SMS is an effective communication channel that offers excellent results to those who decide to implement it as a marketing strategy. Thanks to its numerous advantages, more and more companies decide to start a massive SMS campaign to boost their brand.
That is why, in this article, we are going to present you with a complete guide with all the information you need to have at your fingertips to start your successful SMS marketing campaign , including interesting tips.
WHAT IS MASSIVE SMS?
Mass SMS is a marketing strategy that consists of sending a large number of text messages to a target audience, that is, customers or potential buyers of a brand. Today, marketing is used to send notifications, alerts, promotions and offers.
To give you an example, a restaurant can send a text message to its customers offering promotions and discounts to encourage them to visit the premises to try the gastronomic offer.
As you may have noticed, SMS marketing is an excellent communication channel that allows you to stay in touch with customers, creating a closer relationship with your audience, increasing the chances of making sales.
Its advantages are numerous, so it should not be surprising that SMS marketing is used to build customer loyalty and attract the attention of potential buyers.
THE CUSTOMER DATABASE
SMS marketing allows brands to communicate with their customer database easily, quickly, directly and cheaply. At the same time, you will be able to expand your audience , capturing the attention of potential buyers.
That being said, let's now see how the service offered by Afilnet, a leading communication and marketing company, for mass sending of text messages is linked to a company's database.
Capture leads / customers
As we have highlighted before, SMS marketing is a strategy that will help you capture leads and customers in a direct and personalized way , establishing a closer relationship with your database and potential buyers.
In this framework, let's not forget that SMS offers an open rate of 99% and that 90% of recipients read the message within the first 5 minutes of receiving it. Thanks to its evident effectiveness and, taking into account its excellent cost-return on investment, it should not be surprising that many brands decided to take advantage of its benefits in attracting customers.
Now, we are going to see below some specific uses of SMS marketing to attract the attention of consumers and potential buyers.
Get customers through my website
If you want to expand your audience and increase the chances of making a sale, the massive SMS campaign is what you need. In this sense, it should be noted that one of the great advantages of the modern text message is the possibility of including a link that redirects the customer to the website of your store.
In this way, you will be able to write an attractive message to your target audience, also including a discount code that will only be applied if the purchase is made on the web. As you may have noticed, this is a strategy that ends up encouraging the customer to make a purchase that they may not have planned to make, but, because they don't want to miss out on the opportunity, they end up doing it.
At the same time, in the event that the visitor does not want to use the promotion or coupon, once they enter your website, a product or service sold may capture their attention, which could lead to an unexpected sale.
However, for this to happen, the online store must be responsive so that it can be seen correctly on all electronic devices.
Take advantage of customer registration
If you have a service that your customers access through a registry or you have an online store, you cannot miss the opportunity that the registry offers you to create a database for SMS to which you can send information, promotions or advertising through of SMS. To do this, you only have to include a check box in which you ask the user for confirmation to receive promotions via SMS. Keep in mind that the more attractive the message, the better result it will give you.
Once this is done, you only have to save these customers who want to receive information in your database for SMS campaigns.
Get customers from my physical business
Although with the new marketing strategies it is possible to increase to a database, it is also possible to do it from the physical store. There are different techniques that you could apply, such as sending a special promotion or discount by SMS. In this case, the client, to take advantage of the offer, must provide you with his number that will end up entering your database.
One of the solutions that Afilnet offers for this is Stand Marketing, which is based on a Stand that is included in the physical store, through which people who visit the store can register. Normally a discount or promotion is offered to encourage customer registration.
Another method is to incentivize the client to be part of a subscription program so that they leave their personal data that you can use in future campaigns.
Get customers from social networks
Today, if a brand wants to expand its audience, increasing the number of sales made, attracting new customers, it is essential to be present on social networks . In fact, we cannot forget to take advantage of the opportunity that social networks offer to capture new leads for our SMS Marketing campaigns .
To do this, before using social networks as a new target to attract users for your database, you must know your target audience that you are going to address and how to attract this type of audience from social networks .
To simplify the public, we are going to distinguish between 2 types of users:
- Our followers; people or companies that follow us.
- Users of the social network that do not follow us but are in our target audience.
Now, the strategy to capture new leads for your SMS database is based on including a link to a landing page, in which:
- You offer the user the possibility of receiving promotions / offers from your company.
- You offer the user a discount or gift coupon if they subscribe.
- You offer the user a guide, analysis or document of great interest to anyone in your target group.
At the end of the day, your goal is to capture the customer's attention and give them a reason to become a subscriber.
