There’s a seemingly endless supply of information out there to help you create exciting, effective text marketing campaigns, but everyone has their own ideas about how to make your messages great. Deviating from the beaten path isn’t always a bad thing, guides are after all just there to guide you, not provide strict instructions, but it’s always handy to know mistakes others have made in the past so you can avoid the same pitfalls.
1. Not getting permission
The first one is a BIG one. Sending messages to people who haven’t opted in is the easiest way to get people unsubscribing, making complaints or talking badly about your business. The worst offenders can find themselves faced with a hefty fine and their name splashed across the papers as a spammer. Make sure you get your opt-ins – use a short code and keyword, ask your customers to tick (not untick!) a box, and avoid buying third party data.
2. Sending at the wrong time
9.30pm isn’t normally the time that people are thinking about what they’re going to have for dinner, so sending a takeaway deal then probably won’t get the best response. Similarly, I don’t think there’s anything anyone could offer that would make me pleased to receive a message at 4am. Plan ahead, and if the only time you have free is 4am, schedule your messages to be sent at a more human hour to avoid irate customers.
3. Using txt spk
Oddly enough, whilst shortening all your words might help to squeeze more out of your character count, it doesn’t make your messages all that easy to read. Aside from the fact that not all your customers will know your acronyms, it really doesn’t look professional. You are not a thirteen year old girl. Do not text like one.
4. Sending the same message over, and over, and over again
Basically, it’s boring. If you’re going to keep your customers interested in what you’re sending, you’ll have to keep it varied. No-one is going to respond to a message or offer they’ve seen fifteen times already – if they’ve even stayed subscribed for that long.
5. Not personalising your messages
Your customer base is likely diverse, filled with people of all ages, genders, occupations, hobbies, purchasing habits – treat them all the same and you’re missing out on the opportunity to offer them something really relevant. Segment your contact groups based on criteria most relevant to you, and add in some merge fields so you can greet them with their name.
6. Not offering an opt-out.
If someone doesn’t want to receive your messages any more, you need to give them the opportunity to stop. Not only does this keep you compliant, but it stops your contacts getting annoyed and saves you wasting time and money contacting people who just aren’t interested.
If you want some more help to keep your mobile messaging effective and spam-free, download ‘Swimming Against the Spam’, a free guide from Textlocal.
This post was originally published on the Textlocal blog here.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: 6 Mistakes to Avoid in Your SMS Marketing
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