In this high competitive era, businesses use several tricks to reach at maximum people for promoting their brand. There are a number of techniques are being used in digital marketing to boost the sales but SMS campaign is one of the conventional but effective way to boost the sales. According to marketing experts, SMS marketing is still the most effective way to gain more traction in market.
According to a study, up to 98% of the text messages are opened where the average open rate of emails is 6% to 20%. In this context, texting is highly effective to reach larger audience.
If you seriously want to increase the sales, SMS marketing is the most effective way that you shouldn’t drop any chance to adopt. Currently, there are 57% of the smartphone users spend average five hours on more on their phones and SMS is the best way to reach this larger and potential audience base.
Here are the tips that you must follow for your SMS campaign to boost the sales.
Pro Tips To Make The SMS Campaign More Effective
You should flood the inbox of the recipients with promotional messages. Less is more effective so, follow these tips that will help you to boost the marketing campaigns.
- Use Opt-In Keywords
Before want to send SMS, you have to prepare a subscriber list and using keywords regarding your business is the simple way to grow the SMS list. An SMS keywords is a certain word or short sentence that the customers can text to a dedicated phone number. Just by doing so, they will be added to the subscriber list. You should insure that, they are opting-in when they text the keyword.
- Never Veil Your Brand
Recipients should know that who is sending SMS because most of the times, they decline or simply delete the promotional message that they receive if the sender identity is hidden. If they know the sender name or brand, it is more likely they would take ample action according to the message.
- Compose The Messages Short, Sweet And Sober
Since, the character limitation of the text message is 160, you should know how to compose the text effectively. Make sure that, the messages are short, sweet, and sober. You make your point straight without wasting a single character.
Use link shortener if you want to include URL in the text message. A full URL can take up more than 160 characters on its own but with URL shortener you can perfectly limit the URL with few characters. Apart from that, you should also keep an eye on the emojis along with special characters. Since, they don’t take more space on screen but decrease the available characters in the message. Text messages are coded with GSM-7 and so including emojis and special characters decrease the limit of the message.
- Personalization Of The Messages
Personalization of the messages is another way to make the SMS marketing effectively. According to a research, people react to such messages that address them directly. So, if possible include the reciever’s name in the messages so that, they can feel elated. You can use dedicated SMS marketing software to include name of the customers. Use a short code %firstname% to scrape the name of the customer from the list. This is the way, you can automate the personalization of the messages.
- Choose The Right Time To Send SMS
Timing is important when it comes to text messages. You choose such a timing slab that won’t disturb the people and therefore, choose the right time by which the customer can react to the message. Here are different time slabs for dissimilar industries.
- Retail: Between 10 am and 1 pm on Saturdays or 3 pm and 7 pm on Sundays. Offers sent out at the end of the month seem to perform best. This period corresponds with most paydays.
- Restaurants & Takeaways: Between 3 pm and 5 pm on any day of the week, but weekends are the most prominent time. When there is a significant event on TV you can boost your orders by sending a campaign out at around 7 pm.
- Services: When it comes to services, SMS messages are mainly sent as reminders. Best practices are to send the first message as soon as the appointment or meeting is scheduled. Then you send another one 24 hours before it takes place.
- General: Between 12 pm to 3 pm on both weekdays and weekends.
Since, these are the results based on research, as a business leader, you know your customer best and you can choose the best timing where your customer can get engaged.
- Let The Receivers Know About The Upcoming Offers
The objective of the SMS campaign is to educate the audience regarding the exclusive offers you have. If you have customers who opt in for text messages, it is good to reward them for being part of your SMS campaign. You can send exclusive offers through the text messages to narture the relationship.
- Use the code “CODE” at check out and get 20% off your purchase!
- Get a free item/gift when you show this text!
- Complete this survey via text and receive Rs100 off your next purchase!
By offering the exclusive discounts to the customer, you can create a bong and increase the loyalty of the customers towards the brand. Additionally, offering the exclusive offers means, you are going to boost the sales directly through the SMS campaign. This is because, you enticed them with discount and they will now bring their business right to you.
- Inform Them About The Upcoming Sales
Sending the message to the potential and opted clients can be the great way to notifying them regarding the sales, and promote a sense of urgency. Since, 98% of the text messages are being opened, you are bound the attract the attention of your customers and transform that lead to the sales.
- Ask Questions And Send Surveys
Attract the attention of the larger audience is the primary objective of the SMS campaign. Therefore, you should infuse tricks and techniques by which the audience get attraction. There is no better way of getting to know this than by asking them directly.
There are a number of things you can ask or survey your customers about. Don’t forget to follow up with the customers once you have the results. It keeps them involved and makes them more likely to take part again. If any receiver has signed up the SMS list that means he/she is interest to receive your promotional text. You need at least to send three messages to help the audience, to one that helps you.
- Educate The Audience Before Selling
Never implement hard-sell tactics for promoting the sales. This is because, sometimes, the hardselling tactics can backfire and it will ruin the image of the brand. By educating the audience regarding the brand and the exclusive offers, you can establish a healthy relationship. This relationship will help you in long run and the message recipient will be your potential customers who will contribute to boost the business in future as well.
Conclusion
When it comes SMS marketing, one thing is to keep in mind that, less is more. Compose your messages short, to the point and informative. In this way, you can get success out of your SMS campaign.
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