Are you ready to take your marketing game to the next level in 2023? We’ve prepared 15 SMS marketing best practices to help you scale your marketing communication.
Let’s cut to the chase!
How to Do Bulk SMS Marketing? 15 Proven Bulk SMS Marketing Tips
Learning something new can be daunting. We’ve all been there. Despite knowing something will benefit us, we procrastinate and stick with old ways of doing marketing that we already know well. Luckily, bulk SMS marketing doesn’t have a steep learning curve as some other channels do.
Learn how to do bulk SMS marketing with 15 proven bulk SMS marketing tips, and master another channel that will fuel your growth!
SMS Opt In Best Practices
Before you start to implement bulk SMS marketing, you have to follow SMS opt in best practices. They ensure that customers consent to receive marketing texts from your business and you get more SMS subscribers.
- Provide an easy way out. Don’t make unsubscribing from your SMS list hard. People will just block you, and that’s a no-go. Explain the opt-out process from the start.
- Tell them how frequently you’ll send promotional SMS.
- Communicate what your SMS marketing is all about in the signup form. Tell your subscribers what your texts will be about, and what kind of content, and benefits they’ll consume and enjoy.
- Offer an incentive in a thank you for subscribing text.
Welcome SMS sequence is also a great way to start a strong relationship with your SMS subscribers.
How to Get Mobile Numbers for Bulk SMS Marketing
One of the most significant problems people face in marketing is getting people to give their contact information. And marketers often don’t have the time to build an audience on a new channel from scratch. Luckily, there are ways to ensure people will gladly subscribe to your SMS list.
- Have exclusive offers only for SMS subscribers.
- Implement a sign-up form on multiple pages on your website.
- Include a popup with an SMS sign-up form after they’ve spent some time on your website.
- Run on-site campaigns to get mobile numbers for bulk sms marketing.
- Turn your email list or Facebook audience into SMS subscribers.
- Explore additional 21 ways to collect marketing phone numbers and grow your SMS list.
Pro tip: No matter where already have an engaged audience, it’s always a good idea to diversify your channels and promote on multiple platforms. Remember that the SMS list is always yours, no one can take it down unlike, for example, your Instagram account.
Set Clear Expectations From the Start
Set expectations in terms of frequency, content you’re going to share, and exclusive offers. You need to have a strong answer to their WHY. Why would they give you their number? People don’t just give their phone numbers to everyone. You’ll get more SMS subscribers with clear expectations, and also have fewer people opt out.
Set Growth-Motivated SMS Marketing KPIs
Increase Engagement With 2WAY SMS Marketing
SMS marketing isn’t one-sided. Use 2way SMS marketing to increase engagement by up to 90% and get responses from your customers that will provide you with useful insights about them.
2way SMS marketing is all about conversations where you’ll learn more about your audience, while they get to engage with your business which increases brand loyalty.
Utilize Marketing Scarcity
Good ol’ marketing scarcity – why not get the most out of it by implementing it into your SMS marketing campaigns? Send time-sensitive offers, such as expiring coupon codes, and recover abandoned carts with scarcity.
It’s a psychological principle that relies on fear of missing out, and it never misses to encourage people to buy!
Test Different Types of Bulk SMS Marketing
There are endless opportunities, but as with any other marketing effort – you won’t know until you test it. SMS marketing isn’t one size fits all. Which types of bulk SMS marketing do businesses use & love?
- SMS coupon marketing
- SMS loyalty programs
- Promotional SMS
- Confirmation SMS
But hey, that’s not all there is! Explore these 7 types of bulk SMS marketing and figure out which one works best for your business!
Take Advantage of Personalized SMS Marketing
We are all aware that personalization is in its prime when it comes to marketing. You have to come up with witty ways to grab attention and keep it. And we’ve never had more data. But are we using it to its full potential?
Personalized SMS marketing is all about tailoring your campaigns to the different needs of your customers. It will help you grab their attention, and keep it with the value you share. It’s definitely one of the most important bulk SMS marketing tips – to personalize everything you can.
From using the customer’s first name in a campaign to wishing them a happy birthday – SMS marketing is a proven way to consumers’ hearts.
Use Data Smartly and Segment Your Audience to Send More Personal Campaigns
Segmenting your audience based on their preferences, demographics and unique features is a great way to test the waters and see what works and what doesn’t. Maybe millennials will respond great to your SMS marketing campaign, while Gen X rapidly unsubscribed after you’ve sent it.
Discover patterns in behavior and use that data to segment audiences, optimize & run more successful SMS campaigns.
Analyze Your Performance With SMS Analytics
When your SMS campaigns are up and running, analyze their performance with SMS marketing analytics. Data will tell you everything you need to know about your audience, how well they respond to your efforts, and what you can do to make it a better experience for everyone.
The most important SMS marketing metrics are definitely SMS open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and of course, SMS ROI.
Stay on the Legal Side of Things
Make sure that the bulk SMS marketing platform you’re using puts data privacy as its top priority. This usually means that they are compliant with laws in different countries regarding SMS marketing. For the US, they need to be CCPA-compliant, while for countries in European Union your provider needs to be GDPR-compliant.
Use Branded Sender ID
Transform simple SMS into a powerful branding tool with branded sender ID. Use your company’s name as a sender, and stay on top of the minds of customers.
Send at the Right Time
You don’t want to wake up your SMS subscribers in the middle of the night with a flash sale announcement. No matter how big your discount is, you’ll just have angry people unsubscribing from your list.
Instead, send bulk SMS at the right time, when people are more likely to engage and buy. And what’s the best time to send a text blast? People check their notifications when they are at work, and to be sure you can send SMS campaign between 10am and 3pm. Also, when they come home and unwind in their living room, but still not asleep which is around 8pm.
Quickly Get Started With Creative SMS Marketing Ideas
Don’t get discouraged because you can’t come up with SMS marketing ideas right away. We’re here to help with ideas every business can use to supercharge their growth with SMS marketing. Use:
- Sales messaging
- Business SMS drip campaigns
- SMS loyalty program
- SMS for customer service
- B2B SMS marketing
Not quite there yet? Get inspired with additional 33 SMS marketing ideas!
