As a text marketing pioneer, EZ Texting has helped businesses and organizations send over 5 billion messages. Along the way, we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes for an effective business text message.
And now, you can benefit from our observations and expertise through our SMS Marketing Campaign messaging tips. Whether you are an EZ Texting customer or simply someone trying to learn the text marketing ropes, these 5 tips can help you craft successful SMS Marketing Campaign messages that truly reach and engage your audience.
Here are 5 messaging tips you can employ right now to boost your text campaigns:
#1
Keep It Short
Businesses and their customers agree — text marketing is incredibly convenient. Lean into that convenience by keeping your messages concise.
Messages between 20 and 30 words achieve the highest levels of engagement as these shorter messages are easier to read and act on. One of the many appeals of text message marketing is its incredible convenience. Ideally recipients want to be able to gather the gist of the message at a glance. As other marketing channels compete for the attention of audiences, remember that less is often more when it comes to earning that attention.
So, even though SMS messaging allows you to use up to 160 characters (this includes numbers, spaces, symbols, emojis, and punctuation) in one message, less is truly more. This is especially true for convenience messaging like appointment reminders and confirmation texts.
#2
Tell Them Who Is Messaging
Text message marketing is considered a more personal means of communication, and as such, it’s important to make it clear who is sending each message. You can easily do this by simply adding your business name to the company name field or at the beginning of your text.
Think about it like this, if your phone or doorbell rings, but you are not able to see who is on the other end of that ring, how would you feel about that communication? Very likely, you may feel interrupted, at the very least, and the same holds true for texts. Not only do contacts appreciate knowing who is sending them text messages, the habit could increase your click-through rates on messages by as much as 35%.
#3
Incorporate a Call to Action
To get the most out of your messages you need to make them actionable. A call to action, also known as a CTA, is a directive that encourages readers to take a specific, desired action. CTAs vary depending on business type or purpose, but some general examples include: Learn More, Sign Up, Subscribe, and Try For Free. If you are a retailer you may find CTAs like, “Buy Now, Order Now, and Shop Now,” to be go-to directives. “Donate, See the Impact, or Volunteer,” are common CTAs for nonprofits.
Once you’ve included a CTA, it’s important to make the next step as easy as possible for your customers. The best way to do this is by including a coupon, trackable link, or poll in your messaging, so that whatever action they are being encouraged to take is a breeze. You’ll be building a better customer experience while growing sales and promoting your brand.
#4
Make a Statement with MMS
One sure way to boost ROI is by using eye-catching MMS text messages, or text messages that feature pictures or video. The saying, a picture is worth a thousand words, accurately touches on the power of an image. In fact, when it comes to text marketing, it may be underestimating its impact. Texts that include imagery can be up to 250% more effective at creating audience engagement than standard or SMS text messages. Additionally, if we look back to the first tip on this list, an MMS message can help keep words to more of a minimum, which means keeping it short just got easier.
For many, especially small businesses and nonprofits, the idea of adding a picture or video to a text may sound daunting. Not to worry! There are tools and templates designed specifically to make creating MMS text messages a snap. Many text messaging apps include templates that you can easily customize and EZ Texting goes one step further by offering the most powerful MMS machine on the market, powered by Shutterstock.
It really is as easy as selecting an image from an award-winning selection of images available as part of our seamless Shutterstock integration. And, there are a number of design templates available to help inspire and make quick work of creating a professional and visually appealing MMS message.
#5
Timing Matters
Like so many things in life, when it comes to text marketing, timing is everything. The results of our 2022 Consumer Texting Behavior Report revealed that the majority of consumers prefer to receive texts from a business or organization Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM or during the hours that are typical to the particular business.
When strategizing what timing is right for your SMS Marketing Campaign, use regular business hours as a starting point. These windows of time are not only when your customers want to receive a text message, they are also the times when you will experience higher engagement levels.
To measure how effective your timing is for your specific customer base, take a look at your response rates and unsubscribes to see if your messages are finding their audience. If you are noticing low response rates or high unsubscribe rates try a different time frame, while remaining within business hours.
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