Your brand may already use personalized text messages for better engagement and customer loyalty. But are you optimizing your SMS capabilities for maximum efficiency?
If you customize text messages for recipients, you should leverage all your available tools to make this process as cost-effective and impactful as possible. So what does that look like?
Between honing in on segmentation and creating templates, there are various ways to optimize your next text marketing campaign.
In this guide, we’re exploring how you can write personalized marketing texts more efficiently and showing you how to get the most bang for your buck with SMS.
#1 Leverage Segmentation and Targeting Functions
As you craft your next SMS campaign (or adjust your current one), remember two critical marketing concepts:
Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of categorizing your customers (or text recipients) into groups (i.e., “segments”) that share common characteristics. Segment members may:
- Respond similarly to marketing calls to action (CTAs)
- Share demographic similarities
- Have purchased products in a specific category before
- Be in a specific stage of your sales funnel
Targeting
After segmenting your customer base, you can target one or more specific segments with tailored marketing campaigns. While a campaign may target every customer in some way, the messaging might differ slightly across segments. For instance, a re-engagement campaign may specifically target segments with different personalized texts for previous purchasers and those who abandoned an online shopping cart.
If you’re just getting started with SMS marketing, it’s easy to break your SMS recipients into two simple segments: current and prospective customers. Brainstorm how your next campaign could target each segment differently to achieve maximum engagement.
#2 Integrate Impactful Automation
SMS automation has the potential to significantly boost your next campaign’s efficiency. Simply put, automating a process or sequence now frees you (or someone on your team) from manually completing it later.
Some examples of texting automation functions include:
- Sending seasonal texts celebrating:
- Major holidays
- Equinoxes or solstices
- Significant client dates like birthdays or anniversaries
- Using SMS for order updates like:
- Running carefully-timed drip campaigns
- Enabling two-way responses for automated customer self-service
- Automatically sharing a discount code via text after a customer:
- Signs up for the loyalty program
- Enrolls in your newsletter
- Shares their referral code
This is just the tip of the iceberg for SMS automation. But remember that you don’t need to implement them all at once; you can scale your automation gradually as you start seeing results.
Don’t Sacrifice Personalization with Automation
While leveraging automation to maximize efficiency, don’t forget about the power of personalized text messages. According to recent research, 52% of consumers expect companies to personalize their marketing messages, and 66% expect brands to understand their individual preferences, needs and expectations.
The message is clear: More than half of consumers don’t think one-size-fits-all messages are impactful.
As you leverage SMS automation, don’t forget that every phone number on your recipient list is a human. Personalize your messages and supplement your campaigns with:
- Customers’ names
- Data from their purchase histories
- Unique discount codes
- E.g., “Use your unique code, SAMANTHA25, for 25% off your next purchase!”
- Personalized product or service recommendations
#3 Use SMS for A/B Testing
Using SMS as an A/B testing platform can help you tackle two critical tasks simultaneously:
- Engage with your customers
- Collect data about which types of content produce the best results
During A/B testing, marketers evaluate two slightly different messages simultaneously to find out which is most impactful. That information can then be leveraged when crafting future campaigns.
Why is SMS such a fertile testing ground?
- Text messages are likely to reach customers – SMS messages feature a 98% open rate, and 60% of customers read texts within five minutes of receiving them.
- Consumers welcome SMS – According to data from TechJury, 75% of consumers want to get offers via text.
- Texting is streamlined – SMS and MMS messages are simpler than email or browser ads. Texting is a relatively sleek marketing channel, and there are fewer content variables (like graphics, clickables or subject lines) for testers to contend with.
SMS offers massive research potential because tests are likely to reach consumers, those consumers are actively seeking SMS content, and it’s easy to control the variables being tested.
And, of course, any data gleaned from A/B testing during your last campaign can inform the next one, progressively creating the most effective strategy.
#4 Craft Pre-Written Templates
Pre-written templates are some of the most powerful tools your brand can develop for SMS marketing. They pair beautifully with automation functions, combining the power of pre-written text and pre-established protocols for streamlined, efficient campaign management.
You can create SMS templates for a variety of applications:
- Auto-responses sent when customers sign up for your:
- Loyalty rewards program
- Referral program
- Newsletter
- “Out of office” replies for customer service inquiries outside business hours
- Holiday messages
- Automated responses to customer FAQs like:
- How do I track my order?
- How can I return a product?
- Does my discount code apply to sale items?
Pro tip: Use A/B testing to evaluate these pre-written messages, keeping those that customers respond most positively to and weeding out unsuccessful scripts.
Remember to Keep Well-Organized Template Libraries
Once A/B testing reveals which templates work best, get as much as you can out of these pre-written messages. After all:
- They took time to write
- Tests show that they produce positive engagement
- They save you from some manual writing tasks
The best way to optimize your templates is to organize and store them effectively. Consider using a tagging system, sorting them by category or color-coding them in your SMS platform.
And before you initiate a new campaign using a version of last year’s templates, make sure to review the scripts and make any necessary updates to keep them fresh.
#5 Manage SMS Campaigns with a Texting Platform
By far, the easiest way to optimize and customize text messages for marketing is to use an SMS platform that can do all of the above tasks (and more). The ideal platform should:
- Offer powerful tracking – The best SMS platforms track key performance indicators (KPIs) like open rate, clickthrough rate for links and discount code redemption.
- Provide simple, robust automation – Automation functions should be user-friendly but advanced enough to optimize efficiency.
- Support sophisticated drip campaigns – Dynamic, customizable and timed campaigns should be easy to create (and modify, if needed) on your platform of choice.
When it comes to optimization, leveraging a platform is the key to efficiency for SMS marketing.
Texting Base: An All-in-One Solution for SMS Marketing
Creating personalized text messages for marketing should be efficient, but optimizing your next campaign doesn’t have to be complicated.
Texting Base makes SMS for business simpler than ever. Our all-in-one platform combines tried-and-true digital marketing concepts with innovative automation functions to produce SMS campaigns that are as efficient as they are effective.
Join more than 13,000 brands leveraging the power of text message marketing with Texting Base. Start for free today.
Sources:
Investopedia. Market Segmentation: Definition, Examples, Types, Benefits. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketsegmentation.asp
Forbes. What Does Today’s Consumer Want? Personalized, Seamless, Omnichannel Experiences. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/03/11/what-does-todays-consumer-want-personalized-seamless-omnichannel-experiences/?sh=15442e31e1e8
Oracle. What Is A/B Testing?. https://www.oracle.com/cx/marketing/what-is-ab-testing/
TechJury. 35+ Must-Know SMS Marketing Statistics in 2023. https://techjury.net/blog/sms-marketing-statistics/#gref
