These days it’s becoming easier and easier for your marketing campaign to get lost in the crowd. With millions of businesses to choose from when purchasing products and/or services, individuals are consistently being sent marketing emails, SMS text messages and even physical mail with marketing offers, advertising and promotions.
With the influx of online shopping and purchases due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s increasingly difficult to rely on these traditional marketing channels to bring in a successful ROI for your business’ marketing efforts. So what other options are there?
If you’re one of the 89% of businesses that have yet to take advantage of the glory of SMS marketing, you're missing out. Not only does SMS boast a 98% open rate, 54% of customers want to receive marketing and promotions via SMS, with 50% of consumers saying they would opt-in to an SMS loyalty program if they were offered flash sales, deals, or coupons in return.
No matter what product and/or service you’re selling, or whether you’re an ecommerce, retail or hospitality business, SMS marketing campaigns can help drive customer engagement, increase your opt-in list and give your sales a boost. We take a look at the 7 key elements of launching a successful SMS marketing campaign below.
1. Be clear and direct with your messaging
The first step to launching a successful SMS marketing campaign is to ensure the message you are sending is direct and straight to the point. With only 160 characters (including the URL or CTA you choose to add) to use, your consumers want to be able to quickly read what offer or discount you’re providing them with and decide if they want to investigate the offer further.
2. Always offer something of value
Once you’ve crafted your message, make sure to offer your audience something of value. This could be a coupon code, a discount, a sale, a giveaway; anything that works to persuade your customer (or potential customer) to make a purchase. Take advantage of specific dates and times that relate to your business when sending an SMS marketing campaign, such as Black Friday (for retail businesses) or Oktoberfest (for hospitality businesses). Sending an exclusive offer via SMS makes your audience feel appreciated and valued, which in turn makes them more likely to click on your offer.
3. Create a sense of urgency
When crafting a successful SMS marketing campaign, it’s essential to add urgency to your message to persuade your audience to click on your offer and make a purchase. This could be as simple as adjusting the SMS message to say, “limited time only” or “until stocks run out”. Offering a coupon expiry date, claim date or sales deadline can also create enough urgency to prompt your audience to buy.
4. Make it personal
There are many ways to engage your audience and create a truly customised experience when sending an SMS marketing campaign. One of these options is to use personalisation tokens, otherwise known as dynamic fields or SMS mail merge, to insert your audience’s personal information such as first name, last name or previous purchase details.
It’s important to ensure that the SMS is being sent from a number your audience will recognise and associate with your business. Notifyre provides you with a free shared number, however, you also have the option to add a dedicated virtual mobile number to your account in order to receive unlimited free replies, or set up a custom SMS sender ID. A custom SMS sender ID allows you to use a numeric, alphanumeric or alphabetical ID instead of a mobile number, to increase brand trust and recognition when sending an SMS marketing campaign.
Our SMS marketing platform also gives you the option to add emojis in order to humanise your SMS message and bring a little fun to your SMS marketing campaign. If you’re sending your SMS marketing campaign to an international audience, you may wish to take advantage of our multi-language support, so you can send a targeted SMS marketing campaign in your audience’s native language. We have many personalisation tools available for you to launch and run a successful SMS marketing campaign for your business.
5. Add a call to action (CTA)
Adding a call to action, or CTA to your text message is a vital element to launching a successful SMS marketing campaign. Without a CTA, your audience has nowhere to go if they wish to act on your SMS and make a purchase. A CTA can be as easy as adding a link to a landing page on your website, or creating a customised bit.ly short link to decrease the size of your URL to fit into the given 160 characters. Inserting a bit.ly link will also provide you with reporting details including clicks, opens and other important information when running and measuring if your SMS marketing campaign is successful.
6. Include an opt out
When launching an SMS marketing campaign, you need to stick by the SMS rules and guidelines in your country (and the country of where you plan to send your SMS to). This generally means that you always need to provide your audience with the ability to opt out of your SMS marketing messages whenever they receive one. Including an opt out will occupy approximately 20 characters of your SMS message, so always keep this in mind when writing the copy of your message.
7. Send your SMS at the perfect time
Do some research to find out when your audience is most likely to read your SMS message. This could directly relate to the type of business and industry you are marketing for. For example, if you own a pizza shop, your audience will likely respond to an SMS marketing campaign being sent on a Friday afternoon or weekend, as this is when they may be looking to take a break from cooking for the week and buy some takeaway food. Use our handy bulk SMS scheduling tool to send at the right time for your audience.
On the other hand, if you’re sending your SMS marketing campaign to a global audience and targeting different countries, it’s important to take into account their time zone and make sure you’re not sending them an SMS message in the middle of the night.
SMS Marketing Campaign Examples
Retail
Get 50% off store wide! Come and grab a bargain: https://bit.ly/salesale offer ends midnight 13/12/2023. Reply STOP to opt out
Ecommerce
Jackie, buy 1 get 1 FREE! Use code 2FOR1 at checkout. Start shopping: https://www.clothes4u.com. Offer ends 29/10/2023 Reply STOP to opt out
Hospitality
Treat your Valentine ❤️ to dinner with a free bottle of wine 🥂 Book now. Opt out reply STOP
Hair and Beauty
July specials: full head colour, cut and blow dry for $100. Offer valid for July only. Book now: https://bit.ly/julyhair Opt out reply STOP
Travel & Tourism
Natalie, book your getaway ✈️ and receive a FREE seat upgrade! Limited time only. Use code SEAT0 at checkout: https://bit.ly/flyaway0
Build Your Successful SMS Marketing Campaign Today
Notifyre’s powerful SMS platform has all the tools you need to create and launch a successful SMS marketing campaign. Whether you're new to SMS marketing or looking to optimise your current strategy, our platform offers the flexibility and features to meet your needs. For effective campaigns, consider implementing these 5 SMS marketing tips for small businesses. We also offer strategies to accelerate your political campaign with 5 effective SMS marketing examples. With our pay-as-you-go pricing structure, you can send SMS marketing campaigns as and when you need. Create your account to get started, or give us a call on 1300 032 936.
