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4 Tips For Contacting Customers By SMS

Photo: Sascha Kohlmann Under Creative Commons License
Photo:
Sascha Kohlmann Under Creative Commons License

With a high engagement rate, low cost and the ability to contact your customers anywhere and anytime, SMS messaging between businesses and consumers has grown exponentially in recent years. But with only 160 characters to use to get your message across, it’s important to make sure you are doing it right.

1. Make Sure You Have Their Permission to Message them Via SMS

Opt in matters, especially when it comes to something as personal as contacting somebody on their mobile. Buying lists is a bad idea and usually ineffective for email marketing, let alone mobile. Best practice is to give consumers a choice to either receive mobile or email messages or both from you when you capture their details and never assume that just because they have given you their number as part of completing a transaction that they have also given permission to add it to your messaging database.

2. Use A Good Mobile Client

Whether you’re looking to increase your market share, remind someone of their upcoming appointment or use mobile as an interactive, two way platform to have conversations with your customers, you need the right tools and applications for it to really work for you. Look at signing up to a dedicated SMS client like SMSGlobal so you can access affordable, easy-to-use and professional applications to make your text communications a success.

3. Make It Time Sensitive

Text messages are delivered instantly, so why not use that to your advantage, particularly for your marketing? Don’t just send out an SMS saying that you have a sale on at the moment – make sure you include a real call to action like “Come In to Store For 25% off all stock for two days only”. Unless you’re sending to a really segmented section of your database, about two days lead time is a good way to measure the campaign while still giving your customers enough time to consider and act on the offer before it expires.

4. Stay Professional And On Brand

You may only have 160 characters to work with, but remember you are representing your business. Even though it may seem like a more casual medium, your customers are still identifying with you when they read your text messages. Spell all words out properly and avoid ‘text’ abbreviations like’gr8′. Fact and spell checking is still just as important in text as it is in any other written business correspondence.

When done well, SMS messaging can be a powerful and effective way to communicate and connect with your clients and customers to enhance your brand and build loyalty with them. Just make sure you have permission to contact them via mobile and you are sending strategic, well worded texts with a clear call to action.

 

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