Now, although you can normally reach both followers and non-followers indirectly, if you want to reach the latter you will normally have to promote the publication through the advertising platform that all social networks normally already offer.
In this way, you will be able to complement the advertising strategy on social networks with SMS marketing, boosting your brand and the volume of sales made.
Landing pages
Another very effective strategy to expand your database is the creation of an attractive landing page or landing page where a registration form is incorporated.
Currently, the formulary is one of the most effective methods, since it allows to achieve good results. In order to achieve the pre-established goals, it is necessary to pay attention to all aspects that are part of the landing page.
Each built-in element has to be attractive in such a way that it can draw the attention of the visitor and encourage them to fill out the form. It can be very useful to offer a promotion or discount coupon. How does it work? We explain them to you.
If you want a visitor to fill out the form, leaving their personal data, it is important that something is offered in return. Among the different benefits that can be offered to the user, one of the most appreciated is surely an exclusive promotion (such as the famous 2 x 1) or a 10% discount coupon, for example, which is applied without completed the subscription to the form.
The goal is to obtain the phone number that will be incorporated into the next advertising campaign.
Document download
As we mentioned before, with bulk SMS campaigns it is possible to drive the audience to sign up for your online store or your newsletter. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to capture the attention of the target audience, not only with an attractive and well-written text message or an eye-catching landing page, but also by offering something in the field.
For you to understand better, we are going to give you an example. You could create some type of content on Instagram or Facebook that invites the customer to click on a link to be redirected to the landing page.
Here, the audience can be encouraged to register in the form by offering to download a document whose information is of interest such as an ebook, a PDF or an illustrative pamphlet that is linked to the product or service that the brand sells.
The goal, as in the case that we have previously analyzed, is to expand the database, obtaining the personal information of potential clients, among which, names, emails and, above all, telephone numbers. In this way, you will be able to start an SMS marketing campaign that aims to increase sales by attracting new customers.
Keep the database clean
Before starting a campaign to send bulk SMS, it is very important to verify that the database provides valid phone numbers that are available for receiving text messages.
Checking the status of the database is very important because it will determine the real effectiveness of the SMS marketing campaign. If we stop to think, what would happen if a large number of the recipient numbers of the text messages no longer exist or they canceled their authorization to receive notifications?
Not only do you run the risk of your campaign failing to achieve pre-established marketing objectives, but you may also run into problems with the user explicitly saying they do not want to receive SMS.
In order to avoid inconveniences and for the text message campaign to be successful from all points of view, it is essential to have a clean database.
Now, you may be wondering how to do it. Do not worry because, to help you, we are going to tell you what you have to do to have a clean database ready that you can use at any time.
Using the HLR Lookup service
If you want to keep your database clean so that your SMS marketing campaign is as effective as possible, you will need the HLR Lookup service offered by Afilnet's specialized team.
The HLR Lookup service allows you to find out the status of the telephone numbers that are part of your database. In this way, you will be able to eliminate non-existent numbers, improve the delivery ratio and reduce the investment costs that you have to face.
The operation of the service is quite simple thanks to the platform created by Afilnet. You just have to access the customer panel, select the contact group you want to analyze and click on "Check status".
Once the analysis is finished, which lasts a couple of seconds, you will be able to know the status of each number . The information provided by the service includes the country and network code, international identifier, name of the number operator, its prefix and status (available, temporary or permanent error).
Review the campaigns carried out and eliminate those not delivered
Another strategy that you could use to update your database is to carry out an analysis of the campaigns already carried out . Why? You will be able to discover which were the undelivered messages and thus identify which are the contact numbers that are no longer available.
In fact, we have to point out that, thanks to new technologies and the service offered by Afilnet, you will have at your fingertips the necessary tools to track shipments individually for each recipient or in groups.
Among the different types of information that Afilnet will provide you, there is the status of the campaign results and the status of sending the text message. You will thus be able to select the numbers to which the SMS was not delivered and eliminate it from your database.
Comply with the GDPR
Today it is important to know the GRPD regulations, that is, the General Data Protection Regulation. It is a European legal framework that dictates how to protect the personal data of natural persons and how to use free circulation data.
According to the regulations, before sending SMS you must have the prior authorization of the user for the processing of personal data. Faced with this situation, you may be wondering what to do if the client has provided authorization to later unsubscribe.
To solve this inconvenience, the Afilnet service was born, which links its platform with the NOSEND.ME service, which allows the automation of customer unsubscriptions. Next, we tell you how.
Automate customer terminations with the NOSEND.ME service
In order to comply with the GRPD and avoid problems, Afilnet offers its clients an easy-to-use and intuitive platform that allows efficient management of cancellations. How? Taking advantage of the NOSEND.ME service that is very easy to use. You will only need to attach a link to this URL.
