Develop your marketing strategy and run more effective campaigns with the aid of SMS. Keep reading to learn about the best SMS marketing practices ever!

Nothing compares to SMS in the world of marketing. With consistently positive results, it seems to be the best way to connect with leads and convert them into sales.

But you still have to be very intentional about how you proceed, because devising the right plan takes time and a fair bit of trial and error. So let’s read on and see what you should know.

Keep Opt-ins and Opt-outs Simple

Opt-ins and opt-outs refer to subscribing and unsubscribing to your SMS’ respectively. It’s very important to keep both of these straightforward.

This is entirely for the sake of convenience and consent. As you don’t want to discourage anyone that’s eager for updates and you don’t want to hassle anyone whose uninterested.

Most texting services employ a simple keyword trigger for both cases. It could be something as simple as “Yes” and “No” if you so choose.

Texting apps like SMSGatez, allow you to automate this process so the requests go through immediately. Because it shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes to confirm whether someone is subscribed or not.

Incentivize Engagement

An extremely important aspect of your SMS marketing is giving recipients a reason to engage with your texts.

Most businesses capitalize on this idea and regularly send discount codes or updates on sales to achieve this.

No one can resist a good deal and you need to work out what is most attractive to your leads in order to entice them into engaging.

If you’re looking to recruit, this can also be a helpful tool as you can provide a link to an application portal so that you have candidates that can be further shortlisted.

Overall, any links you send in text messages are much more likely to be opened than ones sent over email, or other digital means. So you can use that knowledge to your benefit and create incentives accordingly.

Stay Flexible and Proactive

Marketing is always in a state of rapid change. Between algorithms, personal preferences, and changing sentiments it’s impossible to stay on top of things unless you’re willing to remain dynamic.

This means regularly consulting your analytics reports and conducting other types of market research to figure out which kinds of SMS are getting a better response than others.

You can even determine the ideal time to send out your messages by analyzing the performance metrics.

Your SMS campaigns need to evolve and adapt to any changing conditions, so don’t expect to use the same strategies for each and every one. Or at least, don’t expect them to yield good results, if you do.

Avoid Spam at All Costs

Since we’re talking about a really direct channel for communication between brands and leads, it requires a large amount of restraint.

So you can’t just send out 10 messages a day, or even a week. And you need to be even more diligent about accidentally sending messages to the same people twice.

Every message needs to find its target and that’s it. Sending the same message over and over is the fastest way to alienate potential leads and discourage them from engaging.

Not to mention spam is a great way to compromise your brand’s reputation. Nobody takes a business seriously if it has to rely on over-the-top marketing like that.

Follow Industry Regulations

Industry regulations exist to make sure that businesses operate in ways that benefit the customer. In the case of SMS marketing, the idea is to responsibly conduct campaigns and communicate specific kinds of information in a clear and concise fashion.

Hence, all the messages that you send out need to include the following without fail

• Clearly indicate how frequently they would receive messages 
• Shortened links that lead them to your terms and conditions as well as your privacy policy
• Clear instructions on the commands they have access to 
• State whether message and data rates are applicable

It’s legally required for you to include this information in every text, this way you’re ensuring that there are no legal liabilities on your end.

Advertise Your Accessibility

Raising awareness about your SMS service is very important. There needs to be some exposure so that people are aware you exist.

You can mention this information on social media profiles, and on your website, if you have one. Using email marketing to support your SMS efforts is also a viable option.

Just include a small portion of text (where relevant), stating that you provide updates, alerts, or special offers through SMS along with instructions on how to opt-in.

Get Creative to Maintain Small Word Counts

SMS in and of itself is confined to fairly small word counts, while this can be overcome with some marketing services it’s still an opportunity in its own way.

When you keep your messages short, you’re more likely to get successful results. This is because the average person is quick to lose interest. So stretch those creative muscles and have fun with them.

If your brand or business requires a more playful tone or prefers to engage in a more casual way, then this is ideal for you. As well-written short messages encourage engagement and likely appeal to leads more.

Smaller word counts also make sure that relevant information is front and center. Nobody wants to sift through long (or multiple) messages to find the details that they’re looking for. 

Keep it short and sweet, and make sure that the spotlight is on the value to the customer.

Add a Personal Touch

Last but certainly not least, personalization is the most popular practice. Not only in SMS marketing but in marketing as a whole.

It requires you to customize messages in ways that are specific to the person who receives them. With certain differences between messages to distinguish them. In most scenarios, this is mentioning the name of the recipient acquired through previously provided data.

This promotes engagement for a few different reasons. Chief among them being, relevance. To illustrate this idea, let’s say someone visits your online store and exclusively looks at one department or one kind of product. Based on this pattern, you can send them an SMS offering a discount or coupon for that item(s).

So the recipient will engage because they are receiving a personalized message that is directly relevant to their immediate interest.

Other than that, many customers simply enjoy the extra effort. Since appealing to customers involves making them feel special, personalized SMS’ provides them with that kind of treatment.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, the name of the game is value. If you’re going to conduct an SMS campaign you need to identify and deliver value to every recipient.

Whether this is attentive service, availability, or just a few personal touches; the goal has to revolve around something the recipient will consider a benefit, no matter how small.

And this list of the best SMS marketing practices goes over how you can achieve that as sensibly as possible.

So work with exceptional services like SMSGatez and start developing the ideal text messaging campaign for your brand or business!