Interested in doing text message marketing? Great idea, since text message coupons are much more likely to be redeemed than traditional coupons. Text message marketing is also a great way of promoting your brand and sending convenient reminders to customers. SimplyCast is here to help you with creating a successful campaign. OK, so the steps may take a while, but they are an accurate roadmap of how to send a mass text message successfully to effectively reach you text message marketing subscribers.
It goes without saying that you will need a mass text message service to send your messages. When you are selecting a text message service, look for one that allows you to easily manage your lists of text campaign subscribers, one that provides merge support or other personalization options that allow you to better target your individual text subscribers, and one that has high mass text message deliverability so your campaigns get to where they're going.
1. First of all, you will need to gather a solid list of opt-in subscribers. Mass text message marketing is similar to other forms of marketing in that you need to obtain permission before you send any messages. You can gather text message subscribers by promoting your mass text message campaigns on your website, your social media pages, and through your email marketing campaigns. You could, for example, say in your email: "Sign up for our text message campaigns to receive exclusive coupons and updates." Many retail stores even include a text message promotion at the bottom of their receipts, allowing customers to enter a short code to be added to their mass text message campaign list.
2. Let mass text message subscribers know that they can opt out at any time and provide a simple way for them to do this in each text message you send. Most text message marketers use the opt-out phrase "STOP" to let people easily unsubscribe from their campaigns. Having a simple unsubscribe option allows people to opt out before you risk them becoming irritated with your messages.
3. Decide whether or not you wish to include a subject line for your mass text message. If so, it should draw the subscriber in but should also tell the subscriber what content is in the text message. You also need to remember to be brief. You only have 16 characters to work with! Your subject line will only appear to some text message subscribers.
4. Now craft the body of your text message. Within 140 characters, you need to include your important information and a prominent call to action. Many mass text message marketers include brief information within their text messages letting subscribers know where they can go to read more information. You can also put an online link, as many subscribers have internet access on their mobile devices.
5. You need to place a call to action in each of your mass text messages. The call to action instructs customers how to do what you want them to do. In general, text message calls to action ask customers to reply to the text message. Let's look at some examples of text message calls to action:
"Respond to this text with 123 to get your exclusive 50% off coupon."
"Text us back to book your appointment today!"
"Want a coupon to your favourite restaurant on our list? Reply to this text with A for Mama's Eatery, B for Sam's Pizzeria, or C for The French Fry."
Having your mass text message subscribers text back in response allows them to easily answer your call to action with a few keystrokes.
6. Separate your mass text message list into smaller, more personalized segmented lists based on their area/country, which messages they have opened or responded to and so on. Targeted lists improve subscriber engagement and response, so it's a great idea to send messages that appeal to your subscribers' individual preferences and interests.
7. Analyze your mass text message data! No text message marketing will continue to be effective unless you are consistently checking your data and seeing which types of messages get the highest open, response and unsubscribe rates and continuing to optimize your mass text message campaigns based on your results.
What to see the text messaging application in action? Sign up for a demo of SimplyCast's SMS Marketing solution by clicking the button below!