In this way, the client can unsubscribe and not receive more messages , indicating who sent the text message. Thus, from that moment on, the NOSEND.ME service will be in charge of restricting the reception of SMS sent by that brand or company. At the same time, the Afilnet platform blocks the sending of text messages, automatically updating your contact list.
As we have mentioned before, having a clean database is very important to avoid having to face problems in the future, and that is why the automation of unsubscriptions turns out to be a very useful service.
Segment the customer database
To be successful it is essential to segment the database . Before going on to analyze how to carry out segmentation and what criteria to take into account, we are going to tell you what segmentation is.
It is a strategy that allows customers or potential buyers interested in the brand to be grouped based on certain aspects or characteristics. The objective of this grouping is to orient the marketing campaign effectively towards the interests of the audience, increasing the volume of sales made.
In a few words, segmentation in SMS marketing allows you to send personalized text messages that respond to the interests, tastes, and purchasing behaviors of your database, building customer loyalty and attracting potential buyers.
How to segment your consumers and what factors to take into account depends on the type of mass SMS campaign you want to start. In any case, to carry out a simple segmentation, you should group consumers by country, interests and type of customer, as we will show you below.
Segment by country
Creating a group of clients based on their geographical profile is a strategy that will help you create a personalized text message adapted to the type of recipient client. In this sense, by geographical profile we refer to all those data that allow the customer to be located.
Likewise, you can take as categorization criteria the climate, the seasonality and the size of the place. These are all factors that can influence the preference of your users.
Segment by interests
Another type of elements that you should take into account when segmenting your customers are their interests and purchasing behavior. To do this, you must have previously analyzed how the consumer interacts with your advertising campaign and what are the best-selling products.
In this case, you could obtain useful information from the customer's interaction with the web, the type of purchase made in your brand's physical store and the statistics of your e-commerce.
Segment by customer type
Dividing your database according to the type of customer allows you to categorize your audience into different groups whose characteristics are similar. To do this, you should group your database based on gender and age.
CARRY OUT THE MASSIVE SMS CAMPAIGN
import your contacts
One of the first steps to take is to import the contacts present in your database, which will be stored on the platform on the Afilnet platform.
Once the import of the contacts is finished, you will be able to select which customers to include in a default list and which to exclude, and then proceed with the shipment.
The Sender
To build customer trust, it is very important to create a sender that identifies your brand. That is why, using the Afilnet shipping management platform, you will be able to create a sender using the name of the company or just using a phone number.
The important thing is that you do not exceed 11 characters, which is the maximum limit accepted by text messages to the sender.
Personalize your SMS delivery
Do you want your SMS marketing campaign to be successful? The key is to personalize the text message. In this sense, it should be noted that Afilnet knows how important it is to personalize the SMS, which is why its platform offers the possibility of sending messages to selected contact groups by inserting personalized values for each recipient.
The personalized information that you can add is, for example, name, address, order status information or account statement.
Schedule your SMS delivery
If you don't want the SMS to be sent on the spot, don't worry because the perfect solution is to schedule the delivery, setting the day and time of delivery, automating your campaign, saving time and money.
Track the result
Finally, once you have created your text message and sent it, from the Afilnet platform you will be able to track the results .
In this sense, we have to remember that it is very important to analyze the results obtained with the campaign. That is why Afilnet offers its clients the possibility of knowing all the details of the shipments made from the platform for each recipient or by contact group.
The information provided is very detailed, so it's not surprising that you can see which messages were delivered, which are pending, and which were rejected.
Add call to action elements in your SMS campaigns
SMS marketing , if used correctly, is a powerful tool, especially if an effective and clear call to action is included in the body of the message that will inform the consumer that, if they do something, they can get something that is of interest.
In this framework, we have to point out that the SMS can contain few words, so getting the customer's attention quickly is essential. This is where the calls to action come into play, which have to be brief, such as the following: “Register Here”, “Buy Now” or “Click here”.
Next, we are going to present you how to use the call to action in a text message to expand your reach to the target audience.
Inclusion of a link to a landing page
Although SMS has a limited number of characters, innovation has revolutionized text messaging as well.
In this sense, today, one of the functions most loved by companies is the possibility of including a link in the text of the message that redirects the reader to a landing page where a product or service is promoted. It is what in the sector is called Rich Media that improves the experience lived by the client. Why? We tell you.
The inclusion of the link allows you to customize the message to make it more original and attractive to your audience, increasing the possibility of making a sale. In fact, on the landing page you will be able to provide additional information thanks to the optimized web.
