by Arthur Brown
Many small businesses are looking for more ways to reach their customers and grow their businesses. SMS marketing is a great way to do this, but you must take the time to create a strategy before jumping in headfirst. To help you get started, we’ve compiled some of the best tips on how to build an effective SMS campaign.
1. Define Your Goals
You need to determine what your goals are before you can start designing a strategy. While this may seem obvious, many businesses jump right into an SMS campaign without considering the purpose of their campaign. Key questions you’ll want to answer are what you want to achieve with your campaign, who the people in your target audience are, and how you can reach them.
2. Determine Your Budget
It’s always good to start a marketing campaign with a budget in mind. This will help you determine where you can advertise, how much advertising you can afford, and what competitors may be doing to compete with your business. If you don’t already have the funds to pay for an effective SMS campaign, look into finding sponsors or other methods of support.
3. Determine Your Strategy
You’ll need to decide which mediums will be best for reaching your audience as well as when each message should reach them. According to an article posted by the experts at Messente, when planning an SMS campaign, you should look at what other businesses in your industry do to find out what works and what doesn’t. For example, if most businesses in your area are messaging their customers after they place an order, you could consider doing the same thing and make sure that your message stands out.
4. Determine Your Customer Segmentation
Now that you’ve determined your goals and budget, it’s important to look at the characteristics of your target audience. Depending on what you’re marketing, different groups will have distinct preferences for how they receive information, making it essential that you speak to them in a specific tone. You can segment your audience by age, gender, area, or even household income. It’s a good idea to focus on one demographic for now until you become more familiar with the process.
5. Create Your Message
Selecting an effective message is one of the most important parts of your SMS campaign. The success of a campaign greatly depends on whether or not the message will resonate with your intended audience. It’s best to start by thinking about what you want to communicate, then work out details such as how you’ll break up your content and structure your message for easy understanding.
6. Execute Your Strategy
Once you’ve got your strategy planned out, it’s time to put it into action. Before you can send a single text to anyone in your target audience, you’ll need to set up an account with a service provider and choose the tools that best fit your needs. The actual execution of your campaign may take a little bit of time, but it’s worth the effort when you’re able to connect with potential and current customers.
7. Measure Your Results
The most important phase of any marketing campaign is measuring its effectiveness. What worked and what didn’t? How did different segments react to your message? Asking these questions can be incredibly helpful in determining what you should do differently next time, so it’s a good idea to have these questions written down and be ready to evaluate your results.
8. Start Small To Achieve Big Results
A big part of creating an effective SMS marketing strategy is starting small. It takes some practice to get the hang of planning out campaigns while focusing on long-term goals. If you get too ambitious, you risk not being able to effectively execute your strategy. It can be a good idea to start with a small segment of your target audience and work from there.
9. Set A Schedule And Stick To It
Schedule when each campaign will take place and how often it will happen. This will help engage your audience better and let them know what to expect from you. Remember, if you don’t set a schedule for your campaign, it won’t have as much impact as possible.
10. Don’t Lose Sight Of Your Goals
Remember that a good SMS marketing strategy should be directed towards the goal you’ve decided on. If you create a message just to show off what you can do rather than engage your audience and sell them what they want, then you’re not using an effective SMS marketing strategy.
 
Meet with your team and map out a strategy that covers each of the tips above to create an effective SMS marketing campaign that you can execute over time. It’s important for you, as a business owner, to realize the value of every angle in terms of marketing, as this is what is going to help you stay afloat and grow in a competitive market.
About the Author
Arthur Brown – A dad of 3 kids and is a keen writer covering a range of topics such as Internet marketing, SEO and more! When not writing, he’s found behind a drum kit
