We all know the importance and quality of interaction brands can receive by communicating with their customers via text message. However, there are a certain set of guidelines and best practices that businesses and brands alike should follow in order to keep their marketing as personalized and intimate as the medium they are channeling across. As Matthew R. Lesher notes:
"SMS is easy and convenient for the consumer and provides the greatest reach for brands. It is extremely effective for connecting with a brand’s most loyal and active consumers who are looking to engage with the brand. Not only do these consumers want to communicate with the brand, the channel by which they choose to communicate is very personal. A consumer’s mobile phone is within the boundaries of [their] personal space."
Text messaging has instant, direct, and welcomed contact with your customers – and in return for that kind of connection businesses must take heed and focus on consideration of the customers in which they’re trying to reach (lest we forget the 3AM text message that tainted a seemingly successful mobile campaign on Barack Obama’s part during his 2008 election expedition). To this effect, Mr. Lesher provided the Mobile Marketer with some tips to personalize and successfully augment interaction between businesses and their customers over the mobile and text messaging channels.
"Because SMS text marketing is such a personal form of communication, it is essential that brands send appropriate, relevant and timely information and messaging to each individual consumer."
- Calling it Right - “If a brand sends more personalized SMS messages, how much more effective is the communication?”, Lesher asks. “[A]n April 2011 survey by the e-tailing Group and MyBuys found that 46 percent of consumer respondents would be more likely to buy from retailers who personalized their experience with that brand and 66 percent of consumer respondents expected a more personalized experience if they were part of a loyalty program.”
- Zipping Through - “For brands to engage in a more targeted marketing program, they need to consider a deeper dive into the preferences of their consumers and send only relevant messages to those consumers at appropriate times. The key, then, is to understand each consumer’s interests and preferences. Collecting interests and preferences can be done in several ways, including, but not limited to, at opt-in by using different key words, using mobile surveys via SMS or mobile Web sites or leveraging a brand’s existing consumer data. Each different avenue will provide different levels of detail. Brands need to decide which methods best suit their needs and consumer base.”
Nearing the end of his article, Lesher notes that:
"SMS [text marketing] continues to be an effective and powerful form of communicating with consumers. It is important to remember that text messaging is likely a consumer’s preferred method of communication. By adding targeted messaging to a SMS text marketing program, brands can engage in a more relevant and personalized communication with consumers, which ultimately results in a more effective mobile marketing campaign."
Consideration of your customers must be at an all time high when connecting with them on a deeply personal and direct medium. Doing so will aid in more successful campaigns, as well as an increased database of customers willing to interact with you over their mobile phone – where as sending messages out at 3 AM will surely harm your campaign. If you have any concerns about what you’re sending, or when you’re sending messages out, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your Account Manager at Mobivity, they are local area marketing experts and are trained to help you create a successful and results driven mobile campaign. If you’re interested in learning more about Mobivity, and about how we can guarantee your success by interacting with your customers over text message, give us a call today!
To read the rest of Lesher’s article on the personalization of a text message marketing campaign, click here.