Are you thinking about starting an SMS marketing campaign? Here are four things you must do prior to using SMS.
1. Do know your audience
Have you ever received a text message from a company looking to, say, sell you landscaping products? That'd be great…if you lived in a house and not a condo. Their message isn't relevant to you (unless you're a landlord), and the landscaping company just wasted money texting that notification. Make sure your organization's campaign is tailored only to those who have a high probability of acting on your message.
2. Do make the message concise
SMS messages aren't meant to be stories. They are meant to either quickly and efficiently pitch a product to the reader to an event or emergency in their immediate vicinity. In both cases, messages must be short, sweet and to the point. If the message is too long, the reader won't even read the first sentence. They'll opt out of the message, or, worse, opt out of the campaign all together.
3. Do have an end goal
What do you want to accomplish in your mobile text marketing campaign? Or, what kind of action do you hope your message triggers in your readers? These are all questions that should be answered prior to texting.
4. Do allow answering
Similar to having an end goal, allowing the reader to respond is vital to the success of your SMS campaign. Think about it like this: Imagine you're selling home improvement products, and you send out a text that notifies people to a new promotion. However, you don't tell them how to take advantage of the promotion either by visiting a website, the store or responding to short code. You've done a better job of wasting money than you did at engaging your audience. Always, and we mean always, allow readers to answer.
