For businesses, a text message campaign is one of the easier campaigns to set up and follow. The basis for launching a text campaign is to get a short message across to a large amount of people in a small amount of time. A text campaign should elicit a response from customers to either respond or take action.
A Neustar survey found that people received 1,216 emails per month compared to 178 texts. This means a text campaign may be found to be less burdensome. A Frost & Sullivan study also found that since texts go directly to the user’s phone, message open rates are lot higher than for email. A text campaign sometimes requires little or no design work, just a few words.
If you think your company could benefit from a text campaign, read up on these few tips to get started.
Establish a platform.
There are a multitude of platforms that provide the ability to send any number of text campaigns. A few options for a text campaign platform are Simple Texting, Simply Cast, or Slick Text. These platforms offer pricing options for the number of texts you think you might send, or the level of intricacy you think your text campaign might need. The intricacy of a text campaign can include sending pictures, providing a keyword or automating when specific people will receive a specific message, such as an appointment confirmation or birthday wish.
Build a contact list.
Your first step to creating a successful text campaign is to establish a contact list. Much like building your contact list for email marketing, you want to build a contact list based off of consenting customers, or customers who have provided their number knowing it will be used for text campaigns and alerts about the company. The easiest way to gain consenting customers is to train customer service representatives and any employees with customer contact to speak about signing up for text campaigns. If you are using an online signup sheet for customers to provide their information, make sure you have a box they can either check or uncheck regarding their information being used for campaigns. This should go for both email and text campaigns.
The more consenting customers you have, the more effective your campaign will be. Those who do not wish to receive text alerts about specials and new services may grow more annoyed so be sure to include an unsubscribe feature in any campaign.
Determine what purpose you want your text campaign to serve.
A text campaign is typically built around an offer you are presenting to current and potential customers. Determine how you want your customers to respond to the message. Do you want to elicit an action from them and what might that action be? Do they need to respond to your text to receive the benefits? Take these questions into consideration when determining what message best suits your company and your customers. Examples of potential text campaigns are appointment reminders, text-to-collect, text-for-info, text-to-vote, polls, or text-to-win.
Find your voice.
Much like any other communication you send out, your company has a particular voice it uses. Find how your brand’s voice translates into a text. The challenge a text campaign may pose is that you are limited in characters. A text campaign should include nothing more than a specific offer that can be fully understood in that same message. The further someone has to go to receive any form of information the less likely they are to make the effort. Once you get going, you can test how certain messages work compared to others. Follow our tips for A/B market testing for information on how you can determine what works best for your customers.
A Neustar survey found that people received 1,216 emails per month compared to 178 texts. This means a text campaign may be found to be less burdensome. A Frost & Sullivan study also found that since texts go directly to the user’s phone, message open rates are lot higher than for email. A text campaign sometimes requires little or no design work, just a few words.
If you think your company could benefit from a text campaign, read up on these few tips to get started.
Establish a platform.
There are a multitude of platforms that provide the ability to send any number of text campaigns. A few options for a text campaign platform are Simple Texting, Simply Cast, or Slick Text. These platforms offer pricing options for the number of texts you think you might send, or the level of intricacy you think your text campaign might need. The intricacy of a text campaign can include sending pictures, providing a keyword or automating when specific people will receive a specific message, such as an appointment confirmation or birthday wish.
Build a contact list.
Your first step to creating a successful text campaign is to establish a contact list. Much like building your contact list for email marketing, you want to build a contact list based off of consenting customers, or customers who have provided their number knowing it will be used for text campaigns and alerts about the company. The easiest way to gain consenting customers is to train customer service representatives and any employees with customer contact to speak about signing up for text campaigns. If you are using an online signup sheet for customers to provide their information, make sure you have a box they can either check or uncheck regarding their information being used for campaigns. This should go for both email and text campaigns.
The more consenting customers you have, the more effective your campaign will be. Those who do not wish to receive text alerts about specials and new services may grow more annoyed so be sure to include an unsubscribe feature in any campaign.
Determine what purpose you want your text campaign to serve.
A text campaign is typically built around an offer you are presenting to current and potential customers. Determine how you want your customers to respond to the message. Do you want to elicit an action from them and what might that action be? Do they need to respond to your text to receive the benefits? Take these questions into consideration when determining what message best suits your company and your customers. Examples of potential text campaigns are appointment reminders, text-to-collect, text-for-info, text-to-vote, polls, or text-to-win.
Find your voice.
Much like any other communication you send out, your company has a particular voice it uses. Find how your brand’s voice translates into a text. The challenge a text campaign may pose is that you are limited in characters. A text campaign should include nothing more than a specific offer that can be fully understood in that same message. The further someone has to go to receive any form of information the less likely they are to make the effort. Once you get going, you can test how certain messages work compared to others. Follow our tips for A/B market testing for information on how you can determine what works best for your customers.
