Council Post: How To Leverage SMS Marketing The Right Way

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Short message service, or SMS, is a less common term in many marketing strategies today. Given the sharp rise of digital marketing in recent years, this is to be expected.

But I’ve found that this type of old-school marketing is having a moment in the limelight for the best reasons.

In 2022, I believe the world of e-commerce is waking up to the power of SMS marketing when it comes to bringing in leads and higher conversion rates.

But how can businesses leverage SMS marketing the right way? Here is what they can do.

Get The Timing Right

While people check their phones frequently, this doesn’t mean you can send an SMS anytime you want.

Unlike social media marketing, I’ve found that SMS marketing is often most effective during business hours. This is because evening hours are often dominated by social media scrolling or web browsing. People may not be inclined to jump into action because of a text message.

To further narrow down the ideal window for your SMS campaign, you can run tests for click-through rate (CTR) metrics or open rates. By segmenting your customer base, you can figure out when your customers are most receptive to your messages.

SMS marketing depends largely on timeliness, so you should get the timing right, especially for the action you’re hoping recipients will take. If the message is to remind the receiver of a store opening, then send it early on the day itself. On the other hand, you can send messages about a sale happening over the weekend a few days before.

Another element to get right is when you respond to customer actions via SMS, such as auto-reply messages for signing up, subscribing or registering with their contact information. Timely responses are crucial; a delay at this stage can significantly hamper your SMS campaign.

Get The Tone Right

SMS messages go to customers’ personal devices, so they should feel your messages are personal. In general, this means a conversational tone is much better than a formal one.

Remember that SMS is purely text; you can’t generally fall back on graphics or photos to engage customers or make up for an inappropriate tone. You need to use the right words to trigger a positive action when your customer receives it. For this reason, you may need to hire a good copywriter for your campaign.

Get The Length Right

SMS content is text-based and short, with a 160-character limit. This is a very tight spot for most marketing teams, especially those used to the nearly unlimited real estate provided by social media platforms, emails and blogs.

Keep messages short and simple yet highly relevant to the receiver. Avoid long, jargon-filled messages; stick to layman’s terms. Include a relevant keyword phrase and an engaging call to action that will entice the receiver to act.

Get The Message Right

There is nothing worse than a poorly planned SMS marketing campaign. Make sure you consider the crucial elements, such as the copy, content and purpose, very carefully.

Your message should have a purpose that’s relevant to the receiver. This means you should understand what your target consumers want and do your best to deliver it.

If you’re working with a broad customer base with various interests, begin by segmenting them into groups. There are many ways to segregate a vast customer group: by age, sex, profession, purchase history, location, browsing behavior and more. Once you have segmented customers, target them based on offers they are sure to love.

Unlike some other forms of marketing, SMS finds customers in an intimate space on their personal devices. This means you should only reach out to customers through SMS when you have something worth the one-on-one disruption.

Some good reasons to run SMS marketing campaigns or use an SMS marketing strategy are:

• To welcome new customers or subscribers.

• To inform customers of new content about your product or service.

• To send personalized greetings or offers on birthdays, weddings and membership anniversaries.

• To upsell and cross-sell products or services.

• To send reminders about webinars, appointments, demos or abandoned carts.

• To send links to download tickets, apps and other content.

• To reach out to provide customer support.

Try your best to stand out from the dozens of other marketing SMS messages they may receive each day. Your message should reflect your brand’s very best characteristics to help boost conversions and generate leads.

Get The CTA Right

Another factor—arguably the most crucial one—to ensure your SMS campaign is a success is getting the call-to-action (or CTA) right.

The call-to-action gives your customers something to do. It is the next step they should take if the content of your SMS interests them. This can be clicking a link to your website, filling out a form, answering a poll question or joining a contest. You can also include promo codes for personalized offers.

Like the text itself, make sure the CTA is short and easy to follow. Great examples I’ve seen used in SMS campaigns are:

• Show this text to get 50% off.

CTAs should be easy to recognize and follow. You should get your message across without needing to use complex terms and convoluted phrases. A good CTA will get the most important part of the message across and trigger an immediate favorable action from the receiver.

Effective SMS marketing means keeping the consumers at the forefront of your SMS strategy.

SMS marketing can be a formidable weapon for a brand, whether you choose to leverage it to offer promotional deals, send personalized birthday messages, or welcome new subscribers. It is a powerful tool to use when you’ve got the right consumer base, message and occasion to drive sales.

Are you ready to boost your leads and conversion rates with SMS marketing?

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