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May 04, 2022
When it comes time to choose an effective promotion channel, then according to the results of the analysis of the price-quality ratio, everyone comes to SMS marketing. Indeed, statistics show that the open rate of SMS messages is 98% compared to, for example, email letters.
Seeing such numbers, I want to immediately start sending SMS, throwing all my strength and budget, because the payback period for investments is quite short. But it is at this point that everything can go wrong and text campaigns will fail, we know this from our experience of work as an SMS service. This can happen because SMS marketing also has its own rules and taboos. There are many painful mistakes that beginner SMS specialists make.
Below we’ve rounded up the most common ones to avoid and tips on how to fix them if you’ve already done any of them.
Buying someone else’s bases is often resorted to by a start-up business that does not yet have its own wide lead base. This way of promotion seems easy because the more people see the ad, the more they will respond to it. But that doesn’t work with distributions. To send text messages to a number, you need the prior agreement of its owner. Otherwise, it may amount to spam and illegal use of personal data. In addition, you cannot be sure that the owners of those numbers will need your product, service, or recourse. And this threatens into an empty merged budget.
Tip: Grow your audience organically. Do this with the help of forms on the site, questionnaires, purchase agreements, etc. Be sure to notify them when collecting data about their future use. Yes, this is not a fast process, but it the one of the highest quality and safest.
Advertising space is not unlimited, you need to be present in it competently and exactly in the amount that your business niche allows. Customers don’t like it when business is too intrusive.
Tip: There is no set number of SMS per day/week/month for each niche. To find out the golden mean of being present in the client’s personal space, you need to know your audience. Polls, questionnaires, 2-way mailings and text message A / B testing, which we wrote about earlier, can help with this.
Even if you find the ideal amount of SMS per week/month for your audience, it won’t be enough. To send SMS, there must be a reason and a purpose. Empty “Thank you for being with us!” will only interrupt the client from his affairs and annoy.
Tip: Always offer value to your customers. The content of SMS messages should bring you closer to your business goals. If you want to remind customers of your concern, then offer a benefit: “Thank you for being with us! We give you a 10% discount on your next order. Follow the link…”
If a customer gives you access to their data, they expect you to be respectful and respect personal boundaries. It’s unpleasant to wake up in the middle of the night from SMS with a discount offer, right?
Tip: The best time to send SMS is during normal business hours. Also, consider the time zone when planning mailings. Learn your target audience and their preferences. Use SMS service with the ability to limit the sending time and schedule mailings.
Remember those feelings when every week you receive an SMS with an advertisement for a service that you are not going to use for a long time. And you can’t unsubscribe from the mailing list, because the company doesn’t even offer such an option. Annoying, right?
A company that acts in this way paints an impression of being arrogant and thereby lowers customer loyalty.
Tip: Insert an unsubscribe option in every marketing text message. This will clear your database of unpromising customers, optimize your budget, and show that you respect the right of your audience to choose.
By sending “long reads” to your customers, you are directly wasting your mailing budget. After all, SMS has its own allowable length, we wrote about this in the blog of our GATUM platform, and exceeding it entails additional costs. In addition, you tire the client and he will open subsequent text message with less interest.
Tip: Optimize the text length for 160 Latin characters or 70 Cyrillic characters. Write briefly and to the point, and leave long and beautiful texts for a blog or social network.
Statistics show that 80% of customers prefer to buy from companies that offer a personalized experience. This shows customers that the company cares about them and knows them by name. Mass mailing without personalization can be easily confused with spam, which significantly lowers the rating of a business.
Tip: Collect as much information as possible about each of your clients to further offer exactly what will suit their interests. Call him by his first name. Choose an SMS service where you can personalize each message.
The goal of every marketing message is to get the customer to take action. Then this marketing message will pay off and make a profit. But companies often forget that the only way to get a customer to action is by pointing to them. An SMS campaign without a call is going to fail.
Tip: It is important for the client to know what you want from him, and not just to get a “bun”. Fill every marketing SMS with a call, a CTA. Remember that it must match your commercial offer. We talked about how to write a CTA in our previous article.
This is a list of only the main mistakes that are made in SMS mailings, 10 years of work as an SMS service provider have shown us many such. For each business niche, they can be more individual. But even if you make sure to avoid these and follow the tips above, you can set up an effective SMS marketing strategy. Pay special attention to the choice of SMS service, because your success depends on its functionality and professionalism of employees.
By choosing the Sempico Solutions service for sending personalized sms messages, you will be calm, because we will not allow you to make any mistakes. Immediately after registration, your personal manager will contact you, he will accompany you all the way through text mailings: from setting up new campaigns to analyzing those already sent. The functionality of your personal account will allow you to set the time for mailings, personalize SMS, add the ability to subscribe and unsubscribe, and so on. In addition, you can use the concierge service from Sempico Solutions – we will set up and send all mailings for you.
Sign up to get all the benefits of SMS marketing now!
