Why use text marketing campaigns?
Savvy marketers know that text marketing campaigns are the way to get noticed in a sea of traditional marketing communications. What makes them think that text messages are the answer?
Since the pandemic there has been a dramatic shift in the way consumers prefer to be contacted. These days, it’s all about convenience and being present. We know that 84% of Brits own a mobile phone and we are obsessed with them. Walk down any UK street and see people walking along looking at their mobile devices. This is why text messages have an open rate of 98% and are read within minutes. With the rise in popularity of smartwatches, we don’t even need to be on our phones to receive text messages. So any promotions you send out to your subscribers have a guaranteed reach.
That’s not all. Consumers are letting us know that they prefer text campaigns over and above other marketing methods by interacting with brands who are using text marketing platforms. 77% of consumers say businesses offering text marketing and text services, in general, have a more positive image. This figure is hard to ignore. Consumers are driving brands to communicate on their terms and from now on, meeting consumers on their level will be more vital than ever.
What are some texting best practices?
Whether you are new to text marketing or have already implemented your text marketing strategy, we can show you the best ways to engage your target audience and get the maximum results from minimal efforts.
For those marketers who are yet to migrate to text marketing, most are planning to within the next year. It’s becoming apparent that those who don’t could start losing out to competitors. For businesses who are happily still using traditional marketing methods with some success, introducing text marketing is only likely to enhance what you are currently doing and can work well as part of a multimedia approach.
As part of our ongoing engagement with our existing customers, we have discovered how our support and guidance have helped not only engage new customers but, also to maximise revenue, convert leads to sales and grow brand loyalty. Read on to discover our best practices to help you achieve outstanding results with your text marketing campaign. Find out how other marketers prioritise.
1. Growing a subscriber list
The key is in the preparation and generating a customer database is the foundation. What is the quality of your current database? Is it up to date and are your subscribers interested in your brand? To get your text marketing program initiated, you will need to put your efforts into customer data collection. By connecting with the right subscribers you can attract relevant traffic to your website.
To gather subscribers, consumers initially opt-in to receive your text marketing messages, but they can also opt-out if they are not happy with your interaction. At Text Marketer, we can show you how to reach new subscribers, but also to be able to enhance your level of engagement with them. Some of our tips will also help you to keep your current subscriber list healthy and keep customers opting in. From here you can begin to drive more traffic to your website.
Encourage SMS take-up
You can drive opt-ins to sign up to receive your sms messages in many different ways:
- Competitions – You can market these in many different ways, including in-store, on social media channels, on business cards and flyers, on products, etc.
- Website data capture – Adding a consent tick box to a form that already needs to be filled in, is a simple solution. These can often be found at the checkout point of an online sale, which is a non-intrusive way to add them. At this point, you know that the customer already likes your brand.
- Events – If you join events outside of your business, this could be the perfect opportunity to canvas new subscribers.
- Social media sites – Show your followers the additional benefits that they can experience once they join your sms marketing list.
- In-store – It is quite common to promote your sms campaigns at sales points in stores. Shortcodes are particularly useful here, rather than lengthy form filling as shoppers are usually short on time.
- Feedback cards – Some restaurants leave cards on tables requesting feedback via a shortcode or QR code. The waiting staff can also be incentivised to encourage sms opt-ins by talking to their customers about the benefits of being an sms subscriber and adding their name to the card. The customer then adds the name of their waiter to their sign-up which in turn helps staff to receive a reward. This can also work in retail.
As well as these simple methods you can also increase your text database by using an effective cross-channel marketing strategy. If you already have a successful email marketing campaign and social media sites, you can incorporate these with your initial text marketing program. When encouraging sign-ups, you could create a landing page to bring initial traffic to your website and have subscribers sign up there. Once there, they may stay and have a look around.
2. Creating a welcome series
Send a welcome message to your new text subscribers as part of a welcome series. You may have lured your new members with a sign-up incentive. Show them what they can expect to gain by being a subscriber to your brand. Send your first text soon after the customer has opted in to receive your text messages and add the incentive that first attracted them to the welcome message. This is your opportunity to show them the benefits of remaining a subscriber. Show them what else you can offer and give it an exclusive members-only feel.
By nurturing the relationship at this first stage, subscribers will feel confident that they made the right choice and may even recommend subscribing to others.
3. Applying Automated text marketing messages
The use of keywords enables you to respond to your subscribers using automated text. When you send a text message to your subscribers, they can interact with you. If their reply contains a keyword, the conversation will trigger an instant response. For a holiday company you might ask your subscribers:
“Hi, Reshma, what holiday destination have you got your eye on this year? Tell us to access our early bird savings.”
