Are your subscribers unhappy with your text messages?

Anyone can launch an SMS marketing campaign, but not everyone can do it well. In fact, some companies and organizations trudge along blindly, completely unaware that their text message marketing tactics are doing more harm than good. They barely even notice as their supporters flee from their subscription lists like rats from a sinking ship. And one day, when it’s already too late, they turn to each other and ask, “What did we do wrong?”

This doesn’t have to be your story. Your SMS campaign can be a vast success, and you can ensure that your results surpass your expectations by learning how to keep your subscribers entertained and engaged. The best way to do that? To learn exactly what it is that makes subscribers opt out of SMS campaigns. Almost always, one of these four mistakes is to blame:

1. Text Message Marketing Frequency

Frequency is the number one culprit behind dropped subscriptions. Here’s what usually happens – a local company, let’s say a restaurant, signs up for text message marketing services. They’re so excited to see their new marketing strategy at work that they go a little overboard. They send daily texts announcing the soup of the day. They text discount codes by the hour. Sometimes, they send the same duplicate message over and over again. And their subscribers, feeling smothered and annoyed, quickly unsubscribe.

How can you avoid this? By learning to time your texts properly. This will vary depending on your campaign, but here’s one example. Say you own a pizza shop. On your boxes, you print “Text “Pizza” to 6874 for a free offer!” When texters send the message, they receive one back offering them a free order of breadsticks with their next purchase. Two days later they receive another text that reads, “Don’t feel like cooking today? Why not order a pizza and use your promo code to get a free order of breadsticks?” Try a campaign like this and you’ll be surprised by how many additional orders you receive. After this initial interaction, wait a week to contact your new subscribers again.

2. SMS Marketing Tone and Content

It’s not just what you say, it’s also how you say it. Many subscribers turn away because they dislike the tone of the texts you send them. While trying to win over customers with humor, a local diner might text a joke that many subscribers find offensive. The owner of a museum may text using 10-dollar words and lofty platitudes that alienate supporters. A salon might hard sell their services so often that they start to sound like shady used car salesmen. These are all examples of tones that can break a relationship instead of build one.

Even recipients who give your tone a thumbs-up may be turned off by your content. They might feel like the knowledge and updates you share have little significance or impact on their lives, or that your announcements of events or promotions are of minimal interest. They may even start to wonder why they subscribed in the first place. When subscribers feel this way, it’s easy to understand why they’d choose not to receive further messages.

So in order for SMS marketing services to be utilized to their full advantage, your tone and your content need to work, and they need to work together. To make sure your tone hits the mark, try this – read every message aloud before you send it. Does the message sound like something you’d say to a customer or supporter in person? If not, you may want to consider a revision. To optimize your content, mix it up. Try not to send the same “kind” of message twice or three times in a row. The more diverse your text message marketing campaign is, the more likely subscribers will be to find your messages useful and relatable.

3. Incentives from SMS Marketing

Promotions and incentives play a huge role in most text message marketing campaigns. Free appetizers, discounted haircuts, buy one get one half off event tickets – they’re all great tools for helping your business, and your subscriber list, grow. But again, your strategy for how you offer incentives will determine your success.

First, you need to ask yourself how valuable your offers are to customers. A 10% discount on a $200 ticket to a charity ball isn’t much of a deal. But a free child’s admission to a local zoo is an offer that many subscribers may actually redeem.

You should also be wary of the frequency and variety of your promotions. If no customers redeemed your free appetizer promo code the first time you sent it out, texting it five more times over the course of two weeks isn’t going to suddenly make the incentive a big hit. In fact, your incessant messaging may lose you dozens, or even hundreds of subscribers. Don’t go overboard with your messages. Track each promotional offer, then adapt your efforts to focus on the promotions that were redeemed the most and don’t waste your time sending out the types of offers that were mostly ignored.

4. Brand Experience Outside of Text Message Marketing

If you think you’ve covered all your bases, and that your SMS marketing strategy is close to perfect, there may be an outside force that can cause your subscription list to shrink. As you know, your company or organization reaches far beyond your text message marketing services. You may have a chain of restaurants, a volunteer street team, or a weekly radio show. There are plenty of ways you can connect to customers and supporters outside of texts, and if someone has a bad experience in one of these arenas, they may choose to cancel their subscription to your messaging campaign.

