SMS campaigns are a popular way to market to your target audience. They reach your customers fast, have an open rate of 98%, and don’t take much time to read. But, sometimes, assumption isn’t enough, and tangible results are needed to modify marketing strategies. That’s where our team of SMS experts’ steps in. Read on to find out how to track your SMS marketing performance and how to improve your overall SMS text marketing strategy.
How to Track Your SMS Campaign Performance
With measurable results, planning at your next marketing meeting can be much easier!
Unique Discount Codes
The easiest and most effective way to track the success of an SMS marketing campaign is by using a discount or free delivery code. Within your website or ecommerce platform create a discount or free delivery code e.g. SMS10 for 10% discount or FREEDEL for free delivery. Include the code within the SMS text campaign. Each time the code is used it’ll be a direct result of the SMS text campaign. After that simply calculate the cost of the SMS text campaign against the total amount of revenue gained. Leaving you with the return on investment or ROAS (return on advertising spend).
Trackable URL Links
Imagine you want to promote a limited-time discount with a link to later see how effective this method is. Well, by using the Text Global bulk SMS platform, you can do just that. Featuring a built-in short link URL tool allowing platform user to see exactly how many times the URL link has been clicked. Furthermore, the Enterprise Platform evaluates the total link clicks but also “who” clicked the link. Powerful marketing insights leading to a more defined and segmented audience.
By Using Google Analytics and UTM Links
Although more difficult and time-consuming, UTM links track web visitors to converted orders.
A UTM code is a snippet of simple code that you can add to the end of a URL to track the performance of campaigns and content. There are 5 variants of URL parameters you can track – source, medium, campaign, term and content. Dimensions you track via UTM codes show up in your analytics reports to give you a clearer insight into marketing performance.
UTM stands for “Urchin Traffic Monitor”. This name comes from Urchin Tracker, a web analytics software that served as the base for Google Analytics.
How to Improve Your SMS Text Marketing Strategy
Whether you already have tracked metrics or not, it is always a good idea to work on improving your SMS campaigns. Here are a few tips from our marketing team of experts to help you connect with your audience.
SMS Message Tone of Voice
Your customers probably receive many SMS messages per day, so your job is to make the one you send stand out. With that being said, people are tired of monotonous robot-like messages from businesses that are sent out every day. So, try to sound genuine in your messages and customize messages to your customers.
SMS Message Structure
Sending three jumbled sentences in a text just won’t cut it. You must maintain a certain structure that will keep your customer interested. Start off your messages with an attention-grabbing opener, showcase the offer, reveal how the offer can be redeemed, and finally, a way for recipients to opt out.
Timing
The date and time in which SMS messages are sent plays a huge role in its success. An SMS text marketing campaign should be sent out around 1 – 2 hours before organic sales peak. For example, a restaurant who wants to increase evening takeaway orders would see best results sending at around 16:00PM. Around the time when most potential customers would start thinking about dinner. Whereas an online retailer may see higher organic orders in the evening between 20:00PM – 22:00PM. Therefore in this use case the best time to send would be around 18:30pm – 19:00PM. Timing is one of the main contributors to the overall success of an SMS text marketing campaign. Therefore it’s essential to do some research and monitor the response rates.
Placing A Sense of Urgency
The less time a customer has to redeem an offer, the more likely they’ll commit to purchase. Many retailers use “Flash Sales” as a way to encourage impulse buying. SMS text marketing is the perfect channel for last minute offers, with a limited time frame for redemption. The reason why is the speed of delivery and average response time of just 90 seconds. Meaning customer’s will receive the offer via SMS text quickly, and act quickly. Use phrases such as “Hurry, sale ends at midnight” or “Be quick, offer ends soon!” to capture attention. Phrasing like “Limited stock” or “Items are selling fast” are another useful way to place a sense of urgency.
Call to Action
A call to action is essentially “how to redeem the offer”. And with most SMS text marketing campaigns most commonly used are either a URL link to the website, a contact number to call or a reply mechanism. It’s important to think about what call to action will result in the best return on investment. And what you’re looking to achieve from the SMS campaign i.e. increase online orders, generate more leads, more table reservations etc. One big consideration is using a branded URL link vs a non-branded short link. Many marketeers are always keen to understand how an SMS campaign has performed. And as a result quite often a non-branded trackable short URL link is used. But this can have a negative impact on click through rates or sales conversions. The main reason for this is trust. Non-branded URL links make it difficult to know where the link will be directed. So if your aim is to generate sales, it may be better to use a branded URL link.
Data Segmentation
Although sending one generic message to all your contacts is easy, it isn’t the best promotion method. Try to cut your list into short lists of customers according to the total number of orders, the total amount they have spent, the last date ordered, and other interests. The Text Global Enterprise Platform has a built-in segmentation and automated communication flow tool. Allowing users to send targeted offers to more defined audience lists. Leading to reduced marketing costs and higher return on investment.
Conclusion
As you can see, with a few simple tricks, you can hugely boost your SMS text marketing strategy. Text Global provide all of our clients with a bespoke SMS text marketing and communication strategy plan. Where we understand your goals and business challenges. Suggesting ideas and advice to that align with your brand ethos. Contact us to set up a simple exploration call with a member of our service team!
