10 SMS Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid them

Businesses that get sms marketing right enjoy a huge return on investment. It's for this reason that we spend so much time discussing SMS marketing best practices.

You may improve your SMS messaging in a variety of ways, from crafting texts that subscribers desire to read to improving analytics and testing. Knowing what not to do is also beneficial. There are a few frequent SMS marketing blunders that might undermine your efforts.

10 SMS Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid them

Here are ten of the most typical SMS mistakes, along with advice on how to avoid them. Your SMS campaign may be a great tool for engaging your audience and building a solid relationship with your customers if you follow our guidelines.

1. Sending SMS messages without any permission

Nobody enjoys getting advertising texts that they did not request. Before you start to send bulk sms marketing campaigns, double-check that you have permission to do so.

To ensure that your SMS messages are sent to clients who are willing to receive them, you must also follow state and municipal legislation as well as wireless carriers' messaging policies.

Solution : Using an online form or by texting a phrase to a mobile shortcode, you can ask your clients to sign up for text messages with exclusive promotions, new releases, or other essential information.

You empower your clients by giving them control over which marketing communications they receive by including clear opt-in and opt-out instructions in your SMS.

Transparency in communication sets the tone for establishing a positive relationship with clients.

2. Invalid phone numbers are messaged

The most prevalent cause of SMS delivery issues is sending texts online to invalid numbers. Invalid phone numbers on your texting list will prevent your SMS messages from reaching their intended recipients, lowering your message deliverability score (sms delivery report score).

Solution : Buying or borrowing contact lists may be appealing, however these lists may contain fraudulent or invalid numbers. Growing your text subscription list organically is the best method to efficiently contact customers.

To develop your group SMS list, start with your email list and encourage others to sign up by holding a contest, offering exclusive discounts to subscribers, and marketing your text list on other social media sites.

Use a SMS API service with phone number validation to confirm that the numbers on your list may receive sms messages and avoid sending messages to invalid numbers.

3. Not Including a Call to Action (CTA) in Your Messages

Whether or not your recipient takes that crucial next step depends on how you end your communication.

Your subscribers are less likely to know what to do and obtain value from your messages if each message has a clear CTA. As a result, your unsubscribe rate will rise.

Solution : The easiest approach to avoid this is to make it crystal obvious what you want people to do just that, read the above, try the above, and so on.

4. URLs aren't being shortened

For SMS advertising efforts, every character counts, especially if you don't send an MMS or extended SMS and stick to the 160-character sms character limit. Using shortened URLs might help you save space in your message.

Shorter links can also have a greater click-through rate due to the fact that lengthier URLs with query strings might detract from the message and appear aggressive.

Solution : To use shortened links in your next bulk SMS campaign using SMS Connexion, simply copy and paste your preferred link into the box for creating a new Short Link, then press "Create Short Link" button. For URL shortening we use our custom short domain https://en.ax (short link example: https://en.ax/bKr). You can also use your own custom branded URL (https://en.ax/my-company) by getting in touch with us.

5. Sending an excessive number of SMS

Because SMS has a high open rate of over 95%, some businesses can't stop themselves from sending text after text in the hopes of getting the same response.

If you overwhelm your subscribers with promotional texts, though, you're likely to irritate them and have a large number of individuals unsubscribe from your list.

Solution : When it comes to SMS, less is more. Only send text messages to your customers if the information is important to them or demands immediate action.

It's better to text your customers once or twice a week at most. If you do anything otherwise, you're likely to irritate your customers and harm your brand's reputation.

6. Sending the Similar Message or Service

When someone signs up to receive your SMS messages, they are expecting them to be useful. Sending a message "just because" or continually sending the same offer can trigger "subscriber's remorse" among your audience.

Solution : Make sure your text message marketing approach is up to date. You can't keep resending the same texts week after week. Consider holding a contest, polling clients on what products they want, or going beyond promotions entirely.

7. Being overly concerned with sales

We have seen our customers employ SMS as a marketing channel to produce a lot of sales. The issue here is that no one wants to talk to someone who is constantly attempting to sell them something.

While the primary purpose of your ads may be to create sales, avoid becoming overly salesy.

Solution : Your consumers are people, therefore speak to them in a nice, conversational tone. You should also vary your technique by sending non-promotional information, such as an informative article or a feedback request.

8. Sending a Welcome Text Isn't Enough

When someone joins up to receive your text messages and doesn't hear from you for a week or even several days, they may forget why they joined up in the first place and unsubscribe.

Solution : Use our ability to tailor the initial autoresponse sent to each new subscriber. Thank them for signing up and remind them what they joined up for with this welcome text.

9. Utilizing simply one stream

Some businesses utilize SMS messaging to completely replace email marketing, sending all of their messages to their clients' phones. Other businesses completely disregard SMS and fail to take advantage of its messaging features.

Either of these ideas is a massive marketing blunder. To provide a smooth communication experience for your customers, SMS and Email should be used in combination.

Solution : Different messages necessitate different communication channels, and SMS and email should be utilized in tandem to foster a strong relationship with your customers.

You could, for example, send an email confirmation to your customer and then follow up with an SMS message reminder on the day of the appointment.

You put your clients at ease and ensure that they have a consistent communication experience with your business by integrating SMS and email.

10. Delivering abusive, extended messages

The 160-character limit for SMS is for a reason: it's designed to be short and sweet! Many companies make the mistake of sending long, abusive SMS, which might be broken up during delivery and alter the sense of the message.

SMS messages are informal by nature and can be read and understood quickly – even from a phone's lock screen. Subject lines, introductions, and signatures are unnecessary.

Solution : Your communications should reflect the fact that text messaging is a direct and personal method. To create a distinctive brand personality, use your customer's name, be explicit with your information, and even add humour to your messages.

Customers prefer to communicate with businesses via SMS because it seems like messaging a buddy. Your SMS will appear to be a one-on-one interaction between you and each of your subscribers if done right.

Conclusion

Although there is no perfect solution when it comes to SMS marketing, it's crucial to remember these 10 SMS Mistakes and plan your campaigns carefully.

You will gain an edge over your competition and create a solid relationship with your clients if you put in the time to craft great SMS messages. You will be well on your way to success if you avoid these 10 SMS Marketing Mistakes.