A rude waitress, an offensive disc jockey, a less than helpful customer service department – all of these things can leave a bad taste in subscribers’ mouths. Try SMS polling to get feedback from your current subscribers. And if you learn that a recent ad campaign, a defective product, or a dirty restaurant is a problem, focus your efforts on fixing the problem as soon as you can. When customers see you responding to their feedback, your relationship will become stronger than ever.

If this seems like a lot of information to take in all at once, don’t be dismayed. It’s true that using these tips will help you craft a winning strategy with your SMS marketing services, but at the end of the day the most important thing is that you know your business and that you know your customers. You know what your customers need, what your supporters believe in, and you know what your business or organization can do to help. And an effective text message marketing campaign is just an extension of that relationship. So if you feel a little uncertain that your efforts are hitting the mark, just think about that relationship and try to evolve a strategy that will nurture it and help it grow.

Need a little help? Contact us to learn how to put SMS marketing services to work for you.

How Does it Work?

A keyword inside your JA.TXT account can be used to ask people for their email address and then add them to your ActiveCampaign list.  This can be useful when you’re trying to collect emails offline at events, your brick and mortar location, or through traditional media.  It only takes two quick text messages for them to join your list.

3 Easy Steps to Integrate with ActiveCampaign

1.  You create a web form inside your ActiveCampaign account that will be used to capture the signups.  It is recommended you also create an autoresponder for that list so new members will receive a welcome email immediately.

2.  Forward the code for that web form (or the link) to your JA.TXT account manager.  They will integrate this with your account and discuss the best text message responses for your campaign.

3.  When someone texts your keyword to the short code, the JA.TXT system will ask them for their email address.  When they respond, that address will be submitted through the web form and into your Active Campaign account immediately.

We are very excited about this latest integration and we look forward to helping you launch your first email capture campaign soon!

Why Do I Want to Capture Email Addresses through SMS?

There are many advantages of collecting emails via SMS.  For more information please check out the following blog posts:

• How to Use SMS to Grow Your Opt-In Email List

• Kill Fewer Trees at Your Next Event, Use SMS Marketing

• Text Messaging is an Easy Call-to-Action

7-Eleven increases in-store traffic with SMS

The convenience store chain is using text messaging to distribute mobile coupons via a link in the message. The goal behind this campaign is to drive consumers into the stores to try a new Slurpee flavor and grow the overall SMS database for 7-Eleven.

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Caribou Coffee builds buzz around new location via SMS

To celebrate the launch of a new store in Illinois Caribou Coffee ran a sweepstakes via text message that gave participants a chance to win free beverages for a year. This contest generated awareness of the new store and built a database of opted-in mobile users for future promotions.

“Utilizing SMS technology for this purpose made the most strategic sense in terms of maximizing participation levels,” said Alfredo Martel, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Caribou Coffee, Minneapolis.

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Macy’s relies on SMS to drive Labor Day sales

Macy’s encouraged shoppers to stop by during the Labor Day weekend through a text message sent out to their opted-in mobile database. Each message contained an offer and a link to the company’s mobile website.

Read More

For more on how text messaging can be a valuable part of your mobile marketing strategy be sure to check out our blog post “3 Reasons To Start Your Mobile Marketing With Text Messaging”

When we’re working with the client to determine the prize they almost always bring up some sort of “i” product; iPad, iPod, etc.  Obviously the thought here is “everyone loves the iPad and everyone will try to win one.”  While this might be true, the client is almost never selling a product or service that “everyone” wants.

Qualify Your Database on the Way In

Sure, while giving away an Apple product might yield the biggest database it doesn’t yield the most interested database.  For example, if you’re a carpet cleaning business running radio spots with the call-to-action “text in for your chance to win a whole house cleaning for free!”  You’re going to get a list full of people who actually want and need carpet cleaning, not just everyone looking for a free gadget. If you have really dirty carpets this offer may be even MORE attractive than an iPad, and get your attention faster.

