texting is very much like emailing in that it’s not always appropriate to send unsolicited information to people who haven’t opted in.
Make sure your customers know you’ll be sending them texts by clearly stating this on the sign-up form, in an immediate welcome text, and in subsequent texts providing more specific information about the way you’ll use their data.
The best way to avoid being considered spammy is to only send messages that people have opted into receiving. You can do this by asking them if they’d like to receive marketing texts when you ask for their phone number or by having them text in a keyword or follow a link from your website, social media page, or ad.
Personalize Your Messages
Personalizing your messages will help make them feel more authentic. Consider who you’re texting. When people receive a text from someone they know or recognize, they’re far more likely to read it than if they see an unknown number.
When selecting a platform for sending mass texts, look for one like the Contact Consumers Consumer Retention Platform that allows you to keep your branding consistent regardless of which phone number the text is coming from (this will help prevent spam filters from blocking your texts).
Why Contact Consumers?
When it comes to effective communication, texting may seem like uncharted territory. Most people don’t know the etiquette for texting in a business environment. Even most business owners don’t know what the etiquette is.
That’s where the Contact Consumers Consumer Retention Platform comes in. With our platform, we take care of all of the confusing stuff, like when you should be sending text messages and how often they should be sent. All you have to do is sit back and watch as your customers start noticing your texts more than ever before.
