SMS Marketing Best Practices: 5 Rules for SMS Marketing Success

SMS marketing is an effective strategy to promote your brand. You can reach your target audience on a more personal level with high open rates and relevance. But, you should keep SMS marketing best practices in mind along the way. This will ensure you’ll have great results while avoiding negative impression from the recipients.

Our guide will help you keep your SMS marketing campaigns ethical and valued. We’ll focus on the best practices that should guide all SMS marketing campaigns. We’ve already discussed 15 SMS use cases for small businesses. Now, let’s make sure you keep your marketing campaigns above-board with these best practices.

Begin by getting consent

You don’t want flyers, magazines or newspapers to pile up at your doorsteps even if you haven’t subscribed to them. Same goes for SMS marketing. Don’t start sending people text messages without having their consent. That could easily annoy people while making your marketing campaign look spammy.

Instead, begin by asking them if they wish to subscribe to your message updates. You can do it by messages like “Reply with “YESS” to subscribe”, or “Text “SUBSCRIBE” to 1234 for more updates”. Making sure your customers want to be receiving your messages is important to keep the relationship valued.

Clarify what your audience should expect

Always be clear about what your audience could expect from the messages they will receive. For example, let them know about the type of information they will receive, and always include a disclaimer to avoid legal issues.

Setting expectations from the start will pay off later. Try to explain how often you plan to text your customers and what kind of information you’ll send. But, try to keep it short and sweet. Sending long messages with the details will increase the odds of people not reading them.

Don’t annoy subscribers with spammy messages

It’s important to take note of your frequency in sending text messages. Excessively sending messages could easily annoy people, making your program look spammy. Make sure that you’re texting your customers with a specific purpose. This purpose shouldn’t just be beneficial to you, but valuable to them, too.

When messages start to pile up from a single brand, customers are more likely to unsubscribe. Your audience will probably feel the same too, thus you should avoid excessive messaging. In fact, experts suggest sending around 2 to 6 messages each month. Also, you should space them evenly spread throughout the days.

Keep basic texting courtesies in mind

In addition to consent and clarification, always remember the basic texting courtesy throughout your campaign. For example, always send your messages on normal hours. Nobody wants to be woken up by a marketing promotion, regardless of how great it is.

Also, use common language and correctly spelled words on your text messages. Yes, you want to save character space, but you need to be sure that your audience understands your messages as well. This will also help keep your brand looking professional.

Provide a convenient response avenue for your audience

An effective marketing campaign always involves two-way communication. So, a good process for receiving messages is a common SMS marketing best practice. This includes opt-out methods as well.

Moreover, include basic “YES” or “NO” replying systems. Or, provide them specific keywords for certain actions or response from you. You can even assign such keywords for them to know about particular products or services you offer.

To allow people to opt-out of your program, include phrases like “Reply ‘OFF’ to stop receiving these messages”. Aside from providing a convenient communication system for your audience, it will avoid making them feel trapped. This will also show that you value them as customers or clients, by allowing them to control the conversation.

The bottom line for SMS marketing best practices

Keeping these SMS marketing best practices will keep your marketing campaigns valued by your customers. They’ll help keep your brand look professional, reliable and helpful for them. As a result, you’ll be able to better retain your subscribers and attract new ones.

Need more tips for your SMS marketing campaign? Routee can help. We help businesses connect with their customers when and how it matters most. Get in touch to learn more.