Top 6 Dos and Don’ts for SMS Application Use in Small Business Marketing

The SMS marketing rule book is clear and concise, and each message you send should be, too

SMS application use in small business marketing should never be underestimated. By using SMS to sell your brand, product or service, you’re reaching your target audience through one of the most effective marketing channels. As a small business owner, you should be getting knee deep in this sort of direct marketing as soon as possible.

It all starts when you get your potential customers’ phone numbers (and permission) and ends, hopefully, in a loyal customer who will repeat their purchases for years to come. While texting apps, social media platforms, and Facebook Messenger are all popular inclusions in marketing plans, nothing can compare to using an SMS application in your marketing strategy. SMS messages can promote your business in a way that many marketing efforts can’t. Marketing your business using SMS is vital to your success, so let’s get on with exactly how to do that.

Here are our 6 dos and don’ts of SMS for small business marketing.

Do have a clear, concise call to action

Before you even think about starting to craft your message, you need to decide on the action you would like someone to take once they have read your text. Is it about getting your customer’s email address to send them a brochure of all your latest and greatest offerings? Is it about boosting app purchases? Or is it about encouraging them to set foot in your brick and mortar store?

You need to decide on the purpose of your SMS campaign before you begin putting the words together.

And, since you have a limited amount of characters, you need to make sure that your call to action is clear and upfront. Within seconds after opening your text message, they should have a full understanding of what their next move should be.

Don’t take your time

As mentioned, you only have a limited number of characters available for you to get your message across in an SMS. That’s likely why people are willing to read them because they know it won’t take up much of their time. And that’s a good thing. So, don’t waffle on in your message.

As a marketing channel, SMS is not the time to express your poetic skills or write a long-winded essay about your business.

Instead, this is an opportunity to encourage a potential or existing customer to perform an action; remember this right from the start. You don’t want to bore the people you should be enticing with your product or service offerings.

People don’t have much time to read through lengthy direct marketing. That’s why SMS works. Make use of the limited time that people are willing to let you market to them. When it comes to small business marketing and SMS applications, you need to focus on the point of your message and get to it quickly.

Do be interesting

Sure, you need to be concise, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be boring. In fact, if your message is boring, you’re more than likely going to be ignored. Your recipients won’t even bother to remember what was in the text message in the first place. It’s important that you’re interesting and grab attention from the start. You can leave the dull legal information at the bottom of the SMS. Instead, start with a well-worded introduction and call to action. Give them the information they may not yet even know they want and then tell them what to do with that information.

Don’t send text messages without permission

Gone are the days when you can get away with sending marketing messages to people without their permission. This is a very good development in direct marketing because it means that only the people who want to hear from you, hear from you.

It’s a pretty simple concept: don’t force your way into people’s mobile phones.

Obtain people’s phone numbers using sign up forms, loyalty programmes, newsletters, and competitions.

Think about it for a minute… you don’t really want to be spending your small business marketing budget on reaching people who are in no way interested in your product or service. If this is the case, you’ll actually push away people who may recognize your store name and purposefully not walk through the doors of your premises because they feel as though you’ve violated their personal space by texting them without their permission.

Do time your SMS campaigns well

There’s no use sending out an SMS campaign about a sale a month before said sale begins, unless the sale is something truly spectacular. Once again, you need to think about the purpose of your text campaign. If it is to advertise an upcoming event, you need to give people enough time to make a plan to attend the event. If it’s for a product which is about to launch, start sending out SMS messages ahead of time to build some hype around your new offering. And if it’s a discount code that you’re sending out to your loyal customers, ensure that the SMS is sent out long before the discount code expires.

Don’t make it difficult to opt out

It’s a hard and fast rule that you must have an opt-out option in all your SMSes. But what you may not think of as a smart marketing tactic is to make it easy for people to opt out. If you have it in plain sight and make it easy to perform the action, your customers will thank you. They, in turn, will trust your business more. It proves that your marketing communication is there for their benefit and if they’re not benefitting from the information you’re giving them, they’re easily able to opt out.

SMS forms an important part of small business marketing. If you’ve enjoyed this piece, you should read our article on top SMS marketing tips and tactics

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, please give us a ‘clap’ or leave a comment with your thoughts. You can also follow our publication by tapping the follow button below 👇