2. Have a clear and consistent message and voice

The language and style of your texts is an important part of your overall SMS campaign. This should fall in line with the already established voice and style of your brand. Small adjustments can be made for texts, such as incorporating:

• abbreviations
• a casual tone
• personal messages

Along with this, it’s important to explain clearly what your company is, what will be included in the SMS campaign, and how to opt out. Letting your customers know what kinds of texts they will be receiving is as important as writing the content itself.

3. Create a clear Call To Action

Do you want your customers to do anything with the information you give them? Implementing a relevant CTA can drive engagement and is a great way to track consumer interactions (i.e. respond YES to confirm appointment time).

4. Get Permission

One of the main elements of SMS marketing is that it’s permission-based. Make sure you are updated on privacy laws and get permission before sending an onslaught of advertisements. You can ask for permission in a number of ways.

Permission is usually obtained through a

• previous purchase
• contest entry
• opt in keyword or short-code.

Be clear what you are asking permission for and what agreeing entails. A good way to get permission is targeting existing customers.

• If you’re a clothing store that offers online purchasing, ask your customers if they’d like to receive texts from you after checkout with coupons and offers.

Be sure to provide an “opt out” option once you begin sending messages (“Reply STOP to stop receiving texts.”) Avoid privacy violations by providing your recipients with a way to “unsubscribe.” 

5. Don’t OVERtext or UNDERtext

Stay relevant but don’t make your customers opt out. Studies show that consumers don’t like receiving more than three texts a month from businesses.

The best way to do this is to keep track of your messages and choose carefully which messages are most important for you to get to your customers. Do they need five reminders about the online sale you’re having? Or, can you get by sending a text the day before to remind them? 

If you want to get the most out of your SMS marketing campaign, don’t waste all your texts on something they’re probably going to see on Instagram. Give your customers what they want! Make opting into your text messages worth their while. 

6. Pay Attention to Time and Day

Notice when consumers are more likely to respond to messages. There are more appropriate times than others to text your customers. Don’t make them opt out by sending 6am texts that wake them up.

Keep in mind location as well. Chances are, you’re reaching customers in different time zones. Don’t make simple mistakes like sending out a lunchtime offer to people who’s lunch break ended hours ago.

If you’d like a more extensive guide on effective texting times, check out our article on best times to send a text to get some specific insight on optimal texting times.

7. Be Accessible

Make yourself accessible through adverts, offers, and language (relevant and sensible texting lingo).

In addition to the voice already established for your integrated marketing campaign, texting calls for a certain more casual style. 

8. Make It Easy to Respond

Provide short and simple responses: “Reply YES to receive coupon code.” Further, make offer-redemption simple and doable within messages.

Sending consumers to a second or third party will cause them to become less interested and more likely to abandon it altogether.

9. Segment Your Target Audience

Just like any marketing campaign, make sure each consumer is only receiving messages relevant to them individually.

First, determine who you want to reach through your sms campaign. Is it more than one group of people that will require individualized approaches? If so, separate into relevant groups by demographics, psychographics, and geography.

By segmenting your audience, you won’t accidentally send a message to 8,000 when only 3,000 needed to receive it. Doing this will drive down engagement and cause your consumers to opt out of receiving messages from your brand.

Take advantage of tags.

• When you choose CanaryText for your mass texting needs, you get access to unlimited tags. Tags are like groups of contacts that can personalize for any and every group you like. You can choose to send a message to a single tag, multiple tags at once, or a few people within a tag.
• Tags allow for unlimited choices on who to send messages to. They also provide a way to organize and segment your market. Creating tags breaks up your customers into more manageable and specific target audiences.

10. Use message templates.

CanaryText also provides the option to create and save message templates. This allows for a quicker process when reaching a large audience.

• For example, you can reuse a template like this: “Hi {name}, we’re offering a coupon for 15% off until midnight! Reply ’15’ to claim yours.” Using a template like this, CanaryText will automatically fill in the name of everyone you send your message to.