The Do’s and Don'ts of SMS Marketing

Want to communicate with your customers quickly and efficiently? Then the best possible way to do is through SMS marketing. It is not only quick and less time consuming but also extremely cost effective. Also, with mobile phones being the part and parcel of our lives what better way to reach your target audience than through SMSes. In fact, there is currently around 6 billion mobile devices worldwide and SMSes can reach to around 3 billion people!

Still wondering why marketing through SMS might be great for your business? Then here are some pointers that might perk your interest levels:

• Close to 90% of SMS messages are read just within 3 minutes!
• Approximately 98% of SMSes are opened and read
• Data also states that marketing through SMS gets brands around 10 times more redemption rates for their coupons and offer codes.

Well, though SMS marketing is a great way to grow one’s business the trick actually lies in how these SMSes are communicated to the target audience. Effective communication takes some amount of effort and smart thinking after all. And with the right method and tools your business would grow in now time. Read on to know more.

The ‘Do’s’ for an effective SMS marketing:

Short and Simple

SMS messages must always be short. No one has the time to scroll through a long message. In fact, the industry standard for a marketing SMS is just 160 characters long. The message must be an attention grabber detail within the first few words and maybe you can add a bitly link to your product or service at the end of the message. Kirusa’s Konnect platform offers an easy to use ‘SMS Campaign’ platform that can be easily integrated with your business helping you send bulk messages just by a few clicks.

Leveraging the Power of Voice

Another way would be to use SMS voice messages to reach your customers. Outbound dialers from Konnect’s CPaaS portal enable brands to leverage voice messages and helps in delivering those programmatically to their audience. These voice communication campaigns offered by Kirusa’s Konnect platform can be launched seamlessly and brands are even provided with the freedom to optimise their marketing strategy according to the business needs.

Call-to-Action

This is by far one of the most important Do’s that a business must keep in mind while marketing through SMSes. Once a catch informative but crisp message is sent out it automatically perks up the interest levels of the customer(s). This is the best time to add a CTA button at the end of the message because an interested customer would most certainly wish to know more about your product and services.

Special Offers

Since SMS marketing is the most personalised mode of communication it is extremely important to provide them with some exclusive offers, access to VIP clubs and special discounts and even reward points alongside the information provided to them. These promotional SMSes helps business go a long way when they wish to make a good impression among their customer base. Once SMSes are sent out then next step would be for them to make sure that customers reach out to them either to gain more information or to provide them with feedback. This is where Konnect’s SnapCall service which is an inbound communication tool comes into play. SnapCall helps brands create inbound channels, in turn helping their customers reach out to them. With a wide array of applications like lead generation, on-demand information retrieval along with real time reporting and detailed analytics, SnapCall enables brands to quantify successful communication campaigns, and receive a greater ROI.

The ‘DON'TS’ for an effective SMS marketing:

Less is more - No Bombarding

As a famous saying goes "Customer is King" and thus it’s of utmost importance that you as a business unit must take every necessary step to keep your customer base happy. Sending multiple messages to clients in a short span of time would only annoy them and the chances of them putting your number under the DND list goes up. SMSes that are sent to clients deliver some value and benefit to those who opt to receive your SMSes. Another great way to ensure that your SMS is being opened and an action is being taken is by using the method of SMS Tagging. SMS Tagging is the process where a promotional message is sent alongside a transactional SMS. This promotional message is basically ‘tagged’ along with a transactional SMS thus ensuring that no new SMS is sent. You can opt for Konnect’s ‘SMS Tagging’ service here.

No Abbreviations Please

Yes, abbreviations are common in the short message mode of communication. But when this communication is meant for your business it must be business-like and hence using of abbreviations in SMS marketing is a strict no no! It is important to keep in mind that not everyone understands short forms and hence using abbreviation might confuse customers instead of providing them with the required information.

Wrong Timing

Timing is key when you are trying to reach out to your audience base and wish them to know about your product or service and even act on it. Sending SMSes early in the morning or late at night or during peak working hours would only harm your business reputation. Hence always keep in mind to send an SMS during lunch or just before dinner time to ensure that your SMS is being opened. Along with this it would be a great idea to use Konnect’s IVR voice service. This would basically encourage your audience to leave a voice message for support queries, feedback, sales assistance or product information, thus ensuring a closer relationship with your client base.

Conclusion

As you have gathered by now SMS Marketing is not an easy feat to achieve. But of done the right way you are sure to gain a loyal customer base in no time. We at Konnect aims at providing individuals and organizations the right product and services that would help them market their business in the best possible way in turn ensuring a greater return on investments.

Hi, I’m Amilia. I am a Digital marketing enthusiast, passionate about productivity.My three favourite things include marketing, psychology and design. Currently a marketer at Kirusa, Inc.