There is an ongoing debate over the effectiveness of SMS marketing in promotional campaigns. While many view this tool as an outdated system with overly intrusive structure, it is still a great tool for marketing. The number of total tweets that went online every minute of the day last year was on an average 456,000. But when compared to the number of text messages sent in a minute per day the number seems measly enough with average text messages sent around the world every minute was –15.2 million.
And the number mentioned does not even include app to app messaging. While there are quite a few constraints on marketers in terms of what can be sent to their customers or contacts for promotional purposes, but they do not limit the huge potentialities of this simple marketing tool. And it will be worth their effort, if done right. The engagement rates of bulk SMS marketing are higher than cold calls, less annoying and have the open rates of more than 90 percent and that too within 5 minutes of the receiver receiving the text.
Another advantage of using bulk SMS services is the fact that most people these days use smartphones, so an engaging SMS message can be a great way to direct traffic and attract more visitors to your website.
Here are a few tips on how to optimize your bulk SMS messages to boost conversion:
Target your audience right:
The best way to do so is by segmenting the audience, so that only targeted people who may be interested in your business will get the texts. The easiest way to target and operate SMS campaigns, is to integrate ones CRM with their SMS sending dashboards; that way you can target your audience based on location, demographics, purchase history, events etc.
Use triggered messages:
This is a finer system of targeting customers based on their actions on the site. For example, if someone has just made a purchase on your site like a new smartphone, send them a text about a great deal on a related product like a back cover, tempered glass or a pop-socket. Such triggered texts are very effective as they have an immediacy attached with them and are a great way to remain fresh in their minds after they have made some kind of action on your site.
Keep the message short and crisp:
SMS messages are bound by the limit of 160 characters and if you go beyond that then the number of messages you are sending will be multiplied. This means double credits for each message. Not only can this be an expensive affair when sending it out to thousands of people in a database, it can also reduce the impact and efficiency of your message. Avoid sounding too spammy and long, state things clearly and keep things short because you’re paying for every extra bit of space.
Add a call to action:
As discussed earlier, most people these days are using smartphones so it is to just click on a link and be redirected to a URL to gather more information, fill-up a form or if you are offering a special discount or sale then take to shop directly. Short and crisp SMS messages with a strong call-to-action will reap huge benefits for most businesses regardless of the industry one is operating at.
In conclusion, every time our phone beeps with an SMS we usually get up and move to check it out, more so than when we receive email messages or any other forms of communication. Thus, make it worth the effort of the readers so that both the sender and the receiver can get something out of this simple communication.
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