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Writing the perfect text marketing offer

Resources & Blog

Writing the perfect text marketing offer

Introduction

With open rates as high as 98%, text marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels that businesses can use. It allows you to send a message directly to your audience's inbox and will stay there until they've opened it. Texting can be used for many different reasons such as order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders, competitions and more. Yet, it is most effective when it is used for promotional purposes. More than anything, your customers love to receive an offer that they just can't turn down. Before you send your first campaign, here is our six-step guide to writing the perfect offer.

Step One - Build your audience

Before you send a promotional offer using text marketing, you'll need to build up an audience list that is worth your time. The size of that audience will, of course, depend on several factors such as the nature of your business and how long you have been collecting data. However, it is never too late to add more. If you need some ideas on how to increase your list size, then you can find more information here.

Once you are happy with your audience size then you can then begin to think about the approach that you are going to take when sending offers. The easiest option would be to send the same offer to your entire contact list. However, if you have lots of products then your offer may not be relevant to everyone and you run the risk of having a high opt-out. Instead, you may want to consider organising your contact list into groups. You'll then be able to send engaging offers to each group, significantly increasing the chances of your campaign converting.

Step Two - Determine your offer

Now that your audience is set, it's time to start thinking about the content that your campaign includes. Your customers will get dozens of notifications on any given day, so it's important that your offer is exciting and grabs their attention. If it's not, you risk the possibility of them opting out of future correspondence. There are many different types of offers that you could include so try to think about the offers that will be best received or those that may have performed well in the past. Some examples include "20% off", "buy one get one free", "get an additional 10%", "two for one", "cheapest item free" and "double credits". If you're unsure of what to include then you can always check out your competitor offers for inspiration.

Step Three - Think about personalisation

Consumers are no longer satisfied with a one message suits all approach. Instead, they desire tailored offers that align with their interests. While this can be challenging when using other channels, text marketing allows you to get personal by creating custom campaigns that target both individual customers and specific groups. This should then generate a higher number of conversions while maximising your return on investment as you'll be sending relevant offers to every customer. All you need to do is collect the right type of data.

When you upload your contact list to our dashboard, you can include seven columns of data. The first column will include your list of telephone numbers. The following six columns can include anything that you consider relevant. You can include things like first name, surname, age, sex, loyalty number, order preference, favourite colour, spend limit, location and more. Then, target specific groups based with offers that you think will be the most attractive to them. For example, clothing retailers will want to send a different offer to men over sixty than the one they'd send to females in their twenties. Whereas, a transport company may want to target a specific region if an event is coming up. It goes without saying that the more data you have, the more personalised your messages will be.

Step Four - Set a deadline

A key part of your text marketing offer is the expiration deadline that you set. This deadline will depend on the nature of your business but try to keep it relatively short. We'd recommend a maximum of one week. This gives your customers enough time to make a decision but reduces the likelihood that they may forget about your text.Additionally, it encourages impulse purchasing as your customers may make a quick decision without thinking too much. Don't forget that you can also extend your offer or send out a reminder if it doesn't perform as well as you were hoping.

Step Five - Write your message

Since text messages have a 160 character limit, you need to choose your words carefully. You have a limited amount of space and you need to include a greeting, your call to action, terms and conditions, an opt-out link and a sign-off. This doesn't sound like much, but it can be quite challenging if you have a lot of information that you'd like to include.

Also, think about the tone of voice and language that you are going to use. You do not want to come across as too pushy, as this may discourage your customers from taking action. Similarly, using text abbreviations (gr8, ASAP) and acronyms (FYI, BTW) may not be suitable. You will know your brand much better than anybody else so be sure to think about the impact that your text campaign may have before you send it out. If you aren't sure, ask a colleague or family member for their opinion.

Step Six - Monitor performance

It's important to monitor the performance of every campaign that you send out. This allows you to make improvements in the future while also assessing the success of each offer that you send out. Be sure to check out variables such as the days, times and months of your campaigns. You may find that sending a text immediately after payday is much more effective than just before. Whereas, a campaign sent in January may not convert due to the notion of consumers to save money. Finally, make a record of your conversions. You'll then be able to send similar offers to those that converted while adjusting your offer to those that do not.

Cutomer Account manager
by Liam Quinn | Marketing Executive

Hi, I'm Liam, Marketing Executive at Reach Interactive. I have a background in international marketing and love branding, social media and seeing how companies communicate with their customers.

Cutomer Account manager

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