Did you know that brands are actually making more money sending fewer messages? By uniting SMS with their email strategy, and ensuring their content strategy provides subscribers timely, valuable, and relevant messages, brands are seeing increases in conversion rates and incremental revenue by sending fewer, but more relevant messages. And you can, too.

Did you know that brands are actually making more money sending fewer messages?

Over 80% of SMS subscribers say they open texts within 90 seconds of receiving them, and with 50% of US customers making a direct purchase after they’re sent an SMS text or discount code, SMS marketing is clearly a powerful marketing tool that can quickly increase conversions. When you find the right strategy to personalize the experience and make your subscribers feel connected to your brand, you’ll unlock the channel’s full potential. (Hint: it’s a very profitable potential.) Read on for five ways you can humanize your SMS marketing strategy and increase revenue from this high-performing channel.

 When you find the right strategy to personalize the experience and make your subscribers feel connected to your brand, you’ll unlock the channel’s full potential. (Hint: it’s a very profitable potential.) Read on for five ways you can humanize your SMS marketing strategy and increase revenue from this high-performing channel.

1. Remember that SMS isn’t like Email

SMS marketing lets brands promote their products and services much more quickly than email. And while this immediacy is a powerful function of the channel, it is also a much more intimate channel than email – with SMS subscribers opening nearly 100% of text messages a brand sends to them. Because of that, it’s extremely important to be hyperpersonal when building your SMS marketing strategy, so your subscribers feel value in intentional texts vs. a one-size-fits-all approach. 

Step away from purely promotional content and focus on building a relationship with your subscribers. People are much more selective about what brands they let text them vs. emailing them, and if they let you into their SMS messages, be respectful in your messaging strategy, capitalizing on how intimate the channel is without abusing it. 

Ensuring you have explicit opt in for each mobile subscriber and only messaging them after obtaining that, is an integral way to show respect on this intimate channel. And keeping your sending within business hours within the subscriber’s time zone is also necessary to ensure you don’t wake them with texts too early in the morning or late at night, which can spike opt out and complaint rates, hurting your deliverability.  

2. Limit Messages – Don’t Spam Your Subscribers

It’s vital to find the right balance of sending enough texts to keep your customers interested without overwhelming them. Delivering too many messages can be overwhelming and irritating to customers. Sending too many can also be seen as spamming, leading to customers unsubscribing from your SMS marketing list.

Based on industry guidelines, you should only be sending 2-6 SMS messages a month, and if you’re just starting out with this channel, err on the conservative side to start, slowly increasing only as you see good performance.

Also, consider an SMS marketing strategy that allows you to segment your list and send targeted content to specific groups. This way, you can continue sending high-value, personalized texts regularly without spamming your subscribers’ inboxes.

3. Use Data to Hyper-Personalize Your Strategy

It’s essential to personalize the experience for your subscribers to humanize your SMS marketing strategy and increase conversions. You can do this by using customer data, such as their name, location, site behavior or purchase history, to send targeted content that applies to them.

Begin with their name. Addressing your customers by their name in your texts makes them feel valued and appreciated, increasing loyalty to your brand. Texting is informal, so using only a subscriber’s first name is completely acceptable. 

Use their location. If you have this data, you can use a subscriber’s location to send them targeted content, such as coupons for a nearby store or information about a local event. This type of geographically targeted content has converted at much higher rates than more generalized messages.

Use their site behavior. Segmenting out subscribers who have view specific product or category pages can help you personalize content to their specific product preferences. Having a flash sale on a specific product? Segment all recent viewers of that product and shoot them a text that lets them know it’s on sale. 

Use their purchase history. Use data from your customers’ purchase history to send them targeted content, like recommended similar products or services they might also be interested in. Do you have a segment of repeat purchasers of a specific type of product? Send a personalized reorder reminder text or subscription program call to action. 

Next, work on the content of your texts. The content of your SMS marketing campaign should be personal, relevant, and timely. It’s also essential to ensure that the content is valuable to the customer and not solely focused on promotions or product features.

4. Make SMS Marketing a Two-Way Communication Strategy

Texting is an incredibly personal form of communication. It’s one-on-one, so customers are more likely to pay attention to your messages. However, because it’s a personal form of communication, it’s essential to ensure that your SMS marketing campaign is a two-way conversation.

Sending one-way messages can be seen as spamming to some customers. It’s important to take the time to listen to what they have to say and respond accordingly. This two-way communication will help you build a stronger relationship with your customers and increase conversions.

When you send marketing texts, do it during business hours so you can respond quickly to customers. If you’re unable to respond right away, set up an autoresponder and let them know when they can expect a response. Integrating your customer service platform and your SMS platform, can also help your team respond more quickly. This will show that you’re committed to customer service and increase the chances of conversion.

5. Message Like a Friend, Not a Salesperson

It sounds like common sense, however you’ll see many brands that don’t heed this advice. When you focus on your SMS marketing copy only on the current promotion or why they should buy, the channel as a whole starts to feel like a constant sales pitch. On such a personal channel, you need to approach your subscribers like the rest of the messages in their text inbox – like a friend. 

Did you know that 70% of customers who have a high emotional engagement with a brand spend up to double, or more? Writing SMS copy that not only engages the subscriber or provides them personalized, valuable content, but also addresses them like a friend with causal conversation and one-to-one communication, will drive much higher conversions than a flat sales message. In order to humanize your SMS marketing and in effect, your brand, you can easily motivate subscribers toward a purchase with messages that feel more like one-on-one conversations vs. one-sided sales pitches.

Ready to start driving revenue from SMS marketing? 

Need help launching or optimizing your SMS marketing strategy? Evolvd Digital Marketing can help you create an effective SMS marketing strategy that reaches your target audience and drives conversions building incremental revenue. Request a free expert audit of your current SMS program or request a free quote to get started building a high-converting SMS marketing strategy.