Although SMS Marketing is still very up-and-coming, it’s already one of my favorite new modes of modern media marketing. This is brand new territory (at least for now) so there’s a lot of potential for those of us who act fast and get on board quick. In this post, I wanted to share my very own “ABC’s” of SMS Text Message Marketing for you. Of course, as Alec Baldwin’s character so eloquently puts it in the great movie Glengarry Glen Ross, ABC still stands for “Always Be Closing.” Your text message marketing should “Always Be Closing” just as much as any other marketing channel you’re using. But here are my specific ABCs for SMS marketing strategy…
A = Automated
If you want to succeed (and I mean really succeed) in any area of marketing, you’ve got to introduce some level of automation — at least until we can successfully clone you. My personal favorite form of Marketing Automation for SMS Marketing is the weekly triggered text. Think of this as your “weekly text newsletter.” I know it sounds crazy, since there are only 120-140 characters available for texts but if you can’t get good nuggets of advice/info into that small a space, how can you expect to give any good advice at all? The very best part about the Weekly Text strategy is it creates a sense of expectation in your text message marketing recipients. The second best part is that it’s extremely easy to automate.
B = Beneficial
This should go without saying but I must mention it nonetheless. Please please please be sure the text messages you’re sending out provide some value and benefit to your prospects & customers who will read them. Of course, some of your messages can be purely sales oriented, but be sure you’re providing lots of value too. Otherwise, you can expect LOTS of “Stop” messages to come rolling in. Try to ensure at least 2/3 of your texts are beneficial in some way to your readers. The other 1/3 of texts you can reserve for sales & promotions.
C= Consistent
The final letter in our ABC series here is “C” which stands for “Consistent” because it’s so critical that you stay in front of your prospects. You should begin texting your subscribers IMMEDIATELY upon their request to receive texts from you and then at least once per week from there forward. As I mentioned above, it’s even better if you have a regularly scheduled weekly text (“Tuesday Insider Text Tips” for example) and then add-in additional sales-oriented and value-oriented messages on top of that. If you’re consistently sending out text messages, your subscribers will know to expect texts from you and won’t be surprised when they do.
So there you have my ABC’s of Text Message Marketing. Follow these 3 general guidelines and you’ll be off-and-running with SMS Marketing.
