How to Optimize Your Texts for Success

What Is Text Optimization?

Text optimization is a term you’ll hear most often in the online marketing space; it’s the process of creating search-friendly web content that offers value, is unique, answers frequently asked questions, and so on.

But it can also be applied to SMS message marketing. Optimizing a marketing text message should involve content unique to the brand, engaging readers, offering value, and incentivizing customers to take action.

What Are the Benefits of Text Optimization?

Nothing in life is free, and the same goes for SMS marketing. But with the right text optimization strategies in place, you can earn a hefty return on your investment.

Like text optimization for web content, optimizing SMS advertising messages can significantly impact your business’s success. From converting people into first-time buyers and increasing sales to nurturing brand loyalty, there are many benefits to optimizing your text messages — and all of these can lead to a better SMS ROI.

What Are the Best Practices for Text Optimization?

The best practices for text optimization for SMS message marketing include choosing the right tone and style, using clear and concise language, writing in an active voice, choosing solid verbs, and being engaging.

Let’s dive into more detail.

Choose the Right Tone and Style for Your Text

First tip in SMS marketing 101? Know your audience. This is crucial in the early stages of your business when you’re learning how to position your brand and then in every part of marketing campaigns after that.

Understanding your customers will help you determine the right tone and style for your marketing SMS messages. For example, for a primarily older audience, you won’t want to include Gen Z jargon or even emojis, as this can be distracting or confusing for a customer in that demographic. Instead, keep the tone of your messages more polished.

But wait — what if your brand has customers who fit different personas? We have an answer for this common situation: customer segmentation. Text marketing platforms, like EZ Texting, have features that allow businesses to group customers by preferences, location, demographics, and more to create more targeted messages that have the right style and tone.

To truly connect with customers, you need to create a seamless experience across all touchpoints, including text messages. If your brand messaging is lighthearted and playful, your SMS advertising messages should be. Ensure you’re not completely changing the tone of voice for each customer segment but tweaking the language to fit the demographic and stay consistent with your brand.

Use Clear and Concise Language

SMS texts typically have a limit of 160 characters, so every word counts! While you want to be engaging, it’s important to keep the message short and sweet. Customers shouldn’t have to spend time deciphering your message or wondering why you sent it. Make sure that marketing texts get to the point quickly and succinctly.

Learn more about the differences between SMS vs. MMS.

Write in Active Voice

Writing in an active voice is a good practice in many situations, especially in SMS marketing texts.

You might wonder, “How do I write in an active voice?” You write in an active voice by emphasizing the subject taking the action, thus, the act itself rather than the target of the action. In other words, you’re ensuring the action is presented up-front.

Take these marketing SMS examples:

• Passive voice: “Barry’s Bikes here! The new colors of our tricycles will be loved by your kids. Every tricycle purchase will get 10% off.”
• Active voice: “Barry’s Bikes here! Your kids will love the new colors of our tricycles. Enjoy 10% off every tricycle purchase.”

Notice how the second option places the subject and action first, uses fewer words to get the point across, and sounds more authoritative. These are all benefits of using active voice.

Another part of text optimization in marketing is motivating customers to take action. After all, you don’t want to go into the trouble of sending bulk text messages if your contacts don’t do anything about them. Include a call to action (CTA) in every message.

A CTA doesn’t have to encourage people to purchase a product; it can ask them to text to donate to a fundraiser, sign up for an event, check out a real estate listing, etc. It all depends on the goal of your text campaign. And remember: Write your CTA in an active voice.

Choose Strong Verbs

Have you ever stopped to consider the verbs you use in your texts? Before you send any SMS campaign, proofread your text messages — not only for typos but also for verb choice. The stronger the verbs, the more descriptive and engaging your messages will be.

You’re probably thinking, “How do I use strong verbs?” You use strong verbs by evaluating the verbs currently in your text and replacing them, if needed, with better ones. If writer’s block has got you down, use online thesauruses to help you.

Here’s an example:

“[Sporty] Hey, Clara! Interested in joining your local adult soccer league? Get 20% off your registration with code SPORT20 [link]” could be revised to “[Sporty] Hey, Clara! Smitten with soccer? Join your local adult league this season! Score 20% off your registration with code SPORT20 [link].”

Simply changing the copy a bit to incorporate more descriptive and topic-specific verbs can engage the customer and boost the quality of your messages.

Be Engaging

Customers probably won’t read your SMS advertising messages if they don’t feel engaged. One way to get their attention immediately is by using their name or other details relevant to them or their purchase habits.

Personalized texts are the keys to customers’ hearts.

How To Measure the Success of Your Text Optimization Efforts

Measuring the performance of marketing SMS messages can be more complex, especially when each text marketing campaign's goals differ (do you want to boost sales, garner attention for an upcoming local event, or request donations to a nonprofit? But one strategy that every business should use is A/B testing.

For any text campaign, you can test different messages to see which one has the highest performance. As with any experiment, make sure that your test groups are consistent. This means testing different sets of messages on customers in the same segments. Try only to change one variable at a time when conducting A/B testing (like the CTA, tone of voice, and so on).

Then, schedule both sets of messages to be sent simultaneously to different contacts in that group. Take the time to analyze the following from each group:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• How many people took the intended action (like purchasing a promoted product, signing up for an event, etc.)

Use this data to determine the most successful message and apply your learnings to future marketing campaign ideas.

Stay Up to Date on Text Optimization Trends

Now that you know the best practices for text optimization, it's time to put them into practice! But remember to stay on top of new optimization trends and helpful features to ensure your messages are meeting the mark.

That’s where EZ Texting can help. We’re your one-stop shop for all things SMS marketing. We offer easy-to-use features and up-to-date information on new trends and best practices in the industry, from generative AI for SMS marketing to how to use text video messages to your business’s advantage. Start your free trial today.