Today, almost every person on the planet has a phone or two in their pockets, and your business can take advantage of this fact to market its products and services. If you learn how to properly divide and conquer your target audience based on their preferences, it is possible to create an easy and effective marketing strategy with text messages without them being perceived as unwelcome, annoying, or spammy ads. In the following guide, we will share with you practical text messaging tactics you can use to improve how you market your business.
Ask Your Customers to Opt-In
Your small business cannot spread its word around if it is unable to reach its customers. Therefore, your first efforts should focus on building the follower list, which is easier to set up when you can take that information from other customer lists. For instance, if your marketing division already has email newsletters planned, you could ask them to add a petition to receive text messages if your customers also want to receive notifications through their phones.
You should always give plenty of options so that people can sign in and choose what they receive in their text messages. Personalized target marketing content will increase your chances of getting people’s attention and getting loyal customers looking for good deals such as discounts, promotions, and special offers. It’s also likely that you may have collected phone numbers already in your store for other purposes, so in that case, you can reach out to these customers and ask them if they want to receive text messages from your brand with special perks.
Support Customer Service
Consider setting up a phone line that customers can call or text to contact your customer service representatives so that they can get an answer to their inquiries and escalate their issues if needed. While each business will need to cater to the different needs of their clients throughout their shopping experience, you can use text messages for improving customer services. Some commonly used ideas are using SMS with order confirmations, asking clients if they want to schedule appointments through text, send tracking numbers, among other ways to create a two-way communication stream with your clients.
Engage Your Audience with Surveys and Incentives
It’s one thing to have a database with all your customer’s phone numbers, but you have to account for the time and effort needed to sift through the data and use it properly to boost your sales. Automation is a fundamental pillar when it comes to developing effective campaigns, and with the help of mobile marketing & SMS services, you can manage your contact lists and send a quick survey with just two or three questions to learn more about your customers’ preferences. Your business will know whether each phone number should receive special discounts, call-to-actions, or coupons with this information.
In that same line of thought, learning about your audience should be just as important as planning how to engage with them. Otherwise, how will your company know what is going to be the most effective tool to reach out to them and ensure engagement? If you already have a clear understanding of how your average customer looks like, take that reference and start diving into more detailed information that will yield better answers with your quick surveys.
Combine SMS with Other Messaging Tools
Since it’s likely that you also run an email list and social media sites, you should think about your text messaging tactics as a complementing tool rather than an isolated method to reach out to your customers. You may want to consider adding your business’ links alongside the text messages, and that way, you can also help increase your followers in other platforms if they haven’t engaged with them. While keeping every listing connected is always a good idea to keep track of your customers and learn more about their preferences, you should avoid falling into digital dark patterns at all costs and always have a straightforward way to opt-out from your newsletter and alarms. Customers will get understandably annoyed at your company if they’re unable to unsubscribe from your listing easily, and it will only affect your reputation negatively in the long term.
SMS marketing can be a powerful sales booster that prompts your customers to actively seek your products and services and allows you to obtain helpful data and insights. Remember that taking care of small details, like using your clients’ first names, can make all the difference when using text messages to engage your customers. Before jumping into purchasing contact lists from external companies, always remember that the client’s consent always comes first in any situation.
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