Text message marketing is a good way of reaching out to leads and customers. The predominance of mobile phones ensures this is the best way of communicating with customers. It is non-intrusive making it a good marketing strategy to employ. If you are a beginner in business text messaging and using this strategy for the first time, then our article will be very helpful for you.
We present 4 tips that will help you start off using text messages for your marketing activities.
1. Know your limits
Text messages are not like e-mails. There is a limit on the number of letters you can type in the message. 160 characters are the limit for text messages. This includes letters, numbers, weblinks, and everything else. This is why text messaging is also called short message service (SMS). Whatever you need to say should be done in 160 characters. If you exceed the limit, your message will be broken up into two messages and sent, breaking the flow. So plan your message properly so you deliver the perfect message within the given limits.
2. Know the laws
Privacy laws ensure that you cannot send messages to those who have registered not to receive SMS marketing. Even someone who has accepted to receive messages should be allowed to opt-out at any time. When you send messages regularly to leads and customers, the laws mandate that you must provide an option for the recipient to stop receiving the messages.
eg: Send STOP to 1234 to unsubscribe
3. Use keywords
Keywords are words that can be used by your potential customers and customers to respond to your message. You would send a message with information, offers, contests, etc. The idea behind sending the message is to start an interaction with customers. Your message must motivate them to reply. When they reply, you should not expect them to send a detailed message. They may not do it.
This is why keywords would be effective. You can ask the customer to send a keyword to indicate their response. The keyword can be sent to your number.
For eg: JOIN to start receiving messages on offers. CODE to receive an SMS discount code. YES to receive information on products.
4. Use Text messaging products
The larger your database the more difficult it is to send messages to customers. The best solution is to use a text messaging product like software. The software would allow you to manage text messages to your customers. The software would allow you to send messages to hundreds of customers in one click. This is a convenient way of reaching out to customers.
If you want to run a marketing campaign to reach out to customers, a software tool will help you manage it easily. You can even send MMS images and videos. You can use text messages to conduct surveys of customers. This software would be very helpful to marketers.
The tips in this article will help you start with text messages for marketing.