We know how hard it is to think of ideas and get your SMS marketing plan off the ground. So, we thought we would help you with our 25 tips and tricks of mobile marketing.
These vary from simple tips that may have just slipped your mind, to some ideas you may never have thought of – whatever we hope you enjoy and benefit from them.
1. Short and to the point – No one wants to receive a long-winded text, make it short and to the point, remember 160 characters equals one message and we suggest to not go over one message.
2. Don’t leave it too late – It’s never too early to start sending – give customers ample opportunity to absorb and respond to your text.
3. Timing – Think about when you are going to send the message. Don’t send a message at 2:00am, your customers won’t reply and may get annoyed if you wake them.
4. Don’t miss the big days – Make sure you don’t miss those big events, like Black Friday, Valentine’s Day and any other big events in your sector.
5. Spread your messages – Use the spread send to ensure your site/phones can cope with demand.
6. Testing – Schedule different offers to see which works best – A/B test.
7. Ensure links are mobile-friendly – If you are putting a link to your website in the text, make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
8. Use the opt-out method – Everyone loves to receive offers, but allowing your customers to opt out means they won’t get annoyed and means you don’t need to send messages to those that won’t get a response, saving you money.
9. Business SMS is a versatile medium – Use it to your advantage to promote offers, drive traffic to your website, get feedback, inform/notify customers of opening times along with many other ways you could use SMS.
10. Send at non-peak times – Yes, it’s important to send offers on boxing day and when the sales are on, but everyone will be offering deals then. So why not try sending offers to your customers when they wouldn’t expect a deal, with only your offer to think about you could get a better response rate.
11. Sender ID – Be creative with your sender ID, for example at Christmas why not make your sender Santa Claus – could get a good response.
12. Be organised – Make the most of the schedule send option and get your message lined up in advance to avoid last minute panic.
13. Split contact groups – If you have an offer more suitable for a certain demographic, create multiple contact groups so you can target them, meaning you will get a better response rate and not waste money sending to all your customers.
14. Personalise messaging – Add your customer’s name to the message to make it more personal.
15. Urgency – Create a sense of urgency by including an expiration date. When a customer sees that the offer isn’t going to be there forever, it will push them into making a purchase.
16. Analyse – Track your results, how many people have opted out, the click through rate, who purchased. This will give you great data to see which offers work better than others.
17. Automated messages – By having automated messages you can send customers a message after they have made a purchase, or even better after they haven’t made a purchase in a while, you could entice them back with a great offer.
18. Consistency – One big mistake is not being consistent with your messages. Create a plan and send out a message every week/month/2 months whatever suites your business the best. Not sending a message in a year then sending 5 in the space of 2 weeks can leave people irritated.
19. Don’t use text speak – Yes, it is a mobile phone but sending a message in text speak looks unprofessional and lazy.
20. Tell them who you are – It may be obvious to you but your customer may not know who you are, meaning they may not reply or buy from you.
21. Clear call to action – It is all well and good offering 20% off, but if your customer doesn’t know what to do to get the offer, what is the point!
22. Check your spelling – Yes this goes without saying, but the amount of times we have seen a message go through with a spelling mistake is unbelievable. Get someone else to check it. A great tip is to read the message backwards, word by word.
23. Correct data – The data you have is key, it needs to be up-to-date and accurate. Sending a personalised message to someone when their name isn’t Sally and is a 38-year-old man won’t go down well.
24. It’s a numbers game – The higher the volume you send – the better the response. It really is as simple as that.
25. We are here to help – If you are stuck or need some advice, ask us. We have been in the text marketing business for over 15 years, we know what we are doing.
We hope these tips have helped you with your SMS marketing plan, and if you haven’t got an account already, why not sign up today! With our double up offer and 10 free credits there isn’t a better time to start your SMS marketing campaign.