As many of you know, text message marketing (SMS) is the most effective way to communicate with customers. With a 95%+ read rate (80% of that within the first 2 minutes), you can send out a message and usually get customers to follow your call of action within 10 minutes.

In today’s post, I want to look at 3 different ways you can engage customers.

3 key elements to a successful SMS campaign

1. Have a clear call to action. Look at what you are trying to get your customers to do. This could be something as simple as getting your customers to cast a vote on what product they want to see added to your store or capturing more information about your customers. Each message should have a purpose or lead to a goal.
   Most importantly, after you decide what you want to accomplish with the message, is how you phrase the call to action. Make sure that it’s clear. Let customers know what additional steps you want them to take, and invite them to act right away.
2. Offer an incentive or entice your customers to buy something. There is nothing more frustrating then getting a text message that isn’t relative or motivating. An example of one such message that I have received messages in the past states “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
   Which, when all is said and done is great, and it is great to bring awareness to such a great cause. The reason why that message is frustrating is that it doesn’t create awareness about how your business is helping such a great cause, and it doesn’t make me look at your business and think, “Wow, they do a lot of great things to contribute to such a good cause.” Really, it does the opposite.
   Or how about a message that says, “We are really busy this week so we won’t be . . .” That tells me that I should be prepared to fight the crowds, and it makes me ask myself if I really want to endure the issue with parking on top of everything else. The answer for most people is probably, “No,” in this situation.
   Instead, look for ways to highlight your business. Bring attention to the great causes you’re engaged in! Tell me about your discounts this month! Try to make your text message marketing efforts as appealing as possible for customers to want to come to your business and spend money.
3. Create a sense of urgency. With you doing such a great job at clearly illustrating what it is your want your customers to do and how you are going to reward your customers once they do take that action, you need to make sure that you create a sense of urgency so that they follow your call to action!
   How many times have you read something online, on a billboard, or even a text message and thought, “I need to check that out,” only to completely forget about it hours later when you get caught up in the fast pace of life? Creating this sense of urgency gets your customers to plan ahead, knowing that they only have a few days or hours to come in and get that promotion.
   Some examples for how to accomplish this might be to place a time limit on the deal you’ve offered or to offer an extra benefit for those who come in early.

Following these three simple steps in your text messages will help drive traffic and increase sales.

In my next post I will be giving specific examples of how you can use text message marketing to incentivize your customers to encourage their friends and families to come in and visit your business.

What text message marketing tactics have worked for you?