SMS marketing is one of the highly effective strategies that organizations from different sectors are using frequently. SMS or text messages involve the sending of messages over the mobile phone. Since a majority of people have a mobile phone and text messaging does not require internet connectivity, text messages would definitely reach the recipient. Studies show that text messages are read by 97% of recipients, making it very useful in marketing.
Companies can carry out personalized SMS Marketing campaigns to promote their brand/product. They can reach out to potential and existing customers by sending them messages using text messaging service. These messages can offer specific promotional plans to encourage customers to buy a product/use a service. Text marketing software can be used to run these campaigns in an organized and effective way.
Personalized campaign on SMS
Most organizations use mass text messaging to reach out to customers. This involves sending a standard message to all customers. This is a typical mass promotion campaign and is easy to implement. The problem though is that customers know that these messages are being sent to everyone and may not be impressed. Sending personalized messages can be more effective as the message would be addressed to a specific customer or seem to target a customer rather than be a general message.A personalized message can be addressed to a customer by making use of customer-specific information. Some of the common information used for personalizing a message is the customer name or the email address. The name of a customer, when included in a message would make the message personalized.
A field code, known as a merge tag can be included in the message to personalize the message.
Hi %Name%, we are having a special offer just for you, we are offering a weekend discount of 20%, use the code SPOFF while visiting this link bit.ly/abcd123
The message format above can be used through texting software with a database of customers by selecting the customers to whom the message has to be sent. Once this is done, the software would automatically replace the tag %Name% with the actual name of the customer, as mentioned in the database.
When a customer receives the message, it would look like this:
Hi Andy, we are having a special offer just for you, we are offering a weekend discount of 20%, use the code SPOFF while visiting this link bit.ly/abcd123
As you can see, this message addressed the customer by name and feels more personal. The customer feels that the message is addressed specifically to him. This makes the offer feel special as it is addressed to him and not done through group texting. This is a more effective way of running SMS campaigns by making it personalized.
Apart from the name and email, other information can also be used to personalize a message. These are known as custom fields. Most texting software would have the option to add custom fields. Some of the custom fields that can be added are:
• Phone number
• Birthday
• Gender
• zipcode
• Account number
• Sales representative name
• Coupon code
Zipcode for personalization
The zipcode is the unique postal information to identify the location of a customer. The zip code can be used to run marketing campaigns. Using the zipcode can be helpful as sometimes companies offer location-specific marketing campaigns. Such campaigns can be used to target all customers who stay in a particular locality. A customer merge tag can be used as %zipcode% and this can be entered into the message before sending. Of course, the zip codes of the customers must be available.
This is how you can use it:
Amazing offer for all our customers who live in %zipcode%. We are offering a special discount of up to 30%. Offer open from 9am-7pm on 25th. Don’t miss it!
When you send this message, the recipient would see his/her zip code in the message. This kind of campaign can be used to attract people from a particular area to visit the store on a particular day. This strategy will be helpful to draw in customers to the store and spread the visit of the customer throughout the week/month, instead of making everyone come on one day.
Points to consider
Some of the points to consider while personalizing an SMS marketing campaign are:The message should not be over-personalized by using too many merge tags. A maximum of two tags can be used.
It is very important to ensure the database is updated frequently. Having old data can mess up the effect of the message.
Make sure to test the message using a dummy database to ensure the merge tag is working fine.
Cloud Texting using texting software can be used to personalize messages to customers. Using fields like zipcodes, personalized marketing promotional messages can be sent to customers.
