Marketers are constantly seeking new ways to reach fans, and running SMS campaigns is an effective way to reach people wherever they are in a relatively quick manner. SMS campaigns are growing in popularity and quickly becoming the new way to market to both music and sports fans alike.
Why SMS Campaigns?
There are many advantages to using SMS to reach your fans. SMS marketing is personal, easy to implement, and highly targeted. They allow you to quickly receive feedback from your fans through replies, immediately deliver your message, and get hundreds of link clicks within minutes.
SMS messaging is a great way to capture your fans' attention, as it often outperforms other channels. Research shows that 90% of SMS messages are opened and read within 3 seconds. The open rate for an SMS message is about 98%, with a 3-second response rate. Therefore, SMS notifications lead to higher engagement rates and ROI. In addition, brands that use SMS marketing typically reach 95% of targeted users.
Not sure how to implement SMS marketing? Read on to learn more about the best practices for launching SMS campaigns to your fans.
Best Practices & Considerations
Get Permission
In order to have successful SMS marketing campaigns, it is critical to implement permission-based marketing. Use proper digital etiquette, ensuring you get permission from your fans to send them SMS messages. This can be done via texting a particular number or opting in on a form on your website, or engagement campaign. You'll also want to make sure you provide clear instructions on how they can opt-out (ie- texting the word 'Stop').
Character Limits
Keep in mind that the character limit of text messages is 160 characters, so keep your messages short and to the point, but with a CTA for the fan to take action.
Keep It Fresh & Respectful
Ensure the messages you send to your fans are engaging, clear, fresh, and exciting. It is best to steer clear of marketing speak and jargon, as well as avoiding being overly commercial/promotional. Find that balance between marketing and providing valuable information. Examples of ways you can make messages more engaging are by using media like MMS picture messages, emojis, calendar invites, and interactive content like polls and surveys.
Time Zones are another crucial factor to keep in mind. Ensure you are scheduling your SMS campaigns to go out at reasonable times. No one wants to get woken up by a text in the middle of the night or at 6am. According to experts, the best hours to text are between 8 am and 9 pm. You can also identify your customers and learn their routine to know when to send notifications. For example, if your target audience is millennials who have a disposable income, they will likely be at work during the day, so it may be best to text them in the evening from 6pm to 9pm.
Avoid being spammy. It's annoying to get too many text messages from a brand, so remember to limit how often you send your text messages to fans. It is recommended that you stick to sending no more than 2 to 6 messages a month to prevent unsubscriptions.
Provide Value
Before you send an SMS campaign, ask yourself what's in it for the fan? The more you can make fans feel like they're getting exclusive and vital information, the better your results will be. For example, texting your fans exclusive SMS-only offers is an effective way to make them feel like a VIP. In addition, segmenting your audience is a great way to send fans notifications that will be relevant and valuable to them based on their interests or purchasing behaviour.
Keep it Personal
You're more likely to get better results if you send messages that are tailored to specific fans. Personalize the message as much as possible, but it can also be as simple as using the fan's name or providing information about a local event. We recommend creating custom audiences and sending specific messages based on their behavior or affinity.
Milestones Are Key
Using SMS to market milestones is a great way to engage with your fans. However, as mentioned above you should only share them if they provide value to your fans. Examples of milestones to text your fans about are: season tickets, festival announcements, ticket on-sale dates (e.g. early bird, pre-sale, save the date and last chance tickets), lineup announcements and merch sales.
Not sure where to start with SMS marketing? Contact us for a free consultation on how you can implement SMS campaigns within Tradable Bits to your fans.