No doubt you’ve noticed as a society, we spend a lot of time on our devices. Hopefully you’re already making sure your emails and websites are responsive (aka look as good, if not better on phones than they do on computers) and utilising social media in your marketing mix.
But are you texting your customers?
You should be.
Here’s why it works (and how you can do it).
SMS Has The Highest Open Rate
Like with most statistics, the open rates for text vary depending on which source you click on but no matter what you Google or which link you click, every page agrees that text messages get noticed.
And the impact is instant. You will usually see the most engagement and results within just a couple of hours of sending the text message. We don’t tend to leave them sitting as long as we do emails or other forms of notifications. In fact, more than half of people who engage with your text messages will open them within the first few minutes.
How To Do SMS Marketing Well
- Make it personal. Really personal. Genuinely personal. Use their name. Use their purchasing history, habits or other demographics. Which are you more likely to act on?
A generic:
We are having a sale this weekend 30% off visit our website
Or
Hi Jane, you must be nearly halfway through your bottle of your Our Brand face moisturiser. Black Friday is a great way to stock up and save, your exclusive code for an extra 5% off our discounted price is ABC. Click here:
See what we mean? - Send it to segments, not your whole database, no matter how personalised it is. The American Marketing Association estimates that sending targeted messages to smaller groups is up to 24x more effective than blasting your whole database. It makes sense. Not only is the messaging different, but you’d probably send texts at different times to target the 30-something mum of three who loves your products than you would to get through to the 20-something at a totally different stage of their life.
- You absolutely must have a call to action. Preferably a clickable link (use a URL shortener if you run out of characters), not just “visit this website” or “come into our store”. There are other creative ways you can do this too, such as “reply YES” if they want more information. It just depends on both your goals for your sms campaign and your texting platform’s functionality and what works best for your staffing levels and workflow.
Text messaging works best when it’s part of an integrated marketing and communication strategy and the software you use is key. Don’t send your emails from one platform, texts from another and then keep your customer data somewhere else all together. Consider a platform that can do it all (automatically too) like Klaviyo so you’re able to see accurate, usable data about your marketing results and return on investment and effectively track your customer’s journey to build longer lasting relationships with them.
There’s still time to get your Black Friday promotional strategy sorted – and upgrade or optimise your software – before the sales season starts but you need to get started now.
The Rest of The Strategy
Of course text won’t always be the best way to get your message across. The right email marketing schedule and effective marketing automations are going to help you get the best results from both your texts and your overall marketing efforts.
Our Gift To You: Free Cyber Weekend Strategy Session
A complimentary 20 minute Cyber Strategy Session with the Greenfish Marketing Team will get you ready to make more money during this years’ sales. Schedule your call now and we’ll also include two of our most popular resources that help you know what, when and how to send your marketing messages that will get you results.
