What are the best approaches to incorporating SMS into your marketing plan? This article offers a variety of free SMS marketing tips to help you get started in making text messaging a part of your marketing strategy.
Tip 1: Sign Up Yourself
Before you set up your campaign, sign up for SMS marketing from companies that have shown their tech savvy. You can learn an enormous amount from being on the receiving end. Take the time to consider frequency, content, added-content (such as images, audio, or multimedia), customer control, and use of special features like coupons, loyalty programs, surveys, etc. You’ll bring a lot of first-hand knowledge to your own SMS advertising campaign this way.
Tip 2: Fit Your SMS Marketing to Your Business
Each niche works to evolve practices that work for it. The customer who has already signed up with other clothing stores, restaurants, travel companies, hotels, healthcare providers, or drug stores, may have some built-in expectations from their contact with others in the industry, and you want to be aware of them.
On the other hand, even banner headlines on web pages have been around long enough that there are “rules” for the best way to take advantage of their possibilities, but in the younger field of text message marketing, the wisdom is still evolving. For this reason, your research prior to starting your SMS marketing campaign should not only include research on what your competition is doing, but brainstorming about what your unique product or service and practices can mean for your use of SMS messages. It also suggests that you may want to research beyond your marketing niche: someone in another field may have a great idea that hasn’t yet become common knowledge.
An important consideration will be whether you only want to send messages to customers or want to both send messages to and receive messages from customers. This will govern the type of content you design and the type (and scope) of plan that will best serve your needs.
Tip 3: Consider a range of uses of SMS
SMS marketing messages can include
- notices of sales, specials, and promotions
- coupons
- alerts for appointments, completed orders, etc.
- store locators
- contests
- surveys
- votes
- contests
- information
- sign-ups
Tip 4: Shop for Providers Who Meet Your Needs
Providers offer different programs and different capabilities for SMS marketers. Choosing the right provider can both save you money and ensure that you have the features you need to mount the campaign that’s most appropriate for your business.
Consider features. Providers may offer more or fewer image formats, such as BMP, GIF, and JPG. They may offer more or fewer types of audio file, such as MIDI, MP3, and WAV.
The type and quality of analytics available to track the results of your campaign is a key item. Having data without the proper means to analyze it prevents you from making the most of your efforts: every campaign should be a learning experience as well as a money-maker, and analytics are the key to this.
If your business is small or just starting, you may do better with a provider who has plans for individuals as well as businesses. This can allow you to start up with a reasonable amount of SMS messages per month, so you avoid paying for more than you actually need. The ability to work without a contract that ties you to particular parameters, and a range of plans to meet anticipated future needs are other things to look for in an SMS provider.
Some providers focus on a particular industry and have already designed solutions for niche markets, such as bar and restaurant owners, real estate offices, etc. If your needs mesh with the product(s) offered, you may want to go with a tailored solution.