4 Tips for Personalized SMS Campaigns

Personalized SMS campaigns can help your marketing efforts stand out from the crowd. Texting is the quickest, most direct and – importantly – the most welcome type of contact your customers can receive. It is highly effective for connecting with loyal, engaged consumers, which is why it's such a good platform for personalizing your message, either to an individual or a small group of individuals with common interests.

Bear in mind, smartphones are now virtual extensions of people. This is especially true among the all-important youth demographic; the mobile phone is almost guaranteed to be within the boundaries of an individual's personal space, 24/7.

Adding targeted, personalized mobile SMS marketing to your arsenal will ultimately make your entire mobile text marketing campaign more effective. So how do you create personalized mobile SMS marketing strategies that work? Adopt these four maxims and you won't go wrong:

1. Judge it right
As such a personal form of communication, brands have to be careful about using mobile SMS marketing in a way that is annoying or overbearing. You want to send only information that's appropriate, relevant and timely (unlike the infamous 3am text sent by Barack Obama's 2008 election team to announce his vice-presidential pick). Respect time zones and plan your mobile text marketing campaign to be a ripple across the oceans rather than a blast that hits the world all at once.

2. Accuracy breeds responsiveness
There's no point coming up with a personalized special offer if you get the customers name wrong. Make sure you provide enough fields on the signup form for people to leave their full names and their nickname or abbreviation. Getting small details right – like an unusual spelling of a common name – is the kind of thing that will set you apart from brands that make the same old mistakes. Never assume, always double check, and offer consumers an easy way to update your records if their details change.

3. Spend time building preference profiles
From the outset, you should dive off the proverbial deep end when it comes to finding out personal preferences. Collecting interests can be done in several ways, including: Keyword-based opt-in Surveys Leveraging existing data Surveys should include questions that may not seem immediately relevant. Favourite sports teams or bands, for example, may one day become useful if you have a promotional tie-in with a local baseball team or concert promoter. Having these details on file could pay dividends, so play the long game when it comes to mining your customers for information. Also, be sure to divide your lists into various criteria, like area, zip code and age.

4. Chuck them a freebie
Free content is one of the surest ways to get a response. If you have a video that relates to customers in a specific area (and is relevant to your brand) then send it along with a special offer. One of the benefits of mobile SMS marketing is you can include links to rich content which smartphone owners can view while stuck on a train or otherwise in need of a useful distraction. You might just make someone's day.

How do you personalize your SMS campaigns? Drop a comment below!