The Case for Access in SMS Marketing Campaigns

Why would you sign up for an SMS marketing campaign? This is a good question to ask yourself as you develop your own text marketing program.

Texts give you access to customers — and they get exclusive access to you.

Although many consumers are open to receiving texts from businesses, at the end of the day they expect to get something of value for giving a business their phone numbers. Texts remain a disruptive avenue for communication. This makes customers much more picky about which companies they sign up for text alerts. Therefore, every message you send must have a purpose that responds to the wants and needs of your customers.

SMS marketing campaigns offer many benefits to subscribers. They can get offers and deals, the latest updates on your business, and more. One of the most important features to provide as part of your service is access, as in exclusive access.

Exclusivity Equals More Subscribers

You have potential multiple touch points with customers. Many of them see your advertisements, follow you on social media, receive your emails and perhaps still get your mailings. Therefore, you need to give them a reason to sign up for one more. Even customers who only follow you on one channel still need some motivation to add another one.

The best way to do this is to provide some type of exclusive access. If you provide different deals to your texting subscribers than you do to your email subscribers, then you will have people that sign up on both channels. This gives you more access to your consumers — and more chances to motivate them to patronize your business again. Other ways to provide exclusive access include:

• Early access to sales
• Product announcements
• Special sales
• VIP seating
• Special chances to win items
• Free gifts
• Loyalty rewards
• Behind the scenes information
• Special tips and advice

Gain Intimate Access

People have a special relationship with their cell phones. Most people do not wish to have their phone further than arm’s length at all times through the day. They are also more hesitant to give out their cell phone number than their email or social media information. Therefore, it provides an avenue for more intimate access.

People carry their phones with them everywhere so that they do not miss out.

Your messages will be delivered right next to messages that are mostly from friends and family members, especially as fewer marketers take advantage of the service compared to email and social media. This fosters a closer relationship between you and your customers.

With regular messages to your subscribers, you have the opportunity to further engage with customers and build an even stronger relationship. They are already interested enough to hear about your company that they handed over their cell phone number. Then, they will continue to get messages from you, reinforcing their interest in your company. By receiving messages, they also feel as though they are in a special group of your customers. This continues to build your relationship until they have become loyal customers.

Reward Loyalty

It is common to set up some type of loyalty reward program to treat your regular customers. Rather than notifying these consumers through email or apps, try your SMS marketing program. A recent study found that 48 percent preferred texting as the means of communication, which was higher than email at 22 percent and apps at 20 percent. However, only a few marketers actually do this. The same study found that only 21 percent used texting for their loyalty program.

You do not want to miss out on a way to communicate with your most loyal customers. By sending messages in a way that they prefer, you continue to develop the relationship towards loyalty even more. This will increase your chances of conversions since you are sending messages to people who are already interested in your business in a way that they prefer. This deepens their positive feelings in association with your business, further enhancing their loyalty.

It is easy to set up your SMS marketing program to send out loyalty messages. You do not have to limit your access to other subscribers by doing so. Simply create multiple groups out of your subscriber list and send targeted messages based on people’s demographics, shopping patterns, loyalty status and other data.

The Importance of Quality Content

When you build a message for your customers, there are a few key components you need so that they continue to feel they are gaining exclusive access to your company. This includes:

• Unique content
• Rewards for loyalty
• Quality messages
• Targeted messages
• The right timing

Get your team together to build the best content possible.

When you build the content, not only do you want it to not replicate what you have sent out through other channels, but it also should not duplicate itself. Although you might have a few templates that you rotate for your messages, the actual content needs to be unique. You want to keep people seeing the value of remaining a subscriber so that you have the chance to continue to build your relationship.

Quality content also keeps people interested in remaining part of your program. This not only allows you to continue to provide them with exclusive access, but it also continues to provide you with access to engaged customers to drive business.

Contact us to learn more how to reach more customers with text marketing.

Categories: Text Message Marketing Tips