How to build a basic SMS Marketing Strategy Part 2

In Part 1 we discussed the importance of acquiring and refining your SMS Marketing subscription list. Next, you have to tackle customer engagement and retention as part of your basic strategy.

Engaging with your customers

The hardest part – getting your customers’ contact details – is done. But you can’t breathe a sigh of relieve just yet. Now you actually have to deliver on your promises.

Naturally, content is King, and the way you present this content is Queen. If consumers don’t like what you have to say or how you say it, they will lose interest fairly quickly.

Keeping your SMS Marketing messages relevant and entertaining can be tricky. You only have a limit of about 160 characters after all, thus you have to make every word count.

Tip: have a content strategy. Know beforehand what you want to say, how you want to say it and when.

Retaining your contact list

One of the biggest considerations in your SMS Marketing strategy, is frequency. Too many messages – your customers will unsubscribe. Too few messages – they forget about you.

The best course of action you can take is to offer your customers a set option (preferably with their subscription) of message frequency. E.g. they can choose to receive a message twice a week, once a month etc.

During an active campaign, you can sent more than one message a week. But if your campaign is over, you want to tone it down until you have something important to say again. Don’t send irrelevant stuff.

Along with frequency, goes timing. Don’t send your messages out at inappropriate hours like late at night.

Lastly, always offer an opt-out option in your messages. It doesn’t have to be in every single message, but it is a necessary part of Mobile Compliance. (P.S Mobile compliance is one of the services offered by Integrat.)

In conclusion: the most important thing you can do for your SMS Marketing campaign, is to do intensive research. Not only on your customers, but also on strategies that have been successful in the past. You can never know too much of a good thing!

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