Mobile First.
Just a decade ago this was only a buzzword. Now, in 2021, in the world where phones have become the extensions of one’s primary hand, it is vital to prioritize this approach if you care to take a slice of a 48.7 million consumers pie.
And what a better way to do that than to start with a fast and furious SMS Messaging strategy!
SMS Messaging
SMS marketing combines various techniques focused on reaching a specific audience on their smartphones. With over 98% open rates, high engagement, and fast delivery SMS marketing simply give us a message we can’t ignore.
As with any marketing strategy, SMS marketing tactics heavily depend on your target audience, goal settings, and time and effort you put into creating creative content that will propel your ideal client to answer that message as soon as possible!
The creativity here is heavily needed, so we decided to help you out by guiding you through the 5 main steps of creating a winning SMS marketing strategy with a bit of help from Beyonce!
Let’s dive in!
Step 1: SMS Personalization
Upgrade You
The consumer society we live in is hooked on the connotation of being the best. Not mediocre, not great, THE BEST!
So give them that. Cater to their needs by creating campaigns and content that is of value to them.
Let’s say you are creating a strategy for a dog food brand.
Before you start, answer the following questions:
- What is the one food-related problem dog owners are facing?
- How can this campaign help them?
- At what time of the day will they be thinking about this?
Digestive organ health. New food-friendly for your dog’s stomach. Around 9 am and 7 PM – when most dogs are given their meal.
SMS example:
Hey Mike! Its’ breakfast time! Try out our brand new canine poop-friendly dog food with a 30% DISCOUNT. Click on the link below to use your code and give your furry friend one more reason to smile today…
BAM! There you have it. Your campaign is set up to upgrade the life of your ideal customers. It is time effective and emphasizes the added value of the product.
Step 2: Start With an End in Mind
Formation
Moving right along to the technical aspect of SMS marketing.
Formation is a big picture of how dancers will move throughout the act.
When creating a texting strategy start from where you want your client to be at the end.
More importantly, how do you want them to feel?
After that, start with the technical part of how you will get them there.
Here are 9 steps we compiled for you not to miss any preparation needed before starting the campaign:
- Pick the right text messaging software
- Automate messages triggered by user behavior
- Create the SMS
- Start collecting the phone numbers
- Get your customers permission
- Set up the sending time
- Test it out
- Set up the analytics
- Shoot!
When picking out which software to use, take into consideration its integration possibilities, cost, text templates and usage friendliness. Text templates can save you a lot of time in your marketing campaigns and return an even bigger percentage of investment.
Emitto is a great software to start with, considering you need no technical knowledge in order to use it and it takes 5 minutes to set it up! It has free trial and expert consultation available too.
Fun fact: 64% of customers think that companies they have given their permission to, should text them more often.
Keep that formation tight!
Step 3: Automate
7/11
Marketing experts around the world have agreed on several occasions that marketing automation is the fastest and most effective way to save precious hours of marketing efforts without hurting the set KPIs.
When using SMS marketing tools, you can integrate SMS directly into your email automation workflow.
These campaigns can use the same triggering action as the email campaign does, with the same level of detailed segmentation.
Moreover, automation helps you send bulk SMS’s, have more insights into analytics, and helps you increase the volume of your strategy reach.
You have the software working for you 24/7!
Step 4: Be Original
Me, Myself and I
In the whole white world, with so many different companies doing the same thing you do, why would I choose you?
What is that one sparkle that makes you different in your customer’s eyes?
You got it?
GREAT!
Now go ahead and use it! Keep in mind your brand promise, values, colors, and tone of speaking.
Give your customer a feeling they are speaking directly to the person behind your brand.
Fitting into the mold is the worst thing you can do.
This will result in us receiving a lot of the same, similar, copied messages all over again. In other words spam!
So do your best and try to stand out so your customers will want to give you their full attention.
SMS messaging, as a marketing tactic, is still not heavily used. Its popularization is happening as we speak, so we do encourage you to use the momentum and jump on the train of innovation and the future of marketing.
After all, we did give you our permission to talk to us, so tell us more about you.
Step 5: Plan, Measure, Adjust
Deja Vu
A Real Deja Vu it is. SMS Messaging is also a marketing channel that cannot work without a before-set loophole of plan, measure, adjust.
Imagine that you have started your campaign. Will you just have it run for 15 days and not take a look at it at all during that time? What if there is a problem with your credit card and the whole campaign gets stopped?
Exactly!
Be ready to adjust! Plans are necessary, but the adjustment is the crucial point of all successful campaigns.
Learn from it.
While measuring the impact of your texting campaign see what worked and what didn’t, or what worked better. Then cancel the parts that failed and transfer the budget to the parts that worked out.
Keep tuning your approaches until you get a winning text.
Pro tip: If you want to measure the real impact of your SMS campaigns look at the click-through rates or use SMS-specific discount codes to see how many people redeem them. This information will help you get a better understanding of how successful your campaigns are.
Your message has been delivered...
No other industry has been through so many innovations and changes in the last 5 years as the marketing industry.
Every day we are facing new momentums, apps. channels. This can be nerve-racking but it also puts a lot of fun and diversity into our everyday work.
SMS Marketing is a great way for you to refresh your marketing approach and discover if your audience would like to interact with your brand more.
SMS Marketing is a great way for you to refresh your marketing approach and discover if your audience would like to interact with your brand more.
If you have any questions do let us know in the comments below and we will answer them as soon as possible.
For more info on this topic visit our blog and keep your eyes open for more inputs, news, and strategies coming your way.
