How to Do SMS Marketing Right: Tips for Successful SMS Campaigns

You might think that SMS marketing is dead, but with an open rate of 98%, it's far from dead.

As the world we live in is steadily moving toward becoming more mobile-focused, SMS is an amazing way to reach your target customers on the go!. 

SMS marketing campaigns have great potential in the burgeoning eCommerce industry as it is one of the most appropriate channels to engage with your mobile audience and drive sales.

Why SMS marketing Campaigns?

Unlike other marketing platforms, SMS marketing is the most preferred platform for the audience to share product queries or receive brand updates. With over 4.5 billion mobile users, SMS is the perfect channel for brands to deliver essential information to customers.

Consider other prime perks of SMS Marketing campaigns:

• Unlike emails, well-planned SMS marketing campaigns have a whopping 98% open rate.
• 75% of customers are fine receiving SMS messages from brands (after they’ve opted in)
• It is an easy, fast, and reliable way to interact with your customers.
• It is an inexpensive method of communication in contrast to traditional marketing
• Consumers seem to redeem SMS-delivered coupons 10 times more than other types of coupons.

Top 10 SMS Marketing Tips

Consider the following SMS marketing tips to scale up your business:

Table of Contents

1. Ensure Opt-in choice for the audience

Avoiding customer rejection amid the market competition is the biggest threat. The finest way to build a good relationship with your target audience is to give them a chance to opt in. The SMS opt-in subscription ensures that the audience has shared consent to the brand for communication on the text. 

As a brand, it permits you to utilize customers' mobile numbers for personalized campaigns that include an offer or promotion that directly benefits the subscriber.

For example: “Hi, Good news for you! Subscribe to our weekly offers and get your 15% on your next purchase. Reply “WEEKLY LOVE" on 354635”

2. Clear CTA to encourage immediate sales

Approaching your customer with explicit content, next action steps, and a call-to-action is a smart move. The content should be concise and precise, such as "Sign up today for a free demo," which is a direct CTA. The CTA must deliver a prompt and fascinating suggestion to the audience. 

If you constantly deliver the value customers are looking for in your SMS, they will never choose to opt out of the subscription, and you will have them as loyal customers for a lifetime.

For example: “Wedding Season on the way, Join our makeup tutorial online. Click here for a demo session”.

3. Track your campaigns and optimize

One of the mistakes marketers often make is not estimating the value of their campaigns. 

For a successful campaign, it is essential to measure the efficiency of your SMS marketing campaign for your brand and identify areas for optimization in the next campaign. How many customer responses did you get? What was your ROI?. These questions are vital to analyzing the outcome of campaigns.

 Also, try testing different offers at various times of the day, days of the week, or target different segments of customers to find which works best for your brand. 

4. Right timing is bliss

Everybody knows that ‘Time is Money’, with SMS Marketing, you can achieve this. To maximize the effectiveness of your SMS campaign, it's essential to select the optimal time to send it to your customers. 

If you want a prompt and positive reaction from customers, then make sure to leave them enough time during the day to prepare their minds.

Never share promotional messages at unusual times, such as late at night, early in the morning, or when consumers are commuting to and from their office, as they will most likely ignore them due to other priorities.

5. Keep it short and concise

Text Messages with plain and precise information generally seek more attention than those with complicated and lengthy details. So, for the most economical campaign, the focus should be on choosing simple, direct, and concise words.

As a single SMS message consists of 160 characters, clear promotional messages play a crucial role in driving traffic and racking up sales. 

6. Set up a sense of urgency 

For immediate action on your SMS campaign, share time-sensitive rewards or discounts to the audience that are overwhelming for them to buy. Consumers with FOMO will never miss something of their interest and will act accordingly.

To seek the attention of the customers, include time-sensitive phrases such as "limited period offer", "only one day left", "offer expires tomorrow".

For Example: “Buy it before it's gone. Last day for 20% off on shoes. Offer expires at 8 pm.”

7. Personalized SMS for a better experience

As we know, relevant information and audience attention are two key factors in a successful SMS campaign. A personalized SMS marketing campaign approach can improve conversion rate and build better relationships as it offers the most relevant information to the customer.

SMS personalization is one of the most engaging techniques in marketing, and it helps marketers to stand out from the crowd with exclusive, hyper-personalized messages. 

For Example: “Hello Riya, looking for the party wear Sarees, we have a new Saree collection for you. Use the ”SAREENOW” to get 20% off, Shop now.

8. Enhance your omnichannel marketing

Contemporary audiences are omnichannel. It means that they sail between channels when interacting with an eCommerce brand, and now many eCommerce marketers have started responding to that behavior. 

The main aim of an omnichannel strategy is to associate with several channels,s such as push, email, and social campaigns and bring them together to create a unified experience for the audience and lead to a higher retention rate.

For example, plenty of times, audiences abandon their shopping cart while checking the products; however, integrating SMS campaigns into your omnichannel strategy can amend the issue by sending a reminder text to the audience, such as ‘complete your purchase.’ This text is sent automatically to the customer when your website or app notices a customer hasn’t completed their purchase.

9. SMS Friendly tone

To ensure better trust among customers, it is important to use a friendly tone along with a personalized approach. Use everyday vocabulary, simple sentences, action verbs, and a personal style. 

Adding emojis can make customer interaction more casual and informal. Kick out jargon and hype marketing for a familiar tone in the message. 

Share birthday or anniversary greeting messages with special discounts to make them feel you care. Such marketing strategies can be used to deliver delightful and memorable experiences to your customers via text.

For Example: Hi Vibha, excited about your birthday???? Here we have a birthday coupon for you to boost your excitement. Use “BIRTHDAY” at the checkout.” 

10. Improve the efficiency of your campaign

Modern marketers have more access to customer data with the help of database marketing. Such marketing involves collecting accurate customer data like names, age, location, phone numbers, emails, addresses, transaction histories, etc.

To be the best in the market, you should improve your marketing efficiency by focusing on keeping the database updated as customers' phone numbers get changed and deleted all the time, so you must frequently check to make sure you're sending your messages to the right targeted people, not to the audience who are unlikely to respond.

Final Thoughts

In today’s time, SMS marketing is a great strategy to enhance your customer relationships and uplift your sales. As 50% of US consumers make direct purchases after they’re sent a personalized SMS text, thereby incorporating SMS marketing into your overall marketing mix can be one of the most favorable choices for your eCommerce business.

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