Everyone hates getting texts from shady businesses that they don’t know or that they didn’t sign up for. Yes, this kind of spam has even made its way into the realm of texting. The good news is that, when done correctly, text-based marketing, aka SMS, is one of the most effective forms of marketing around today. If you want to give SMS marketing a go but aren’t sure how to do it without offending your subscribers, keep reading to learn how personalization can make all the difference.
Personalized Offers are More Effective
Let’s just take a moment to talk about the practicality of personalization when it comes to SMS alerts. Think of it like this; you get a message from some company you bought a dog collar from months ago advertising a hat holder. Would you be interested? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you don’t even own a hat; who knows? Either way, this definitely not how you do SMS promotions.
Now, let’s explore the alternative. You get a text message from a company that you purchased a dog collar from earlier that day promoting a new brand of dog treats. Now would you be interested? Chances are much more likely since the promotion is both personalized and coming from a company that you actually remember buying from, which increases the trust factor.
Do you see how personalized offers are more effective from a strictly practical standpoint? Knowing the wants, needs, and purchase history of your customers allows you to use an SMS platform to segment your subscriber list based on these factors. This way, they always get promotions that are relevant to them. Not only will this help you make more sales, but it will also decrease your unsub rate as well.
Increasing Engagement
Engagement is very important when it comes to SMS marketing. If your subs aren’t engaging with your texts, then you basically have a dead list that is useless. Increasing engagement means doing more than just pitching endless offers at your subs. Instead, you need to throw in some useful content for them to engage with that is either entertaining or useful to them somehow. However, personalization once again comes into play here.
Think of it like this, if you run a business that sells video games you would be aware that there are tons of different games of different genres for different people. Someone who plays Mario Kart may not be interested in Call of Duty, and vice versa. Also, if someone owns a Nintendo console they may not own a Playstation or Xbox. When you have such a massive diversity of products, it only makes sense to segment your audience for personalized text promotions.
For example, if someone just bought the latest Halo game for Xbox, you’d follow up with a text promoting another Xbox game in the FPS genre. This level of personalization would be vastly more effective than just sending out a text for whatever game happens to be the most popular at the time.
Building Your Brand
The last way you want your band to appear in an SMS marketing campaign is as a faceless corporate entity. Your messages need to appear as if they are coming from someone who is deeply in touch with your audience and understands them on a fundamental level. This means taking your personalization to a whole new level using the same language your audience uses, which has the same interests, and the same values. Your texts need to present your brand as one of them. If you can do this, your personalization efforts will drastically increase in effectiveness, and your band will become one that your subs are eager to engage with. More messages will get read, and more people will take action when you pitch an offer.
The Essence of Personalization
When it comes right down to it, the core of personalization is being a brand that people know, like, and trust. This makes them feel comfortable engaging with your brand and purchasing your products because they know that you won’t steer them wrong. Put this level of thought can care into your SMS marketing campaigns, and you will notice a huge difference in revenue flow.
