Ideal Business Consultants

Alastair Shortland of Txtlocal.co.uk gives his top 10 tips on giving your mobile marketing campaign a better chance of achieving your objectives.

1. Call to actionEnsure the reason for the text is clear. You want the recipient to act on your text, so tell them what they need to do to benefit from the information they have received.
2. TimePick the time you decide to text your customers carefully. If you want to generate an action or response, make sure you leave your customers enough time during the day to do so. You can use a scheduler, so you can prepare your messages in advance and send them when you want.
3. Keep it shortA single SMS message consists of 160 characters. For the most cost-effective campaign you need to choose your words carefully. Get to the point straight away. The key benefit or reward should be immediately clear to the recipient.
4. Avoid repetitionManage your database properly and avoid texting the same mobile marketing messages to the same people continually. Keep your communication fresh and engaging.
5. Cleanse your databaseSending messages to old numbers is costly. To save time and money, regularly check and delete numbers that can’t be reached. ‘Three strikes and you’re out’ is a good principle to use.
6. Track your progressMeasure how effective your mobile marketing campaign has been so you can improve your results next time. How many responses did you get? What was your return on investment? Try texting different offers, at various times of the day, days of the week, or target different groups of customers, to find which works best for you.
7. Grow you’re audience with the opt-in ruleUse an SMS keyword (eg Text FISH to 60777 to receive the latest news and offers from Jim’s Fish Shop) to grow an opt-in list of customers that choose to receive your SMS alerts. Print this everywhere and you will easily grow an opt-in list of followers. SMS marketing can be intrusive if sent to somebody who hasn’t given their permission. Protect your reputation by ensuring all recipients have allowed you to communicate with them.
8. Respect the opt-out mechanismInclude a simple opt-out option regularly in your texts. Always ensure you make it clear to your customers that they can stop receiving messages from you at any time.
9. Target your textsMake sure the recipient is going to be interested in what you’re offering. There would be no logic in texting a man a two-for-one offer on nail varnish, for example.
10. Personalise your textsUse mail merge and insert names, appointment times or other details into your messages for that extra special message. You can also brand your text by setting the Sender Name on the SMS message as your company name for maximum impact

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