SMS marketing strategy is an often-overlooked sales and marketing technique. SMS marketing is very similar to email marketing, but SMS marketing is done via text messaging. However, both SMS marketing and email marketing require consent from the customer to be sent emails and texts.
It may just be that SMS marketing is a bit more effective than email marketing because most people are more likely to constantly check their text messages rather than frequently checking their email inbox.
As you can see, SMS marketing provides great opportunities of reaching out to customers. But, how can sales be generated from SMS marketing? Keep reading to find out!
How to Pique Interest
Building a customer base is probably the most challenging part of an SMS marketing strategy. Acquiring new customers may be difficult because they have to opt in to the text messaging system by typing in a short code. In other words, once you have managed to introduce your business to a potential customer, it is up to them to contact you; it’s typically not the other way around.
It is a good thing for customers to have the opportunity to reach out to you first, but you have to get them interested in contacting you. Market your SMS messaging service on your website by letting customers know that they’ll be eligible to receive special deals and promotions by opting in to the text messaging system.
How to Generate Sales
Generating sales from SMS marketing means that you have to be aware of the best practices of SMS marketing.
1. Express Permission
One of the best practices is ensuring that you have express permission from leads and customers before texting them, as previously mentioned. Not only it is illegal to text without express permission, but it can be annoying and frustrating for people to be auto-subscribed to text lists that they have no interest in being a part of.
2. Don’t Oversend Texts
It’s also a best practice to not send too many texts out within a certain period of time. Leads and customers will appreciate the convenience of receiving alerts via text, but sending too many to customers is unprofessional and annoying. If people feel bombarded by the number of texts you send out at a given time, they may choose to opt out of the text messaging service altogether.
3. Don’t Send “Empty” Texts
If you choose to do SMS marketing, be sure that the texts you’re sending are valuable to the customer. Refrain from sending meaningless texts just to get your customers’ attention. Send texts that offer deals, or at least notify customers of upcoming sales. Offering coupon codes and discounts through text messaging will be a sure way to get customers to purchase something from your business. In addition, consider offering special gifts or discounts for birthdays. Customers will appreciate the kind sentiment.
You also want to keep your reply short and to the point. People do not wish to read long messages. Make your hook or promotion worth their while and make them believe you will follow through.
Use a mass texting service to automate this process and make it easier to send hundreds of texts at a time. Doing this will certainly generate more sales for your business.
After the Initial Contact
You may be able to use Google Analytics to help track and analyze metrics for your SMS marketing campaign.
Follow the progress by monitoring the contacts you send messages to. What has sold and at what day of the week did it sell? What promotions went well and which didn’t? Use these questions to help analyze your metrics. Keep coming up with new ways to get customers to stick with you. If people find fault with your product, make changes or at least look into what changes will help garner more customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
As you have read, SMS marketing may be a very fruitful marketing strategy for your business. Develop a strong strategy before sending out texts to customers. Be aware of your audience demographic. Use best practices for SMS marketing to ensure that the campaign will be successful. Remember to always get express permission from leads and customers. Properly schedule the texts and make sure that you use the texts to send valuable information to customers. Doing all of these things should generate more sales for your business.
Amy Sloane is an alum of Oregon State University where she studied marketing and business. She spends her free time writing and is a knitting enthusiast. Amy loves reading, cooking, and spending time with her dog, Molly. Follow her on Twitter to read her latest blogs! @AmySloane2
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