A surprising number of small businesses aren’t using the SMS marketing channel to its full potential. Many business owners and marketers are content to send promotional message after promotional message. While mobile coupons and deals are an effective use for the SMS channel and should remain an integral part of any mobile marketing strategy, there are so many other ways to use SMS.
One of the major benefits of SMS marketing is that it’s a way for businesses to get customers to engage with their brand and where there’s engagement there’s a loyal customer base who will continue to purchase and even stay in touch. When every text is an attempt to get customers to buy, they lose interest fast. You should aim to have at least 50% of your text messages be non-promotional. Here are five ways you can be using SMS to drive engagement instead of pushing for sales.
When a customer opts in to receive your text messages, you get their phone number. But you can use the SMS channel to collect further information. For instance, via text you can ask for birthday, anniversary, or any other personal information that you can use to make more personalized offers for that customer down the road.
Missed appointments are a major cause of lost profits for many businesses. Printed mailers are often thrown out by accident or put on the fridge but forgotten. You can use SMS to send reminders that customers can then put in their phone’s calendar with the tap of a finger.
Short surveys (longer ones will only annoy customers) will not only get you precious feedback which you can use to offer a better customer service experience but it will also show your customers that you care about them.
Texting is a convenient way for customers to enter sweepstakes or other contests. This is also a great way to get more phone numbers in your database since you can make opting-in a condition to enter the contest.
Letting your customers know about new items in stock or other company related news makes them feel special and in-the-know. That feeling of exclusivity will make your customers want to opt-in for text messages and will promote further engagement.
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