5 Essential Elements of Successful Text Message Marketing
1. Data – Start With Your Database
The database that you have forms the foundation of a successful text message campaign.
The first thing you must do is to check that you have a permission from your customers to contact them via SMS. Australia has strict Spam laws, but they actually work in your favor: by abiding with the spam laws you ultimately create better campaigns that build trust with your customers.
To be spam compliant, the three key steps you should follow are:
Permission: The recipient must be aware that they opted-in to receive commercial messages from your company
Identity: By law you must always identify yourself by company either in the Sender ID or within the SMS itself. We recommend including your website in all your commercial SMS messages.
Unsubscribe: Give them the ability to unsubscribe. The SMS Messenger platform does this for you automatically and you can leave the link at the end of the message as it is.
The first thing you must do is to check that you have a permission from your customers to contact them via SMS. Australia has strict Spam laws, but they actually work in your favor: by abiding with the spam laws you ultimately create better campaigns that build trust with your customers.
To be spam compliant, the three key steps you should follow are:
Permission: The recipient must be aware that they opted-in to receive commercial messages from your company
Identity: By law you must always identify yourself by company either in the Sender ID or within the SMS itself. We recommend including your website in all your commercial SMS messages.
Unsubscribe: Give them the ability to unsubscribe. The SMS Messenger platform does this for you automatically and you can leave the link at the end of the message as it is.
2. Identity – Use Your Business Name as the Sender
Proper identity is not only important, but also a legal requirement.* With SMS Messenger you can have your business name displayed as the sender of the message. This makes your communication look and feel professional.
Please remember that if you are using your company name as the sender, recipients cannot reply to your messages.
*Australian legislation requires you to always identify yourself by company either in the Sender ID or within the SMS itself. We also recommend including your website in all your commercial SMS messages.
Please remember that if you are using your company name as the sender, recipients cannot reply to your messages.
*Australian legislation requires you to always identify yourself by company either in the Sender ID or within the SMS itself. We also recommend including your website in all your commercial SMS messages.
3. Message – Create a Genuine Value Offering
Your customers need to feel that they are getting something that others aren't when you approach them with an SMS. Your value offering needs to be compelling and it needs to be well timed. As a rule of thumb, ask yourself if you were interested in receiving and taking action on the SMS yourself?
If the answer is yes, you are very likely to enjoy a great response rate. If the answer is no, you might wish to reconsider the value offering in the message.
Good SMS content can come in the form of freebies, discounts, mobile coupons, reminders, links to free applications, competition entries, mobile video, alerts etc. Just sending out a vague sale alert tends to come across as spam and will most likely result in an optout.
If the answer is yes, you are very likely to enjoy a great response rate. If the answer is no, you might wish to reconsider the value offering in the message.
Good SMS content can come in the form of freebies, discounts, mobile coupons, reminders, links to free applications, competition entries, mobile video, alerts etc. Just sending out a vague sale alert tends to come across as spam and will most likely result in an optout.
4. Call-To-Action – Give Your Customers The Next Step
Always engage your customer by adding a call-to-action. You can use SMS keywords to have people reply to the message or you can guide them to a mobile optimised site, ask them respond with a phone call etc. Use verbs like Go, See, Click, Reply and Call.
5. Measure – Aim to Measure Your Success
Having a specific call-to-action is essential, but it should also be measurable. With our SMS sending solution you can easily track the success of your delivery, such as how many people received your message and how many people opted-out. These statistics are a good guideline as to how successful your campaign is, but there are many additional measurement techniques that you could use.
If you have included a short URL in your SMS, you should always track how many clicks that link is generating. You can also use analytical tools, such as Google Analytics, for measuring the clicks on your landing page or on your mobile site. Naturally, one the best ways to measure your SMS campaign success is to measure its impact on sales, customer traffic or number of received calls or enquiries.
If you have included a short URL in your SMS, you should always track how many clicks that link is generating. You can also use analytical tools, such as Google Analytics, for measuring the clicks on your landing page or on your mobile site. Naturally, one the best ways to measure your SMS campaign success is to measure its impact on sales, customer traffic or number of received calls or enquiries.
