SMS Marketing Can Be As Effective As Web Marketing

An SMS campaign can give you many of the email marketing advantages such as auto responders, personalization, triggered emails and trackable calls to action.

We are listing the most important steps to a successful SMS marketing campaign.

Make sure that you follow the legislation and regulations of privacy protection.

The minimum requirement of SMS marketing as well as mobile web marketing is to identify yourself. Your SMS messages must include your identity, address and/or a web address. Make your commercial message as clear as possible to the recipient. Offer an unsubscribed option from all your SMS messages.

Minimise your unsubscribes in order to protect your brand. You are aiming to expand your response rates. Best practice guidelines in this area include:

=> Ask your recipients if they'd like to receive invitations and offers by SMS.

=> Ask to text back YES on receipt of their first SMS campaign,. This can help the further relationship and user engagement.

=> Consider sending periodic, regular opt-ins to re-establish if the recipient still wants to receive your messages.

Short codes

Short codes give your recipients efficient and a quick way to respond to you SMS. (ie “text LOGIN TO 1000”)

Make sure the response keywords identify clearly the campaign in question.

Consider using a shared short qr code generator when you start your SMS campaign.

Dedicated short qr code tracking are exclusive to your business;

=> You own the collected custom qr codes data;

=> You don't have to compete for any keywords you want to use;

=> You don't risk service disruption due to another company's abuse of a shared short code.

Writing your SMS message

It's important not to use too many words!

A standard SMS allows up to 160 characters, so your message needs to be as short as possible. The 160 characters have to include your unsubscribe message. Common text language allows for abbreviations, so take advantage of it.

Be sure to include a call to action to help drive response and user engagement.

E.g. 'text OK to 6500 to book your place'.

Consider which marketing communications are best suited to the SMS message.

SMS works great for 'reminder':

=> Cancellation reinstatements

=> Appointment/booking confirmations

=> Seasonal messages and promotions such as Christmas, Mother's day , Valentine's day

=> Product announcements

=> Competitions

=> Recommendations

Space in your SMS is limited.

Make sure your messages answers 3 questions:

=> What's the offer?

=> When do they need to act?

=> What should they do next?

Always send a personalised message.

Make sure you at least know your recipient's first name so you can say : 'Hi John, Thanks for your reservation. We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday 15th.'

Be sensitive about your sending times. You're not sending a wake-up call!

From the timing and frequency, to collecting opt-in permissions, and the relevance of your messages.

Article Source: http://www.compensationsecrets.co.uk/