7 Tips for Integrating Text Campaigns into Your Marketing Strategy

You might think that you don’t need a text marketing campaign if you already send out marketing emails. But email marketing and text marketing are more different than you think.

Text campaigns offer unique benefits to your digital marketing efforts you can’t get with other strategies. To learn what a text campaign can do for your business and how to start one, read these tips.

1. The Dos and Don’ts of Text Campaigns

Before we tell you how to get your text campaign started, you must first know how to write the ideal marketing text message. Do so by following these rules.

Keep it Short

The ideal marketing text is a single-sentence call-to-action. That way, most recipients can view the whole message from their phone’s lock screen without even opening their messaging app. Your recipients don’t even need to unlock their phones to get your messages!

And the call-to-action is the entire point of your marketing texts. SMS calls-to-action are easier to obey than any other call-to-action you’re putting out there.

Not Too Often

With marketing texts, you need perfect timing for best results. Think of your recipients as Goldilocks and your marketing texts as delicious bowls of stolen bear porridge.

Too many texts will bother your audience. Not enough texts and you won’t reach your goals. But somewhere in between is just right.

It will take time to test and see the best frequency for sending your marketing texts. Also, you’ll need to note the days of the week and times of day your texts get the best results. That’s where analytics come into play.

Pay Attention to Analytics

Use software to keep track of your text campaign’s successes and failures. It makes it easy to see exactly where and how your SMS marketing strategies need to improve.

You can see what texts to what people at what times work best and adjust your efforts accordingly. You can also use this software to send personalized messages to targeted demographics.

Target Your Audience

This should go without saying. But in case it doesn’t, “Target your audience.” Like all digital marketing campaigns, your success in text marketing relies heavily on targeting.

Sending everyone the same messages or sending different messages randomly is like shooting at a target blindfolded. You may succeed a little, but the odds are not in your favor. Most people will receive irrelevant info and start blocking your texts.

Sending personalized content to the appropriate demographics is like actually aiming at the target. Makes sense, right? Use the same software you use to monitor analytics to help you to send targeted texts for greater success.

Now that you know how to write marketing texts, follow the strategies below to get your text marketing campaign started.

2. Text Contests

This is the best way to get your SMS marketing campaign started. Simply integrate text-to-win contests into your existing marketing platforms.

On your social media accounts, billboards, magazine ads, etc., post an “Enter to win” announcement. Include an entry keyword and short code number for contestants to text. It’s a great way to quickly build up your SMS marketing list from nothing.

And, once you get your text campaign firmly established, this trick works the other way around. That is, you can text your SMS marketing recipients with a link inviting them to enter a contest on your social media.

3. SMS Call-to-Action

Likewise, you can now use your newly established SMS marketing list for whatever call-to-action you need most. The best part about SMS text marketing is that people actually read them.

Let’s face it: emails are long and boring and are usually 90% stuff we don’t care about. We usually don’t get three words into the email title before we decide whether to open it or junk it. We maybe honor the email’s call to action, but we definitely aren’t going to reply.

But texts are different. They’re so easy to read, so easy to reply to.

This makes text marketing the best and simplest way to deliver any call-to-action. That includes likes, subscribes, checking out your new blog posts or YouTube videos, flash sales, anything! What will you use it for?

4. Reply Texts

Now don’t think you have to waste any time between steps 2 and 3. Combine both of these into one!

As soon as people enter your text contest, send an automated reply text right away with a call-to-action included. Not only do you get an immediately huge SMS marketing list from the contest, but a percentage of that list will instantly respond to your very first SMS call-to-action. With automated reply texts, your text campaign will hit the ground running, take off like a rocket and other such cliches.

5. Texts as Notifications

You know those annoying windows that pop up on every website asking you to allow notifications? And remember how people typically never click “Allow” except on accident?

Well, now that you have an SMS marketing list, congratulations: you have now bypassed this annoying marketing step that everyone hates. Better yet, you’ve tricked presumably thousands of people into clicking “Allow” without knowing it.

You can now use your text marketing campaign to deliver any notifications you would normally only deliver to people who accidentally allowed browser notifications.

If you change your terms, update your website, or want to draw attention to any new thing, you can text it to all the people who already agreed to such texts. Best of all, it doesn’t even matter if they delete the message right away. Texts are so short that by the time they decide to delete it, they’ve already read and absorbed the information.

Plus, people don’t even delete texts. They just check them and then close the app. It’s pretty much the least annoying way to give notifications.

Just be sure to follow the rules above so you don’t become a nuisance. Keep texts short and don’t send too many.

6. Boost Foot Traffic With Texts

It’s easy to get hyper-focused on the digital side of marketing when using a digital platform like SMS. But you can also incorporate SMS marketing with your real-world marketing campaigns.

Specifically, send text coupons. Say, “Bring this to the store today for 20% off any item!”

These coupons are easy to bring to the store and easier to get to than email coupons. Email inboxes are full of spam that must be sifted through whereas texts are usually easier to find.

Besides, people love text coupons. If all you ever send are blog updates, your peeps will soon get bored. Exclusive text coupons make your text club worth it.

Your SMS call-to-action doesn’t have to be a digital one. You can boost any of your traditional marketing efforts with a text.

7. Outsource If You Need To

Of course, if this seems like too much, just outsource to a text messaging service. There are plenty of professionals who have been doing this for years. If you are having trouble getting started or following through, get some help.