It is a good thing to note that many top businessmen and women now use SMS marketing extensively in promoting their business. However, in the area of SMS marketing, some major dos and don’ts must be understood if the marketing campaign is to be a success.
Given that bulk SMS is proven to be a cheap and equally effective form of communication, it comes as no surprise that many marketers use this medium of marketing. Here though are 6 common mistakes of SMS marketers that you should avoid if you’re just starting an SMS marketing campaign or have one planned for the future.
1. FAILURE TO PLAN
The popular saying goes that failure to plan is planning to fail, and that is a path many SMS marketers are treading. It’s very easy now to get a bulk SMS platform, register an account and start pushing messages, but for the overall success of an SMS marketing campaign, in the long run, adequate planning is essential. Most time you receive SMS from different firms and organizations that you find not applicable neither appealing to you. When you get such messages, what do you do to them? Most times you discard them. That is a result of failing to plan, and it can result in a total waste of time and resources. Never make this mistake in your SMS marketing campaign. Adequate planning defines who to send the SMS to, why a particular marketing SMS is important and when to send such messages.
2. NO TARGET AUDIENCE
Another common mistake by many SMS marketers is not identifying and segmenting their target audience, and then sending to these according to the needs. A good SMS marketer does not necessarily have to send the same marketing message to every subscriber to the SMS marketing campaign. The first marketing message to a new subscriber might not befit to a client who just made a purchase from the firm or used one of their services. Sadly though, lots of SMS marketers today are making the mistake of pushing the same message to everybody so to speak, even those not interested in the marketing message. You must avoid this if you are to get the best from your SMS marketing campaign.
3. BUY PHONE NUMBERS
Well, this just has to be included. Once a decision has been taken to make an SMS marketing campaign a part of the business, the next thing most marketers do is to go about getting phone numbers for the campaign, and the first option usually is to buy those numbers. Buying phone numbers is not a nice way of getting subscribers for your SMS marketing campaign and it is something that must be zeroed out to have a successful campaign. See here why you shouldn’t buy phone numbers for your SMS marketing campaign. Believe me, there are many other cheaper, efficient, and more advisable ways to get subscribers for your SMS marketing campaign. See them here.
4. NO OPT-OUT PROVISION
Another thing some SMS marketers do is to hold the SMS recipients ' at gunpoint so to speak. How they do this is that as long as you subscribe to the marketing campaign, there is no way out. What that means is that even when you are no longer interested in the products or services they have to offer, you cannot back out. This is a very poor marketing decision and does more harm than good. Apart from the fact it is not allowed, it is equally not good for the image of your business. So always remember to allow your SMS subscribers to check out of the marketing campaign at will. Shows your business adheres to principles of honesty and integrity and stands you in good stead in the long run.
5. NO FOLLOW-UP/FEEDBACK MECHANISM
Efficient communication is a two-way process. You don’t just sell to your clients and just talk to them, you need to hear their opinions and speak with them. Many SMS marketers do not do a follow-up on their SMS subscribers nor do they get feedback from them. The best marketers even after selling a product or offering a service to a client still send a message asking how the person finds the service rendered. Honest feedbacks gotten in this way helps in offering better services to your clients and keeping them for the long term. Lots of marketers neglect this part of the SMS marketing campaign. You mustn’t.
6. NO STANDARD SYSTEM FOR MEASURING SUCCESS
Many unsuccessful SMS marketers leave many things to chance. They do not make good use of the many web services available for adequately measuring the success of their SMS marketing campaign, and that is very dangerous. Web services wired in with your SMS campaign can go a long way in determining the ratio of opt-ins to opt-outs, know when best to send marketing messages based on the response, know what category of your subscribers are more interested in what form of marking SMS. This is an integral part of all successful SMS marketing campaigns and it is something you mustn’t neglect.
The difference between failure and success lies in the details, and many of the things we deem not too important may be those that eventually determined where our marketing campaign ends, whether it hits the rock or propels our business to great heights. The aforementioned points are the mistakes many marketers make and we must avoid them.
Here at SmartSMSSolutions, we have a quality bulk SMS platform suited for your SMS marketing campaign if you want to go into one. Register a bulk SMS account if you have none. Its free and free bulk SMS units are also available after registration.
Do you have any contribution on the keys to a successful SMS marketing campaign and what must be avoided? Please let us know them.