Build a Database of People “On the Fence”

After you pull the winner you’re going to have a list of people who are primed for a “second chance offer” or “last-minute deal” that will encourage them to buy.  Why not send them a text message or email when business is slow?  For example, “schedule an appointment for a free quote this week and get 20% off per room!”

Everyone is Looking for an Excuse

Let’s face it, we all have a list in our heads of things we want to buy but haven’t yet because there’s hasn’t been a good “excuse” or great deal.  Give us the chance to win that product or service for free and we’re going to take it.  Give us a great follow up offer with an expiration date on it?  Well, you’d be surprised how many people will start calling and how effective this technique can be.

Sometimes it’s a Good Idea to Giveaway an iPad

There are some situations where giving away an Apple product can be effective.  Let’s say you’re attending an industry tradeshow that will be full of your target audience.  Since admission to the tradeshow has already qualified them, giving away something very attractive like an iPad might make sense.  Now your goal is to capture as much of the audience as possible, rather than fill your database with people who will never be interested in your messages.

What have you tried as a mobile marketing giveaway? Leave a comment below!

Do you even find yourself emailing and texting at the same time?

Quick, answer these two questions –

1. Do you read and send emails?
2. Do you read and send text messages?

We’re going to go out on a limb and guess your answers to both of these questions are a resounding “yes!” Chances are you’re probably doing at least one of them right now.

It’s no surprise email and text messaging are the most widely used digital communication channels today, sometimes even beating out the good old telephone.  What may be a surprise is how well these two technologies can work together.

Learn How SMS Can Help Your Email Marketing

Join email marketing expert DJ Waldow and JA.TXT President Justin Mastrangelo on Thursday, July 19^th at 2PM ET for this free webinar.

On this jammed-packed 30 min webinar you will learn how to use SMS (text messaging) to find and engage new email subscribers.  You will also learn:

1. Ways to use traditional media, events, and foot traffic to grow your email list through text messaging
2. Tips on using a welcome email series to quickly engage new subscribers
3. Strategies for using email and SMS together to maximize your campaign’s effectiveness

Register today and find out how these two widely-used technologies can help you achieve your marketing goals and grow your audience.

Also, If you’re interested in learning more about DJ Waldow (and how you can be a better email marketer) be sure to check out Waldow Social, his Twitter feed, and his latest book The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing: Grow Your List, Break the Rules, and Win.

Have you ever been to a rally where the speaker told everyone to send an email to get involved?

When you’re walking down the street you never see an outdoor advertisement that tells you to send an email to learn more about a product or service.

Why not? Because email isn’t a very good call-to-action in those scenarios.

If you’re focused on email marketing somewhere on your list of goals is probably “increase list size.” The trouble with that goal is there are only so many ways you can grow an email list, and many of those ways depend on web traffic or the dreadful clipboards and pens.

Is there a better way for offline efforts to grow an email list?

Yes, using text messaging. Text messaging is a great call-to-action because it’s simple, easy, and everyone has it on their phone (unlike email). It also helps that you don’t have to come up with a subject line or key-in a long address.

How Does It Work?

In the scenario of the rally above, a speaker and the printed materials handed out at the event would direct attendees to send a text message to get involved. For example, “Text the word SUPPORT to 12345 to sign up and find out how you can help us!”

After doing this the user would receive an immediate text message back asking them to respond with their email address to join the list. After responding the user would then receive a final text message confirming receipt of the address. If additional information is needed, like a zip code, this can be requested with another text message.

Once the email address is received it can be saved in a database for download later or pushed directly into an email marketing platform so the user has the welcome email waiting for them when they get back to their inbox.

The 3 best opportunities where text messaging can grow an email list

1. Traditional media: Just like in the example above, text messaging is a much easier call-to-action for your TV, radio, print, or outdoor ad. Have your audience text-in to get a coupon for your product or register for an upcoming event via email.

2. Events: Lose the old-fashioned, tacky clipboards and make signing up easier for your attendees. Nobody likes to wait in line for a pen. Have the speaker direct attendees to sign up in seconds by texting-in. Pass out cards with the instructions while people are walking in or out of the event. Tie signing up to an on-the-spot giveaway and drive even more participation. Hint: Call the winner from the stage at the end of the event, everyone will love it.

