SMS marketing is one of the best ways for your small business to reach a massive mobile audience.
However, constant engagement on a mobile level can sometimes irritate your customers in the long run.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways to increase your SMS marketing outreach without annoying your mobile subscribers.
Be Consistent, Not Pesky
Consistency is always a good thing in terms of marketing, but it’s important to also know where to draw the line with your outreach endeavors. When sending marketing texts to potential and current customers, pay attention to open rates.
If your texts aren’t being opened, increasing the number of texts you are sending won’t change anything.
Consistency goes hand-in-hand with quality, so make sure your marketing texts are worth opening.
Once you hone your texts and ensure the content is engaging and informative, only then should you increase your outreach efforts. Sending a couple marketing texts a week is about average for most small businesses.
Again, keep an eye on the open rates, adjust your consistency accordingly, and steer clear of being pesky.
Keep Messages Short
Depending on the type of SMS texting service you choose, you’re messages will likely be limited to 160 characters. However, that doesn’t mean you should use all of the characters available within each text.
The article “Thought Leader Series: How to Get More Engagement and Less Complaints with Text Messaging” mentions the importance of providing customers with targeted messages.
If your initial message is longwinded; the chances that your audience will follow through is greatly reduced.
To make the most out of your text marketing, make sure you say as much as possible in the least amount of words as possible.
Covering the basics, such as mentioning the dates of an upcoming sale, is all your customers need to be on-board.
Offer an Opt-Out
Allowing your customers to easily opt-out of your SMS campaigns is as equally important as getting them to opt-in. A large number of recipients sometimes only join a text campaign to take advantage of a single deal or promotion.
When customers like these aren’t able to opt-out, it can become an extremely irritating experience.
To keep even one-time customers happy, don’t make anyone jump through hoops just to opt-out of your mobile campaigns.
Instead make your opt-outs quick and easy to find within your texts.
Remember to Segment
One of the quickest ways to get your customers complaining about your SMS campaigns is by sending the wrong marketing texts to the wrong customers. Even if your small business only offers one or two products or services, it’s still important to segment your customers before sending them any texts.
By breaking up your customers based on their likes, needs, and prior purchases, you’ll have more success with each new SMS campaign you send.
You can still send general texts about storewide sales, but try to be more specific with your texting when it comes to the specific products and services your small business offers.
Don’t let your SMS marketing texts result in customer complaints; instead follow the pointers mentioned above.
About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including SMS marketing and customer satisfaction.