The important thing is that the landing page is attractive, the information offered is of interest and that the website is responsive, that is, that it looks correctly on all electronic devices (computer, mobile, tablet, among others).
Inclusion of surveys
If you want to personalize your text message and discover how to improve the service or product offered, your best ally will be the survey. In fact, it becomes an excellent instrument to measure the satisfaction of your consumers with respect to what the company offers. The advantages are numerous:
- You will be able to discover the needs of customers;
- You will know the opinions of your buyers;
- Anticipate the expectations of those who buy in your store;
- You will discover what are the strengths and weaknesses of your brand.
At present, thanks to advances in the technological field, in the SMS you will be able to add a link that redirects to a survey. When the customer receives the message and clicks on the URL, they will be redirected to a landing page where they will find the survey.
To encourage the reader to answer, in the text message you could add a coupon or a small offer of 5% or 10%, a promotion that the client will be able to access only if they respond to the survey.
Inclusion of discount coupons
To increase the volume of sales made for a brand, it can be very useful to offer a promotion or a discount coupon through a text message. Let's not forget that the opening rate of an SMS is very high, and if the message manages to capture the attention of the potential buyer, the chances are high that you want to take advantage of the offer.
In any case, for the promotional SMS to be successful, the database must be segmented to offer a discount that is of interest to the target audience, increasing its effectiveness.
The advantages of this type of SMS are many. You will be able to retain your most active customers, sending special offers, establishing a direct link with them. At the same time, you will be able to expand your audience, convincing potential buyers to make a purchase on your website.
Inclusion of a call to action to our WhatsApp Business account
To achieve the predefined sales goals, it is very important to take advantage of the opportunity to include a call to action in the text message that leads the audience to the company's WhatsApp Business account.
In fact, the incorporation of an attractive call to action will encourage the client to come into direct contact with the brand through WhatsApp Business, where your customer support center will be able to provide all the necessary information to ensure completion. with a sale.
REVIEW KPIs
Now, once an email marketing campaign ends, it is necessary to carry out a follow-up to be able to analyze the results obtained. For this, it is necessary to take into account the information that can be collected through the KPIs, also known as marketing metrics. In this way, you will be able to discover what were the factors that led to the success of the mass SMS campaign and what are the areas where you will have to make some adjustments.
Remember that if you want to meet the pre-established goals with SMS marketing, you cannot not analyze the campaign statistics. They will help you make decisions and improve the operation of future campaigns.
Now let's see what the most important KPIs are.
delivery percentage
It is a metric that will allow you to discover how many of the SMS sent were delivered and received by the recipients . In this way, you will be sure that the number of that client corresponds to an active cell phone number.
click rate
In an SMS marketing campaign that contains a link in the text of the message, it is essential to know how many people clicked on the URL. That is why the click rate is very important, since it will show you which are the key elements of your promotional or notification message that you will be able to reuse in a future campaign.
Lead rate or conversion rate
The conversion rate is a ratio that is calculated taking into account the number of visitors that were transformed into leads or customers. That is why the number of total conversions is divided by the number of total visitors.
By including a link that redirects to your web store or a landing page in the text message, it is possible to check how many visitors converted into leads. In this way, you will be able to verify if your SMS marketing campaign was effective and if it has met the objectives that were to be achieved.
drop rate
If you want to verify the satisfaction of your customers regarding the way you advertise your brand, you should analyze the unsubscribe rate. In this sense, we have to remember that, in order to send promotional or notification SMS to the client, it is necessary to have the prior authorization of the user, which can be withdrawn at any time and that is when the cancellation occurs.
It is a very interesting piece of information to analyze because it indicates that there is something that is not working correctly with your SMS Marketing campaign. It may be that you are sending too many SMS or that the day and time are not correct. There are many factors that come into play and that you should consider to improve in the future.
PREPARE THE NEXT MASSIVE SMS CAMPAIGN I WANT TO KNOW MORE, HOW TO START SENDING MASSIVE SMS?
If you made it to the end of this article, we are sure that you are ready to start your SMS marketing campaign that will boost your brand and increase sales. In any case, if you want your massive text message campaign to be successful and meet your expectations, it is best to trust the advice offered by Afilnet.
Its team of communication and marketing experts will provide you with all the support you need to meet your marketing objectives thanks to the commercial and technical support they offer. Likewise, using the premium platform for managing quick SMS shipments, you will be able to start your SMS marketing campaign successfully thanks to the numerous easy-to-use tools incorporated by Afilnet.
If you want to know more and request more information, CLICK HERE .