3. Foot traffic: Give all those people walking through your door or waiting in line an easy way to join your email loyalty club. Have them text-in for an email discount good on their next visit.

We hope this gets you thinking about ways to use text messaging to grow your email list. We’re sure you can come up with some great ideas we haven’t covered here. If you feel like sharing, drop in a comment below. We’d love to hear what you come up with!

1.  No more fishbowls

Not only do they collect paper they look tacky.  Are you having attendees drop their business cards in a fish bowl to win a prize or get more information?  And then who is wasting their day manually entering those business cards into an Excel file or CRM? Have attendees send a text message to enter the giveaway.  Ask them for their email address too.  Now you have two pieces of information, instantly.  You can even have that information pushed into an Excel file or CRM, automatically.  Why not have an email sent to them right after the event thanking them for their attendance?  What can you include in that email while the event is fresh in their mind?

2.  Take all those clipboards and throw them away

If you’re still collecting information on clipboards you’re doing it the hard way.  Instead of asking your attendees to wait around for someone to pass them the clipboard have them pull out their phone while the speaker is still talking, send a quick text message, and signup.  In seconds you will have saved all that hassle of waiting for the sheet, trying to find a pen that works, and then trying to decipher their writing.  Remember, you can ask them for their email address too.  Then a welcome email can ask them to complete other information that will be helpful to you.  The email can also link them to your social media sites.

3.  Nobody likes to count votes

Does your event involve some type of voting or survey?  Are you still using paper ballots?  Test message voting isn’t just for American Idol.  Have your attendees send a text message to cast their vote.  Not only is it easier for them, they won’t be wondering around looking for the ballot box.  It’s also easier for you and your event staff because the votes are counted instantly.  You can announce the winners right away without rushing to count a stack of paper ballots.  You can even screen the votes so each mobile number can only vote one time. Case Study – “How Text Message Voting Helped the South Side Soup Contest Run a Better Event“

Don’t Forget – Events are Great Place for Mobile Marketing

In the end not only do these tactics save trees and make your event run smoother, they also open up a few really good opportunities for mobile marketing.  In any of these situations the event attendees mobile number could be saved (with consent) for future messages.  In addition, the confirmation response messages could include links to a mobile landing pages and videos.  For example, “Thanks for entering to win! To get a behind-the-scenes look at our latest product follow this link …”

What do you think?  Are these good ideas?  Do you have others?

Fire off a comment below or contact us.

This post was originally featured on Social Fresh, a site dedicated to social media and marketing education for business.

Here are four ways to prevent your next SMS coupon or offer from getting out of control:

1. Use expiration dates

It’s easy to include an expiration date in either an outbound text message or a campaign auto-response.  For example, “Text OFFER to 12345 for 20% off your next visit.”  The message the user gets back could contain a “use by” date.

But what if you want that date to always be a certain number of days from when they text-in?  That can be done too with dynamic date insertion.  The user will always have a designated number of days to receive the offer.  You can even set a start date so they can’t use the offer the same day they text-in.

2.  Make the offer time-sensitive or limit the uses

Another really easy way to prevent abuse is to limit when the offer can be redeemed (today only!) or how many times it can be used (for the first 50 people!).  Limiting the offer to a certain number of people can often times increase the redemption rate as well.  Nobody likes to be left out!

3. Train staff to look for “from” number

There’s always fear that the people in your mobile database will forward the offer they get on to other people who are not on the list.  The easiest way to combat this is to train your staff to look for the number the message comes from.  If it’s not from the shortcode you’re using then they’re not on the list.  If you’re sending them an offer code they can use on a website have them input their phone number first to make sure they’re in the subscriber database.

4.  Deliver the coupon via email or mobile web page

If you must track redemption using a bar code scanner sometimes it’s best to use text messaging as the delivery mechanism which either asks for their email address where the coupon will be sent or links them to a mobile web page where they can view and have the offer scanned.  Using these methods you are still able to benefit from text messaging’s tremendous read rate and ease-of-use, but also use other technologies to better restrict the promotion.

Are you considering SMS coupons?  Don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or contact us if you have other questions.

When most marketers think about mobile marketing two tactics sometimes come to mind before anything else; mobile apps and search.  While for some businesses these tactics may be great opportunities, there are certainly many organizations without a good reason for an app or an audience who is not currently searching for them using their smartphones.

