Entry By Jason Brick
SMS is easy. The good news about that is you can do your own marketing with low overhead. The bad news is you can do your own marketing without any professional advice or support. If the results from your text campaign are lackluster, check yourself for these common reasons text marketing can fail.
1. No Outside Promotion
Too many people treat SMS like it's operating in a vacuum. Although it's good to make your text content unique, keeping it separate fails to spread the news to new subscribers. Beat this by:
- Mentioning your SMS subscription options in print and other advertising
- Placing QR codes in your place of business
- Getting other local businesses to host your QR code in their shops
2. Weak Call to Action
Sales greats say that if you never ask for money, you're not selling -- you're talking. For text broadcasts to work, they must include an overt and compelling call to action. Without it, you're not soliciting business. You're just making noise. Create a compelling call to action by:
- Offering something your subscribers will want, like free tchotchkes or a discount coupon
- Placing the call to action where it's easy to see
- Making the next step obvious and easy to do
3. No Opt-Out Message
This one might seem counter-intuitive. Though opt-out messages make it easy to lose subscribers, without an obvious opt-out option, your SMS marketing will begin to feel like spam. A subscriber list of 100,000 does you no good if they're all just a captive audience. The best opt-out messages:
- Are displayed prominently at the end of every message
- Make opting out simple and easy
- Are automated, so there is no lag between opting out and being removed from the list
4. Generic Content
Make every message somehow unique to your audience and/or your business. Name specific menu items, offer insights from your most popular staff members, mention neighborhoods or local schools. Anything you can do to make meaningful personal contact with your subscribers will increase the success of your SMS marketing. Get ideas for this kind of content by:
- Reading the local newspaper for events, openings and other celebrations
- Mining your sales data for the most popular items and specials
- Creating a content calendar to take advantage of events and holidays
5. Not Seeking New Subscribers
Sending perfect, effective text messages to 50 subscribers is great, but it’s not as good as sending it to 100 subscribers. The best SMS campaigns feed themselves by creating a constant stream of new opt-ins. Create this stream by:
- Making regular "bring a friend" offers that give a discount or freebie for introducing new subscribers
- Offering at-the-counter discounts for customers who sign up
- Holding polls and contests that encourage members to sign up their friends
6. Poor Mobile Support
This is a chance to really stand out in many fields. Everybody has a website. Everybody has a QR code and SMS campaign. But few businesses still have solid mobile support -- which is a shame, since mobile shopping is the fastest growing type of Internet usage. Support mobile shopping with your SMS by:
- Having a mobile version of your website
- Testing your mobile site on different devices
- Including links to your mobile site in most of your SMS broadcasts
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