In today’s fast-moving world, text messages are not just used to communicate with each other on a personal level. Smartphones prove to be of greater use than just interaction between two people, as they were initially invented for. One of these uses is text message promotions by small to medium-sized businesses.
To run a successful business, not only do new clients need to be brought in but also retained so that they come back frequently. An effective way to do this is through text message promotions. Constant interaction with customers will remind them of the business and increase the chances of being retained.
As with everything, there are dos and don’t of sending an effective text message promotion. Firstly, it must be sent at a relevant time. Customers don’t want to be annoyed with too many irrelevant texts that they don’t want to receive. Secondly, it is a good idea to customize the texts e.g. adding the name of the customer the text is being sent to. In today’s world, this is not difficult to do at all. Thirdly, of course, the business name should be included so that customers recall the brand name, but they will only do so if the offer displayed in the text is enticing. It needs to catch the attention of users in such a way that they redeem the offer and want to receive further text messages from the business. Moreover, an urgent call to action such as ‘Don’t miss your chance to avail of this once in a lifetime limited offer!’ can drive customers to get the offer as soon as possible. Hence, wordings of the text matter a lot. Lastly, people do not want to read long and monotonous texts so it is best to keep the message short and to the point, which isn’t a problem because business text messages have a 160 character word limit. If they wish to add more details, they can add a link in the text which interested customers can open for details.
The don’ts of sending texts include sending it an irrelevant time. Users will not appreciate receiving texts late at night as it is considered unprofessional and they are likely to perceive them as spam. It is best not to add slang language and abbreviations as formality is the key to portraying a good image. Furthermore, spelling errors leave a very bad impression on the user. Hence, a business must make sure to proofread all text message promotions that they send out and make sure irrelevant details are not included. Lastly, offers should not be available daily as customers will get laid back. If they know an offer will end soon, they will avail it at the earliest.
Statistics are in favor of text message promotions over other mobile marketing tactics MarketingProfs.com claims that 60% of users remain offline, and SMS does not require Wi-Fi network. 51% of these users are likely to respond to business SMS. Open rates are as high as 57% in just the first 15 minutes, with a 98% open rate overall.