Entry By Jason Brick
The best part of an SMS marketing campaign is reaching your audience multiple times each week with a new and compelling message.
The worst part of an SMS campaign is you have to come up with a new and compelling message for your audience multiple times each week.
What happens when you're all couponed out? When you've conducted all the user polls you can stand? When you think seeing an opt-in keyword just one more time will make you lose your mind?
You take ideas from these unusual resources, and make your copy new and fresh. You'll enjoy yourself more, and your audience will respond positively to the new direction.
1. Greeting Cards
Greeting cards are masterful examples of communicating an effective concept with a minimum of words. You can harvest examples from cards you receive, or go hang out at the Hallmark store for a while. This option works best during the holiday season, since you'll be receiving inspiring examples at the exact time of year when they'll be the most topical.
2. "Of the Day" Calendars
Whether it's a quote, dictionary word, bible verse or Far Side panel, these calendars can be a source of daily inspiration to work into your SMS messages. Take the basic kernel and "pop" it into an actionable message with a strong call to action. For example: "Free soda today for anybody who can define 'macerate.' Text definition for coupon."
3. The Local News
Local news, either the radio or paper, keeps you on top of local events, trends and happenings that you can turn into a topical and engaging SMS message. A new business in town can become a combined coupon offer. A local festival can turn into a flash mob for your company. Even the local traffic report can be a chance for a quick broadcast about catching up on lost time by getting takeout with a discount coupon.
4. The Calendar
Holiday-themed SMS messages can give your campaign just the variation it needs, but you don't have to stick with the red-letter days on your wall calendar. Check out one of the many lists of commemorative days, weeks and months. It's "Gopher Lovers' Appreciation Weekend" somewhere, and you can capitalize on those who celebrate it.
5. Bumper Stickers
These are another terrific example of displaying a powerful message in minimal space. However, bumper stickers will rarely be long enough or topical enough to use verbatim in a text message -- but they can provide a framework for how to pose your own message in a clever or funny way. Other sources on this line include t-shirts and coffee mugs.
The best marketers, writers and artists draw inspiration from the world all around them. If you get in the habit of harvesting ideas from what you see, hear and read, you'll never be short of material for compelling copy.
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