Reshma may reply with “Rome”. The keyword is triggered and a web link to your Rome packages can be automatically sent back
Our marketing clients tell us that automated text messages saves them time and money and helps them to nurture leads without chasing customers manually. It reduces the incidence of customers shopping around and has increased their conversion rate. Using text messages to drive traffic is most definitely high on its list of functions.
Automated text messages or triggered messages can be used throughout the customer lifecycle to encourage consumers to engage and purchase from you. Two popular triggered text messages are:
- Abandoned cart reminders – triggered when a customer leaves items in their cart online and fails to checkout. A text message will automatically be sent to the customer to remind them that they may have been distracted mid-purchase, thought they had checked out but hadn’t, or to ask them why they didn’t complete the sale. links to voucher codes could also be added to abandoned cart text messages to nudge a sale
- Favourite item reminders – you can use online shopping data to generate text messages to be sent to customers who have spent time looking at an item but have not purchased it, favorited it, or asked to be notified when it comes back into stock.
Use Automated text messages in conjunction with a customer loyalty programme and set up triggered text messages that follow online shopping habits such as discounts on their favourite items or even geographically targeted text messages to send reminders when your customer is nearby a bricks-and-mortar store.
4. Effective text marketing messages that drive sales
Good marketers will make every marketing message count with an exclusive feel, one-off special offers, an urgent call-to-action, etc. Some text marketing examples to adhere to:
Make a statement
When we receive text messages on a smartphone, we can usually get a sneak preview of the screen or a smartwatch face without even opening the message. This is a very important part of the process, what appears in the preview could determine the ultimate fate of the message! Use the first line as an attention-grabbing headline, much the same as you would in an email, but without fancy graphics.
Choose those first words carefully, and make an impact. For example, if you are promoting a flash sale, the first thing the recipient should read is “Flash Sale” or “One Day Only!” If you require urgent donations for a charitable cause perhaps start with “Want to do your bit?” Tell your audience what they need to do to support your call to action.
Keep it exclusive
Text message subscribers expect to get exclusive deals and perks from signing up that your other followers cannot receive or at least subscribers get all the good stuff first. By reinforcing exclusivity as a sign-up perk, you can build loyalty and reduce your unsubscribe rate. If customers feel they may be missing out by not subscribing, they will stick with you.
Non-promotional text messages
Finding different ways to reach your customer base can be a tricky balance. Ultimately, you want people to invest in your brand. Customers make it abundantly clear that they do not like a hard sell. You know that feeling you get when you walk into a very small shop, manned by its owner who is all over you? It’s off-putting and awkward. So what can the shop owner do? They need to find a way to keep your attention and make you feel welcome without the discomfort. Whilst online businesses and larger brands are a world away from a small shop, they are still able to turn customers off by being too pushy. Some examples of non-promotional text messages:
- Free delivery
- Abandoned cart reminder
- Back-in-stock notification
- Your brand story
- News alerts
- Tips, ideas, and guides
- Product launches
5. Segmentation and personalisation
Marketers have access to a lot of data about their consumers through various sign-ups, website browsing history, and loyalty schemes. Used in the right way customer data can boost your marketing efforts.
Segmentation
By separating your audience into categories based on their interests and demographics you can ensure that your messages are uniquely tailored for text marketing. You must differentiate your customers so that you are not bombarding them with irrelevant information. For example, if you were a travel agent, why send a deal for an adult-only holiday to all of your subscribers? With targeted messaging, you are much more likely to optimise your level of engagement.
This works well when sending bulk texting. Providing your database contains the right information, the messages will automatically be sent out to the right people at the right time. Targeting only those you want to reach will save you time and resources too. You may have varying types of customers you sell products to and as such have different web pages you would like them to look at. For example, a company like Argos sells a multitude of products such as toys, sports equipment, furniture, etc. Use a target keyword in your text message to drive traffic to the right page on your website.
Personalisation
Personalise your content where you can. Using first names can build trust and brand loyalty and let them know that you are taking the time to grow a relationship with your customers and that you care. Send offers with birthday wishes on their special day or, send out alerts about their favourite products. Use purchase history data to find out your customer’s favourite products. Alert them when their favourite product is back in stock if you are planning to extend a range they like.
6. Integrating messages with text marketing software
A good way to stay on top of your text marketing efforts and ensure that what you are doing is working is to integrate with a good text marketing platform. At Text Marketer we offer an analytics package. We collect all the data we’ll need to judge the success of the campaign and to optimise future campaigns for improved results. You can track your campaigns and will know within minutes if you are getting the right reach and interaction with your target audience.
Your platform should also be able to grab data from other tech you are using such as shopping gateways to enable you to build the best profile of your customers and their spending habits possible.
Implement your text marketing best practices today with Text Marketer
Enhance your text message marketing strategy today by getting in touch with us. We have many years of experience and knowledge in text message marketing ready to pass on to you.
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