How to Build and Test an Effective SMS Marketing Campaign

SMS marketing is a quick and direct way to keep your audience engaged and your brand memorable, but only when you know how to do it properly.

You’ll need to put a bit more thought in it than simply writing a message and hitting send. Your SMS marketing campaign should be well-planned, with a solid way to test everything before you go live. In this article, we’re sharing everything you should know about how to create an SMS marketing campaign that delivers the best results. 

1. Start With a Clear Objective

It makes sense to start with setting an objective for your SMS campaign. What are you trying to achieve? Maybe you want to increase sales, drive traffic to your website, get customers to book appointments, or simply keep your name in your customers’ minds.

In an ideal world, you probably want to do it all, but pick one main goal for now (you can always do other campaigns with new goals in the future). Without an objective, you’ll find it really difficult to measure the success of your campaign, and you won’t have the understanding to write the kinds of messages that get the response you want. Be specific about what action you want the recipient to take, and shape your message around that.

2. Write Messages That Get Straight to the Point

Nobody has time to read a long SMS message, and if you don’t get straight to the point in your first sentence, you’ll have lost half your audience already. There’s no room for waffle here! Your message should tell people exactly what they need to know and why it matters to them, with a strong call to action and a link to a mobile-friendly page.

You’ll also want to think about when you should send your messages. Your audience is probably more likely to read and act on your message during working hours or early evening than they are late at night.

3. Test Your Messages Before Sending

Imagine creating an SMS marketing campaign you’re really proud of, only to find out weeks down the line that an error has prevented any of your messages to send. All that wasted time and money could have been avoided if you’d committed to proper testing from the start.

Start by testing that the messages actually deliver as expected. Rather than using your own number, you can use a service offering short-term non-VoIP numbers for this (these are especially beneficial if you need to test across different regions). Learn how to get a one-time phone number with SMSPool.

4. Keep Your List Clean

Finally, you’ll want to keep your SMS marketing list as clean and accurate as possible. That means going through your list regularly and removing any inactive numbers and anyone who has opted out. Not only will this improve your delivery rates, but it’ll also help you stay compliant with data laws.

And that’s it: all the basics you should know about effective SMS Marketing. Follow the steps in this guide, and you’ll be more likely to reach the right people and get the response you want.

Digital Marketing Marketing