Read or delete? Respond or ignore?

We’re all used to making snap decisions about our text messages, but if you’re the sender rather than the recipient, how do you make sure that your customers respond positively to your mobile marketing campaigns?
And how can you make sure that you convert your business text messages into sales?

Here are seven great tips to make sure your text campaign hits all the right buttons…

1. Customise your message to fit your audience

Targeted advertising is useless unless you know what kind of target you want to hit. So to make sure your message is reaching the right people, do a little bit of groundwork first and decide what demographic you’re aiming your campaign towards.

That information can be data-mined from previous customer subscription forms (age, occupation, location, demographic group, etc). Once you have some clear parameters you can then tailor your message to have maximum appeal to your target audience.

2. What’s in it for the customer?

It may seem like stating the obvious, but your message is going to ‘intrude’ on their day so make sure it’s worth their while to open, read and respond to it.

Make the content engaging and the offer attractive and you’ll catch their attention.
Blatant self-promotion won’t work – there has to be something worthwhile for the customer to respond to.

3. Don’t forget the contact details

A marketing campaign is absolutely useless if the customer doesn’t know who is sending them this ‘once in a lifetime’ offer – so whatever you do, make absolutely sure that your contact details are on the message!
That includes phone numbers, website addresses, your brand and, of course, your company name.

4. What do you want them to do?

To paraphrase a saying – you can lead a customer to your campaign but you can’t make him or her bite – without an effective call to action.
Getting your customer to respond to your message is essential, and without a strong CTA a campaign is worthless.

So why not dangle a little carrot and make it worthwhile for your customers to respond by offering an incentive such as a special deal or a freebie? Make it absolutely clear what you want them to do, and give them a reason to do it!

5. Make sure your message gets out there

Creating a text marketing campaign is a great way to promote your business, but can your customers actually receive your message in the first place?

Before you hit send, make sure your message can be accepted by different types of mobile devices, otherwise you could be wasting both time and money, and miss out on reaching a percentage of your customers too.

6. Keep it professional

Like any marketing campaign, an SMS text message has to be punchy, professional and to the point. And because of the restrictive nature of mobile devices, that message has to be even more succinct.

So think it through carefully. Sometimes shorter messages can actually be more difficult to write effectively, so if in doubt talk to a professional copywriter or advertising expert to make sure your message stays ‘on-message’ and is easy to read.

7. Track and trace

Once your message is out there, the work has only just begun! To make sure it’s effective, you need to track your responses. By measuring your results you can adapt and improve future campaigns to make them more effective.