Every marketer fights for customers’ attention, trust, and loyalty to the brand. The stronger relationship exists between brand and customer, the more profits business is able to generate.
SMS marketing is one of the easiest ways to boost customer engagement and make your clients interested in your offers and activities. In this article, we will describe the simplest strategies for engaging customers with SMS.
What Is Customer Engagement?
Customer engagement is a process of constantly building relationships between a brand and its clients. Usually, businesses choose several channels for these purposes, including social media, websites, text messaging, etc.
The main goal of customer engagement strategies is to keep clients interested in the brand not only because of the product or service but because they receive additional value.
What are the Benefits of Using SMS for Customer Engagement?
As we have already mentioned, SMS marketing shows high efficiency in increasing customer engagement. As you can imagine, the reason for that is the characteristics of SMS channels themselves.
- SMS is a direct channel: the open rate can reach an unbelievable 98 percent, especially if automated SMS testing tools to check the routes are used; hence, almost all of your subscriber list will read your message, while with email marketing this rate will reach only a third.
- SMS is flexible, and despite the restriction in characters for a single SMS, you can implement different ideas and approaches to interact with your customers.
- SMS is simple and understandable for customers, it is easy and fast to interact with them; that’s why there is a bigger chance to reach the person than it will be with other communication channels and maximize engagement.
TOP 7 SMS Customer Engagement Strategies
So, we have established that it is possible to increase customer engagement with SMS and reach decent results. However, how can you achieve that and what actions should you take? We prepared seven tips that will help you to connect with customers via text.
Tip 1: Consent
Opt-in and opt-out are essential in SMS marketing, as regulations of many countries imply their mandatory usage. However, it has also more personal meaning, as you show respect for a person’s wishes and time, which might win you an extra point.
Tip 2: Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are always a good way to support a steady connection with customers, as you can provide them with something special, and hence, make them feel special. And such an emotion can make a person your follower for a long time.
Tip 3: Reminders
Reminders are relevant for companies that provide services and make appointments — beauty, healthcare industries, and others will benefit greatly from these types of SMS messages. The advantage is clear: you will simplify the life of your customers by reminding them about upcoming appointments and at the same time ensure that your time won’t be wasted if the person forgets to cancel.
Tip 4: Feedback
Asking for feedback on your services is one of the other great ways to engage SMS users. Again, you will be able to collect precious data for your business, as well as react if there are real reasons for complaints.
Tip 5: Strong call-to-actions
Even the best message won’t be successful if you miss a call to action. People react the best when they have a clear, simple call. Forming a strong call-to-action will not only increase SMS engagement but also conversion rates.
Tip 6: Special offers and discounts
Special offers can attract customers and make them interact with your business even if they haven’t bought or used your services for a long time. Personally-targeted messages will work even better, as you will be able to tailor your offer to a person’s needs more precisely.
Tip 7: Analytics
Analytics will help you to improve your campaigns, give up those that aren’t working as expected, and boost those that have shown great performance. As usual, insights into your result will sharpen your future strategies.
Wrapping Up
It is quite easy to engage customers with texting, moreover, it’s cost-efficient and quick. We suggest trying it, even if you are working with other communication channels.
