Effective Business Text Messaging

To help you make the most of your SMS marketing campaign you need to ensure that the text messages you send are working for your business. Here are some important things to keep in mind when composing your messages.

1. Avoid text speak: Each text message you send gives your customers an impression of your business. As well as making sure your messages are constructed using correct spelling and punctuation, you should also ensure that you write in full sentences and avoid using text speak so that you come across as professional and reliable to your recipients.
2. Be clear and concise: Plan carefully what you want to say before you send your message. Make sure that you include all the information your customers will need to avoid confusion and allow the content of your message to be understood clearly by all recipients.
3. Keep messages short: You should only really use 1 full text message length in which to write your content. Sending your customers wordy volumes of text through SMS may be irritating. SMS is intended to be used to send and receive short, simple messages. Longer messages should be considered if the information you’re sharing is too important to simplify or abridge.
4. Don’t overdo it: In the same way that longer messages should be considered carefully, avoid bombarding your customers with lots of text messages. Treat SMS marketing as you would any other form of marketing. You wouldn’t make repeat calls to the same customer a dozen times a day, for instance. Instead, limit the number of text messages you send to a few well thought out messages over a longer period.
5. Value your customers: Everyone loves to be appreciated and text messages give you the perfect opportunity to make your customers feel so. You could try personalising SMS messages by greeting the customer within the message using their first name. Alternatively, try sending out an automated message wishing them happy birthday and attaching to a special birthday discount or free redeemable gift. Sending out occasional offers via text message will also help to make your customers feel privileged that they are receiving a unique text-message-only deal that isn’t available to every customer.

Creating the perfect text messages takes time and practice. Keep experimenting with different types of SMS messages to see which gain the most positive responses.