In today’s technology driven world, smartphones are something that stays with us each day of our life. Also, with an ever-rising competition between businesses, maintaining effective communication channels is always a challenge. However, there is one such method that is used on a large scale by businesses known for its effectiveness. Bulk SMS marketing has the ability to grab the attention of a large section of audience.
It is a popular marketing technique which involves updating a large group of recipients through a short and crisp message on their phones.
But, that’s not enough. The execution of the Bulk SMS marketing is something that holds immense importance. The way it is executed determines the overall success of the sms marketing campaigns.
Utilising the full potential of bulk sms marketing involves following some essential guidelines that will be discussed in this article.
Why do we need SMS Marketing Campaigns?
Understanding the guidelines for SMS marketing campaigns is very relevant. SMS marketing can help in enhancing brand awareness and increase business revenue.
The following points give an overview about the need of SMS marketing for your business.
1. Promotional content becomes reachable
SMS marketing makes the conveying of promotional content easy to a prospective consumer. From discounts to information about events it can cover all kinds of marketing content.
2. Short and crisp
It has the potential to catch the attention of the consumers at a glance due to its short and to the point content. With its limited character feature the users don’t require to read lengthy texts.
3. Direction to links
Many times the SMS contains links that can direct a user to the website or any other online pages of the business. This makes it an easy method to ensure your brand awareness among the people and increase your website viewership.
4. Greater perceiving rates
It is an amazing fact that the messages sent through SMS have a high opening rate. The SMS is usually opened by people at large making it a good communication channel.
5. Customisations
The SMS messages can even be customised quite effectively to make the text personalised with the consumer. Communicating to the recipient with their name or any historical experience in the text catches better attention.
The Do’s
Now, to make your text message campaign an ultimate success you must adhere to some of the must do’s while opting for this particular marketing strategy:
1. Obtain consent
One of the most crucial things that build a strong base for SMS marketing is obtaining consent of the audience. The obtaining of such consent could be done through an explicit project. One can subscribe to any website of the business or any site that is a kind of consent for sending these messages.
Individuals who willingly agree for receiving the messages regarding any updates improves the quality of your marketing and efforts.
2. Segment your audience
The relevancy of your messages play a huge role in connecting with the viewers in real time. This evokes the need of segmenting the people effectively into small groups based on features like demographics or personal preferences. This helps to achieve an increased user engagement making the sms marketing even more fruitful.
3. Personalise messages
Communicating with the users through messages with their names on the top is a smart move. Such personalization of texts creates valuable connections and makes it a rational approach. Hence, customising the messages to catch the eyes of the user at the first glance is something that must be executed.
4. Clear Call to action (CTA)
The scope of your SMS should never be restricted to textual content. Adding direction to the users to your additional online platforms like websites or a code to receive any offer must be added. So, a well added CTA ( Call to action) directs the users the action to take rather than just reading the content of the message.
5. Provide value
Merely sending texts through SMS on a regular basis that doesn’t add any value from a user mindset in any way is wasteful. To keep the viewer engagement intact for the long term, sending texts like early discounts or tips can be valuable.
6. Monitor and analyse
To work on any kind of discrepancies on making improvements in your SMS marketing campaigns monitoring and analysing performance is crucial. Keeping a track of elements like open rates or conversion rates is a must to get an overview of the performance on a regular basis.
7. Opt-out mechanism
Opt-out mechanism means the access to any view to unsubscribe to your SMS channel anytime. It’s not only a legal compliances to follow but also something important to maintain a positive image in front of an audience. However, if a good quality SMS campaign is maintained then the opt-out rates can be very minimal.
The Don’ts
1. Don’t spam
One of the major causes for opt out rates in sms marketing are due to excessive messages being sent to the recipient. Spamming the user’s phone can make their experience quite annoying and even give rise to legal issues. In the end, spamming can cost degradation in your overall business image as well.
2. Avoid overloading
Rationally sending messages with a proper pre-set timeline is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Overloading a number of texts in a short period doesn’t leave a good expression of the users again leading to high opt-out rates. So, rather than annoying customers at odd times their timings must be respected and messages should be delivered accordingly.
3. Avoid generic messages
Understand that the same messages can’t fit for all. Sending messages with a hint of personalisation based on name or past experience can be extremely beneficial in maintaining engagement. Increasing overall relevance and value addition can be the key to success.
4. Avoid deceptive tactics
One should never opt for deceptive tactics through SMS texts as this can lead to hampering trust among the recipients. Tricking the people to open the texts that at the end don’t stand with the hype leads to distrust and destroys credibility of your business.
5. Don’t ignore feedback
Ensuring two-way communication is always a good method in marketing. So, obtaining the user feedback and responding to queries promptly should be encouraged. This helps in maintaining an affirmative brand reputation in today’s competitive market.
6. Avoid sending late at night or too early
Sending texts at odd timings like late at night or very early in the morning don’t make sense. This can easily irritate your subscribers leading to heavy unsubscriptions. Therefore, sending texts at a favourable time as per consumer view is advisable.
7. Don’t forget to proofread
Before sending bulk SMS the grammatical errors must be rectified beforehand. Such a clumsiness can make your brand appear unprofessional. Hence, avoid such mistakes and always proofread the textual content to rectify all the language or grammar related errors in advance.
Conclusion
I hope that after going through this article it can be concluded that the effectiveness of sms marketing campaigns highly depends on its quality of execution. By following the previous stated do’s and don’ts you can improve the overall customer relations and reap the maximum benefits out of such a great marketing technique.
