Text Message Marketing (SMS Marketing) has only 160-Characters, but can leave a lasting impression on your customers. It is also very personal and care must be taken when crafting a message. This fundamental character limit forces you to make sure that the text message being marketed is clear and simple.
1. Always Deliver Value
This may seem obvious, but with a strong personal attachment to the mobile phone you have to make sure that you have a strong time sensitive offer to give people a strong sense of value. They need to feel that they are getting something that others are not and it was a good decision to give up their mobile phone number. Good SMS content can come from exclusive offers that are different from sending out vague sale alerts resulting in a tendency for the customer to regard it as spam and want to opt-out. This is consistent with the need to be clear and concise.
2. Speak in Plain Language
Do not type in acronyms. Although it does shorten text messages, but it leaves customers questioning what those acronyms mean. It is better to speak in plain simple language, so that there is clear ability to digest the message with a short glance. This eliminates the need to decipher code and leave an impression that your brand as coming off as "trying to hard".
3. Display Business Name First
Many people neglect this. Often numbers sent out are using automated processes and systems. Put your business name first to remove all doubt. Although, there is a possible way to display a name as a caller ID, but issue arises when the user is actually unable to respond.
4. Add Interactive Call to Action
You can engage a customer by mobile by adding quality call to actions. Discussed here are two primary methods of engaging a user with SMS:
- User reply with a keyword trigger, an auto reply, or forward to an application.
- Add a URL linking to a mobile web page. Google map, mobile video, application download or other rich media. Use a URL Shortener like bit.ly to save on characters and bit.ly has analytics so you can see how many recipients visited the link and with what device.
5. Remind about made opt-in decisions
Customers should be reminded of how they came to be on your list, whether a loyalty program member, previous purchaser or previous competition entrant you shouldn't generate frustration in the user as a perceived spammer.
