Everywhere you go today you see some company advertising to text a word or phrase to receive a coupon or enter a contest. Text messaging has taken the marketing world by storm. It has become the marketing tool of choice, and for good reason. Text to Win Campaigns and Mobile Coupons are extremely successful methods to reach out to your prospects and customers.
While Text to Win Campaigns and Mobile Coupons receive all the attention, they are but a small part of your overall Text Marketing program. These campaigns are great for building your Mobile List, an important aspect of Text Marketing. However, often these campaigns alone do not drive consumers into your store, leaving store owners wondering what they are doing wrong.
The true value of Text Message Marketing is found in the ability to easily and effectively distribute your message to a group of people interested in your store, your services, and your jewelry, and to do so in a very economical manner.
When consumers text in to one of your campaigns they are giving you their permission to send them messages on a regular schedule. To fail to do so you are not only disappointing them, but you are missing out on one of the most effective methods to invite them into your store.
Sending a message in bulk to your mobile list is called a Blast. You are blasting your message out to your list. These can be a simple Text Message Blast or an innovative Redeemable Coupon.
Text Blast
A Text Blast is a mass message that you send (blast) out to everybody that has opted in to your list. These are plain text messages limited to 160 characters. Today consumers are busy and prefer to receive short, quick messages. This is why Text Messages are preferred to other forms of advertising. In addition since the message is short, it does not take as much of your time to write out your text message as compared to writing out long advertising copy to send e-mails and create Social Media posts.
You can include a link to any webpage in your message. Then customers with smartphones can tap the screen and the page will open. You can include a link to your store’s website or blog, Facebook page, YouTube video, pictures on Pinterest, or any webpage you want to send them to.
Warning: Putting a URL into a text message is a patented process and you have to have a URL license for this. This is something that you don’t have to buy, but it comes with your text messaging service. Many text messaging services do not provide this, while others such as Mobile 4 Jewelers include this protection at no additional charge.
Redeemable Coupon Blast
Mobile Coupons are excellent for a customer loyalty program, as they treat people that are on your list as special. Your coupons can be general in nature, such as $25 off your next purchase of $150 or more, or specific to a product or category, such as Buy 4 Designer Beads and Get 1 Free.
Many jewelry stores are seeing great results sending out a different Mobile Coupon at the beginning of each month. Then later in the month sending a text blast reminding them to redeem it.
Tips for Creating Text Message Blasts
Text Message Frequency
Sending messages too often can irritate some consumers and if messages are sent too frequently some will begin to unsubscribe from your list. However, do not wait too long between messages. You want your customers to be excited about receiving texts from you, so do not let the excitement fade. A weekly message is often found to be ideal for some stores, while others find their customers prefer receiving messages twice monthly. At a minimum you want to stay in contact with your customer list at least monthly, so they remain accustomed to receiving messages from you. By law, if you do not contact members on your list for 6 months you must delete the list and have consumers re-subscribe.
Schedule Your Text at Appropriate Times
Text messages are opened when they are received. One of the fastest ways to upset customers and have them unsubscribe is to send them messages at the wrong time. Wake them up at 2 a.m. to share a coupon and not only will they unsubscribe, but you may lose them as a customer! The most appropriate time to send texts are between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. However, avoid rush hour. You don’t want your customers trying to read your message while driving.
Be considerate of customers in different time zones, especially if you are located near a time line. If you have a number of customers on your text list for different time zones, be certain to plan for the time difference when scheduling your messages.
Create Messages with Value
Avoid sending any message without value to your list. Provide messages that are useful to your customers and include special offers only available to them.
Keep it Short, to the Point
With Text Messages, space is not on your side. You need to make your messages brief and get straight to the point. While your message must be short, be careful when using abbreviations or shorthand to make certain your customers understand what you mean.
Interested in Getting Started with Mobile Messages?
Mobile 4 Jewelers, www.Mobile4Jewelers.com, is a full service Mobile Messaging Service. It is exclusively for the jewelry industry. In addition to providing all the tools you need to create and maintain your text based marketing, they offer to set-up all your mobile campaigns and send out your messages for you or you can login to your dashboard and easily do it yourself. Text Mobile to 28748 to receive a coupon for $25 off your set-up fees and 5% off your monthly fees.
Brad Simon is co-owner of Internet 4 Jewelers offering Internet Marketing services for retail jewelry stores. Their services include Local Search marketing, Social Network management, and Mobile Marketing. You can contact Brad at Brad@Internet4Jewelers.com or call him at 864-680-4416.
