Reaping the Best of SMS Campaigns — Do’s & Don’ts

Yes, however much you talk about SMS campaigns, you can never get enough of it! SMS campaigns do play such a significant role in marketing that you cannot talk about it once and keep it aside.

We at ShoutOUT Labs also run a lot of SMS campaigns and by analyzing them we discovered the key factors which really make the whole campaign successful. And as always, we thought, “why not share our secrets with you too?”😁

So, here you go!

😊Do’s😊

1.) Less Formal — More Intimate 😊

Always address your customers by their name, and they won’t delete your SMS without even reading it! Promoting a special product with a discount as a present on their birthday can make them happy too! 🎂

2.) Personalize 😊

Everyone loves to see what they love to see, not what others love to see. And your customers being human beings just like you and me (in case you’d forgotten), the same goes for them too😉

Use analyzed customer behaviour data to get an idea about their preferences and personalize the content to suit those preferences👌

3.) Be Relevant 😊

So I was browsing for dog 🐶 beds on a shopping site for several days (NO! Did I forget to mention I’ve got a handsome Rottweiler?), and yesterday I got a promotional SMS from that site about discounted cat beds! I was like “meh, don’t care!” 😝 Totally irrelevant. You got the point, right? Bingo! 💯

4.) Short is Sweet! 😊

SMS is for Short Message Service. When SMS themselves claim that they are short, why hurt their feelings by unnecessarily lengthening them? 💔 Yes love, keep it short. SMS is accessible without an internet connection and people have the option in their mobiles to read an SMS on the lock screen even without having to unlock their phone and opening the SMS. So, the shorter the SMS is, the more chances they are going to read it 💗

😥Don’ts😥

1.) Wrong Timing 😥

There isn’t any point in having the best content if you are going to send it at the wrong time ⚠

Make sure you don’t run an SMS campaign in the middle of the night to wake up an angry customer who would only call you the first thing in the morning to yell at you for bothering him (the total opposite of what you’d want).

I neither recommend the daytime because most people are engaged with various tasks and are busy, and your SMS will easily get ignored.

The results will be better if it is in the morning when most people have made it rather a habit to check their SMS, emails etc.👍 However, since the time can vary depending on the individual, the best thing is to analyze previous campaign open rates and decide the time with the most open rate.

2.) Misusing Your Customer’s Generosity 😥

Customers share their personal mobile numbers with you knowing very well that you are going to send them SMS. But, at the same time, they share it trusting that you to are not going to “annoy” them by sending five SMS campaigns every single day. You can even lose customers by going beyond the limit the customers allow you.

The best thing is to inform them of the number of SMS you will be sending them or ask them the amount they would be fine with, when you request their mobile number👏

3.) Using SMS for the Sake of Using Them 😥

Nooooooo, running SMS campaigns because it is “the trend” is not going to do. SMS campaigns are not there to remind your customers that you exist.

Make every SMS campaign beneficial — have a goal. Use SMS to notify (dispatch of goods), alert (ending of promotional periods), remind (awaiting payments), promote (discounts) etc. SMS is a fast, reliable and direct communication method compared to other modes when it comes to marketing. Why not reap the best of it!💥

✔✔Bonus Tip 💡Combine SMS and Email marketing campaigns 😎

Two is always better than one when both reinforce each other’s effect. That is the very reason why you have to combine SMS and Email.

Next campaign onward, try sending an SMS campaign along with your email campaign where the SMS content will be a brief summary of the email content with the link to the email. I bet you will experience the highest conversion rate ever! 🔝 (You can also choose to send SMS campaigns as a reminder to selected customers who have not opened your email campaign.)

SMS campaigns are a great tool to us marketers, if used right. Despite the advancement of other tools, SMS still hold a prominent place in marketing due its unique characteristics of being simple, fast, reliable, and direct. So, follow the above tips, and get the maximum benefit of SMS marketing. Good luck!💐