When it comes to text message marketing, or SMS as it is commonly known, there are a few things you need to know in order to connect with your target audience. Many businesses miss the mark, and their text broadcasts aren’t as effective as they could be. This being the case, go over some of the common mistakes that you may be making with SMS targeting and how to reach your audience better through strategically planned text broadcasts.
1. Taking a Large-Volume Approach
Don’t get us wrong, the large volume approach to SMS alerts has its uses, especially when you’re first starting. Sending out offers and messages to as many people as possible can pull in revenue while you work on optimizing your sales funnel. However, as your campaign becomes more refined, you’ll notice several problems with this approach, such as turning off people who aren’t interested in certain offers and creating a lack of personalization that can seem faceless and corporate.
The solution to this issue is to use SMS services to segment your audience. SMS services provide you with a variety of tools, including the ability to separate your list of subscribers into smaller, more focused lists. This will create audiences that have specific wants and needs so you can send text broadcasts that get results. Not only does this strategy increase conversion, but it also increases engagement as well while presenting your company as peronsbl4e and in touch with the desires of your audience.
2. Timing is Crucial
When you send out your SMS alerts is just as important as who you’re sending them to. In fact, sending your messages at the wrong time will not only decrease engagement but can also cause your unsub rate to go up as well. For example, if you send messages late at night that annoy your subscribers, they may not want to be on your list anymore.
The best way to deal with this is to take note of when engaging with your messages is highest. This could be during happy hour if you run a bar and tend to message people with special offers, or it could be during the early morning if you’re targeting people who are on their way to work. In any case, you need to collect data on when engagement is the highest and focus your efforts during that time frame.
3. Know Who is On Your List and Why
Just like with email marketing lists, you need to understand why people join your SMS marketing list. This is because you want to meet their expectations and avoid disappointing them. Many businesses will ignore this and go crazy pitching offers and wonder why their campaigns fail. Instead, you need to understand exactly what your audience expects from your list and work to meet it.
For example, you may use a small discount in exchange for getting people to submit their numbers to join your list. This is a great strategy, but if you fail to give them similar offers down the road, they may get frustrated and unsub. Take a look at your offers that work, figure out why they’re so popular, and use them as a basis for making SMS offers in the future.
4. Scarcity and Instant Engagement
When it comes to SMS marketing, businesses oftentimes only think about how great it is to be able to reach a large audience and then optimize their campaigns through audience segmentation. Doing so, they overlook just how powerful the element of scarcity is when using SMS and end up leaving a lot of money on the table.
The reason scarcity, fear of missing out, and similar psychological tactics work so well with SMS alerts is that engagement is usually instantaneous. Since texting is such a major part of people’s lives these days, they will almost always check a new text. This means that scarcity can be used to get an immediate response from your audience and generate instant sales.
Unleashing the Power of Text Broadcasts for Your Business with SMS Services
SMS is very simple but it can be time-consuming if you’re trying to do it on your own. Instead, the smart thing to do is to use SMS services to give you all the tools you need to create winning campaigns with high ROIs. These services make it simple to segment your audience, do large-volume broadcasts, manage your subs, and grow your list. If you’re not using SMS services for your text message marketing campaigns, now is the time to look into them.