How to send your first marketing SMS

Sending your first marketing SMS can often feel a bit daunting, but don’t worry. It's actually much easier than you might think.

This article will go through some steps you need to take to get a successful marketing SMS sent out to your customers. We will also dive into how and why you should follow this template to achieve your desired results.

So keep reading. We’ll put you on the right track with how to create your first text message.

Create an offer

To optimise your sales with your first marketing text, you need a great offer and message.

The customers who sign up to your SMS marketing list and choose to stay do so because the offers that dive into their phones are relevant, exclusive and suitable for the receiver.

Sending irrelevant SMS without any kind of value offer will quickly get people to unsubscribe from your list.

Take a look at it from the customer's perspective: what motivates an SMS instead of an email?

Well, for example, you could have a time-limited offer on protein powder with a 20% discount. The time limit and the discount justify an SMS sending as opposed to an e-mail can often disappear in the inbox, making the customer miss their shot to take part in the discounted deal.

Segment

To get a great response on your metrics, you need to ensure that your SMS ends up with the right person at the right time. Segmenting for purchase history and engagement is a good start.

If we take the protein powder as an example again: If the customer has bought protein powder from you before, they will likely do it again after about a month. This is an excellent opportunity to send a reminder just when the customer thinks, "Oh no, my protein powder is starting to run out".

If the customer has not yet made a purchase after 60 days, it may be that they have chosen another online store. This is an excellent opportunity to send out a "re-engagement" SMS with a discount code so that you can capture the customer again.

With Jojka, you can segment in several different ways to reach your entire customer base with relevant messages and offers. It’s nearly always better to send 10 SMS to 10 different segments than to mass mail to the entire customer base.

Tailor your message

Including offers and promotions in your emails might be easy, but SMS has a limit on how many characters you can use. Therefore, it may sometimes be necessary to have a landing page that goes into more detail about the message.

With a dedicated and mobile-adapted landing page for your SMS, you both get a chance to personalise the experience further, but you can also track sales and site movements better because everyone who enters the landing page is coming directly from your SMS marketing.

It is always a bonus in the SMS to include the customer's name and to sound like a human being.

"Hello, Anders!

Today we have a great deal on protein powder for you, an exclusive 20% discount. Click here. ”

Everything that sounds like it comes from a human always gives a better response than, for example:

“20% on protein powder in our store. Click here"

A / B test

All e-retailers have different buyer personas and journeys. What works for one does not necessarily work for another.

That’s precisely why A / B tests exist, so that you can easily find out what kind of marketing gives you a better response to your KPI’s.

The offer and the products you want to sell don’t need to be changed, but you can test your copy, subject lines, and landing pages to find out what works best for you.

After the A / B test is completed, you’ll get a much better insight into your future marketing campaigns.

Schedule

When everything is all set, and you’re ready to send, you just need to ensure that your SMS does not arrive at the wrong times.

Sending late at night will not give you a good response. Stick to 09:00 - 12:00 and 17:00 - 19:00 on weekdays.

On weekends, it is optimal to send SMS between 10:00 - 12:00 and 16:00 - 19:00.

Congratulations, you are now ready for your first marketing SMS!