Here are three BIG mobile marketing opportunities often overlooked by businesses and non-profits:

1. Traditional Media

With all the buzz about digital and online marketing it’s easy to forget about “old fashioned” traditional media.  It may be easy to forget about traditional media even if you’re currently spending some of your marketing budget there.

Traditional media includes TV, radio, print, direct mail, and outdoor.  While these channels aren’t getting much attention right now they are still getting plenty of eyeballs.  If you’re currently using one of these why not incorporate a mobile marketing call-to-action?  Chances are your target audience will have a phone within inches of them when they see or hear your latest ad.

• Have your audience text-in for a coupon, giveaway, or future product update.
• Have them scan a QR code to watch a video about your product or service, or testimonial from a recent customer.
• Have them interact with the ad, give them more, and collect their data if possible.

If you’re already buying media the cost to add a mobile marketing element is insignificant.  Stop making them remember your website address and send them to your mobile website, now!

2.  Events

Does your business or non-profit hold, sponsor, or attend events?  Does anyone at those events have a phone? Ok, that was a stupid question; of course they have a phone!  Give them a reason to use that phone to engage with your organization.

• Hand out fliers encouraging them to text-in for information on future events, to enter a contest, or to voice their opinion on the spot.
• Put up signs at your next tradeshow that let them scan a QR code to learn more about your people, product, or history.
• Stop using clipboards to capture data!  It’s time consuming, inaccurate, and a pain for your attendees.  Use text messaging to capture email address, zip code, and more.  Use QR codes to send them to your mobile website to donate or purchase on the spot.

Everyone at your events and tradeshows is standing around with a phone in their pocket or purse.  Give them a reason to get it out and do something!

3.  On-site

Just as your audience has phones with them at your events, they also have phones with them when they’re at your place of business.  If you have a store, entertainment property, or anything with foot traffic you have a great opportunity to take advantage of mobile marketing. And it will only cost you a few printed signs.

• Put up signs where your customers congregate; eating areas, waiting areas, etc.
• Have them text-in or scan a QR code to join a loyalty club, enter to win, or save on their next visit. Build a database of repeat customers.
• Provide an exclusive behind-the-scenes mobile video about your business.  Give them something entertaining, be creative.
• Answer their questions, or get their feedback, via text message or mobile website.

There’s no better time to interact with your audience than when they’re immersed in your brand experience.  Take advantage!

In Conclusion

Text message marketing and QR codes are the easiest drivers of interaction, but with all three opportunities above, your mobile website and any videos you have can play a big part.

Content is crucial to strengthening the relationship your audience has with your brand, and mobile is the key to getting them to that content.

Text message voting allowed event attendees to quickly and easily cast their votes for multiple awards during the event. As a result, participation in voting dramatically increased from the previous event when paper ballots were used.

Background:

The South Side Soup Contest is an annual volunteer-driven event in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  Each February soup lovers spend one Saturday afternoon visiting different retail locations to sample soups made by local restaurants.  As part of this event the attendees are able to vote for their favorite soup in different categories.

The Problem:

In the past the event organizers used paper ballots to capture the votes.  Ballots would be collected at each retail location, tabulated separately, and then reported to the event organizers who would compile the totals and determine the winners.

This method was not only extremely time-intensive for the volunteers it was very susceptible to human error.  In addition, the number of event attendees who voted was only 12%.

The Goal:

Remove the vote tabulation burden from the volunteers and increase participation in the contest voting.

The Solution:

By working with JA.TXT the event organizers were able to setup a text message voting system for four different awards.  Attendees cast their votes one at time by texting keywords and soup ID numbers to the designated shortcode.  A web dashboard let the organizers and volunteers view real-time voting results.

The Results:

• Attendee voting participation went from 12% the year before to over 50%.
• Many veteran volunteers commented that working the event was much easier this time without the burden of counting the votes.
• Attendees enjoyed receiving notification of the winners via text message immediately following the event, rather than remembering to check the website or Facebook page later in the day.

If you would like to learn more about SMS voting for your event please give us a call at 1-888-932-0999 or fill out this form.  We look forward to hearing from you!