10 best practices to get your global SMS and text marketing right

According to MarketingWeek, almost 40% of consumers surveyed by Yotpo said they’re more likely to buy something after a brand texts them.

Additionally, 37% of UK respondents said they engage more with SMS messages from companies than before the pandemic.

So, if you’re interested in converting more customers, making more sales, increasing brand loyalty & retention, and delivering a better customer experience, SMS marketing is definitely the way to go.

But SMS marketing to your global customers can be tricky to get right. That’s why adhering to SMS marketing and text marketing best practices is essential. If you don’t, you may end up wasting essential resources on SMS marketing campaigns that do more harm than good.

That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 SMS and text marketing best practices, so you can avoid common mistakes and set yourself up for SMS success.

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#1 Time text messages carefully

When sending SMS marketing messages in different time zones, it’s critical that you plan your sending times carefully for each time zone.

Otherwise, you might irritate your customer base by sending SMS marketing texts at inappropriate times, like when they’re asleep or watching TV late at night.

In general, it’s best to send SMS marketing messages during business hours out of respect for your customers’ free time.

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#2 Refine SMS marketing content

When it comes to SMS marketing, every character counts. You only have 160 characters to play around with, so don’t waste any of your space with irrelevant, poorly written content.

It’s important that you maintain a consistent brand tone of voice in every text message. If not, your customers may become suspicious of the SMS marketing and opt out.

Developing a brand messaging strategy will help you stay consistent and reinforce your unique selling points.

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#3 Avoid txting lik dis

You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t use appropriate language simply because they’re using an SMS service to text their customers.

Though you have a limited amount of space, try avoiding using classic “text speak” by shortening words, for example, using “gr8” instead of “great.”

This can come across as unprofessional. If necessary, use more traditional abbreviations for words and opt for an MMS message (which has a larger character count) or multiple messages if you’re struggling to fit in information concisely.

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#4 Don’t leave customers on “seen”

If you’re using global SMS marketing to engage with your customers in a two-way conversation or for real-time customer service, make sure you respond to each customer promptly.

It may be helpful to devise customer service opening hours specifically for SMS marketing support so that you won’t disappoint customers with long wait times.

You can also include information directing them to the best way to contact them outside of these hours for urgent support.

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#5 Use text marketing for offers

The reason many customers sign up to receive SMS marketing messages is that they will gain something from doing so, usually access to exclusive special offers.

If you’re constantly sending SMS messages that are simply sales-focused and don’t offer anything of value to your customers, they’ll likely opt out.

So, when developing your SMS marketing strategy, make sure you come up with special offers, discounts, and giveaways customers won’t find anywhere else.

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#6 Make opting into SMS worth it

Aside from providing special discounts and exclusive offers to your global customers via SMS, there are other ways to make them happy they opted in.

Before sending any marketing texts, ask yourself, “does this provide genuine value to my customers?” If the answer is no, go back to the drawing board.

Whether it’s real-time updates on your upcoming sale, reminders of important events, or helpful guides to using certain services or products, try to be as useful to your customers as possible.

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#7 Stay compliant with local laws

Following compliance best practices for SMS marketing is vital if you want to avoid getting fined by industry regulators and losing consumer trust.

Here are the most important compliance best practices to keep in mind:

• Get permission – Make sure your customers agree to receive text marketing
• Include disclaimers – Like “text message rates may apply” or “offer ends 20.2.23”
• Include a privacy policy – Make it easy for customers to access your privacy policy
• Make opting out easy – Give directions on how to opt out in each text message
• Set text expectations – Make it clear how often you’ll text customers and why
• Identify yourself – Use a signature to ensure customers know who you are

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#8 Don’t be afraid to get personal

The beauty of SMS marketing is that it gives you a direct channel of communication with your global customers, so use this personal approach to your advantage.

Tailor your marketing texts to the preferences of each customer by integrating your SMS marketing platform with customer data.

You can use this data to segment marketing text types by previous purchase behaviour, page views, demographics, and other data sets to provide more relevant information to each customer and increase conversion rates.

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#9 Select the best text frequency

There is nothing worse than being bombarded with marketing messages from brands. But especially via SMS, as this is more interruptive than a marketing email.

A good rule of thumb is to send your global customers around 2-4 marketing texts per month. However, the frequency really depends on what your business uses SMS for.

If it’s something like weekly competitions, then sending a weekly marketing text is appropriate. Just make sure you stick to the frequency that you promised when customers opt in and stay consistent.

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#10 Choose the best SMS platforms

It’s vital that you select the best SMS marketing platforms to send your texts from, as some platforms will be blocked in different countries.

Do your research with a number of SMS platforms to make sure that you have coverage across the right countries.

It’s also important to compare providers, so you can take advantage of the best delivery rates in different time zones.

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Want to send conversion-boosting SMS campaigns but don’t have time?

We hope you’re now feeling more confident about sending global SMS marketing messages to your customers with our top 10 best practices. But if you’re too busy to spend time on the technical side of SMS marketing, why not let Grambell do the hard work for you?

Our innovative no-code messaging platform helps you quickly compare and connect global messaging providers with one simple API – giving you more time to focus on marketing. But it doesn’t just deliver your messages on time, every time.

Grambell also lets you pull your reports from multiple SMS providers into one easy-to-analyse place, makes automated message flows simple, and allows you to set up fallbacks to eliminate message delivery failures.

If you’d like to see how Grambell can help your business and save 15-30% per million messages, register today.