These days almost everyone and their grandparents own or at least have access to a mobile phone. SMS marketing is becoming an invaluable way for businesses to reach out to all demographics and promote their products as well as their brand.
There are many aspects to consider when creating a successful and enticing SMS marketing campaign. You must take into account the audience you are sending to, as well as the limited amount of characters you have to work with for each message. Here are some steps you can take on the way to creating the perfect SMS campaign.
Decide on a brand… and stick with it
Branding creates recognition, which in turn inspires customer loyalty. Think about it. You subscribe to a company's SMS notifications and you receive nothing from them for the first couple of weeks. Then, suddenly you receive a text message weeks later from a company you have entirely forgotten about, whose branding is inconsistent from what it was when you signed up. This doesn't help any with your recollection. Chances are you will immediately reply STOP to unsubscribe from these messages.
On the other hand, a company whose brand is so deeply entrenched into their identity allows their customers to easily remember and associate with it a certain standard of quality. Consistency in your branding and communication tells your customers you are trustworthy and reliable. Ensure that your SMS campaigns reflect this consistency and you will find that this will help with your long-term customer retention strategy.
Reward customer loyalty
It is important to show your appreciation to subscribers of your SMS messages in order to provide them with the incentive to remain loyal subscribers and purchasers of your products. Reward these subscribers with monthly coupons or deals that are exclusive to them.
As well as showing appreciation to long-time customers, you also want to gain more subscribers to your SMS campaigns. Do this by enticing them with a signup gift such as a sizable discount on their next purchase from your company or another special offer. Exclusivity is always a great way to attract (and retain) subscribers to your SMS marketing campaign. After all, who doesn't like feeling special?
Take advantage of all other communication channels offered to you
If you think about it, what better way to promote your company and its products than by making sure that all your marketing efforts across your multiple channels are being seen by as many people as possible? You need to (in a sense) market your marketing by promoting what you're doing on all your various channels of communication.
Gain more signups for your SMS campaigns by adding a link to your email newsletters or tell your followers on social media about the deals they can get in on if they sign up to receive text messages from you. Cross-promotion is a worthwhile way to make the most of all your various strategies, and a platform that allows you to centralize your marketing in one place will help you easily manage every piece of your marketing puzzle.
Send regular updates
Customers like to know what to expect from companies. This is also the case with communication and marketing messages. Consistent and routine messaging gives your subscribers something to look forward to at a regular interval, rather than being bombarded by SMS messages from you every day for a week and then hearing nothing from you the next.
Automating your SMS campaigns can help you regulate your interactions with your subscribers without you having to constantly remember when you sent the last message and when you need to send the next. With automation, you can create all your messages you want to be sent out to your subscribers weeks, or even months, in advance and have them sent automatically at a regularly scheduled time or within a certain window of time so that they appear organic.
Do it all with the help of marketing automation
Marketing automation can go a long way to helping you create and execute your perfect SMS campaign. With a platform such as the one SimplyCast provides, you can control and manage all of your marketing in one centralized location and schedule your campaigns to deploy automatically whenever you need.
Check out our SMS marketing solution for more information on how you can use automation to create a successful SMS marketing campaign and don't forget to sign up for a free 14-day trial of the SimplyCast 360 platform!
