If there is anything people hates most, it is infiltrating their privacy without their consent. This is why most consumers detest being disturbed by adverts on sites when they are trying to read an article.
That is even less frowned upon, email tends to get more backlash.
Even though customers may sign up to receive emails from certain businesses, it is estimated that about 95 percent of emails received are spam. This is because most marketers misuse this opportunity and send emails to people even when they did not subscribe.
The reason all of these are being discussed is to let you know that, it is very important to get customers' consent before you start sending them text messaging. This will make you different from spammers and also save you from any federal law prohibiting such.
Here are some tips to successfully use text marketing to make more sales;
Always Increase Your Subscriber List
The larger your prospect’s population, the higher your probability of getting more leads. Get as many as possible people to subscribe to your list. Identify your targeted audience and classify them as customers and prospects.
Offer customers incentives for subscribing to your text messaging list maybe through a shortcode or contact form on your site. For prospects, offer them a discount on purchase. You can even create a referral plan that encourages them to share your business with friends. With this, you have a long list of prospects with the potential of becoming your customer.
Create A Prior Contact
This is just like in the case of getting prospects to subscribe to your list. But quite different this time around. Before you start texting a prospect especially if you do not have them on your list, make a sales call as an introduction. After this, send them a follow-up text message. This will not make the text intrusive. Also, desist from too frequent follow-up messages.
Time Is Important
Make sure the time your message will get delivered to customers is within business hours. This is very important even when the customer you are texting is on your list. The reason is logical, assuming you were in their shoes, after a long day at work you saw your phone vibrate ― message notification. You picked it up to see it is a text marketing message. Even if the customer does not get upset at you, the likelihood of reading through or taking the requested action will be reduced.
Leverage MMS
Pictures captivate people more than texts do. Consider the use of MMS (Multimedia Message Service) against SMS (Short Message Service) if possible, to attach pictures to your text. This picture may be used, for instance, as a description of your product.
Messaging Frequency
Another factor to consider to avoid pissing people off is how often you text them. If you text them too often, they might unsubscribe from your list and when you text them less, there is a chance your competitors did when you are not and now have them.
To determine how often to best text your customers, consider when and how often they are likely to make a purchase. If you deal in Christmas tree, texting customers mid-year is both a waste of time and budget. You should instead send them like a note of how great last Christmas was in a time interval of say three months. When Christmas is approaching, you can then reduce the time frame to about once in a month.
Choose A Reliable Provider
Your choice of provider may determine if your text marketing will be easy, effective or fail. When choosing a provider, check the tools they have in place and how it will influence your goal. Some of the important things to consider while choosing a provider are;
Coverage capacity
Budget-friendly
Performance tracking tools available
Ability to deliver based on customers’ time zones
Delivery assurance
Some Text Marketing Success Story to Inspire You
To prove the effectiveness of text marketing in improving your sales, here are some verifiable success story;
Donkin Donuts was able to increase traffic to its e-commerce site by more than 21 percent through SMS.
Automobile company, BMW used MMS to send product images, and videos in addition to text messages to increase its conversion rate for its snow tire offers by more than 30 percent.
Roy’s restaurant was able to achieve about 800 percent ROI (Return on Investment) by including in their campaign phone numbers customers can click to call or text.
The above are some of the numerous stories you can check online that proves the power of text marketing in generating more sales.
The best way to use text marketing to make more sales is dependent on your business type and budget. However, always personalize your text marketing messages to connect with customers beyond just another text from a company.
