The following is a guest post from Gary Bury, Managing Director at Mediaburst Limited — A UK based mobile marketing provider.
Same Subscribers, Better Results
Once you’ve begun running an SMS marketing campaign it feels logical to increase your results by getting more subscribers, but it’s not always the best course of action. If you currently get a 5% response rate (5% of people who get your text message are turning up for the promotion), rather than look for more subscribers, let’s think about the 95% who didn’t turn up.
If, for example, you send 1,000 text messages saying you have a new range of designer sunglasses, then a 1% response rate is equivalent to 10 sales. And given a pair of designer sunglasses can cost over £100, your 10 sales could be worth £1,000. What I’m saying is, let’s think about increasing that 1% to 2% and getting another £1,000 from the same set of subscribers.
Divide up Your Database
First up, stop sending to all 1,000 people in one batch. Split the database into smaller units of 250. It doesn’t matter which numbers you choose, do it completely at random, but split it down into smaller chunks. If you’re sending via textburst make 4 groups of contacts. By using smaller chunks of data you can test more variables and see what has the greatest effect.
Send at Different Times
Now we have smaller chunks of data you can start testing with. Test 1 — send at different times while using the same message. This depends a little on what you’re promoting but instead of sending 1,000 messages once a month, send 250 once a week. Already sending once a week? Send once a day instead. Look at the results, do you get better results if you send on a particular day, or perhaps during a particular week of the month? Maybe the best week is the first week of the month, just after most of us get paid, for example.
If you get really poor results at certain times, stop sending at those times. If you’ve worked out the perfect week then start testing with the best day. Have you already worked out the best day? Test different times of the day. It’s important to never stop testing.
Tweak the Copy
I’ll assume you’re beginning to get the feel for the best time to send a message. Now let’s tweak the copy. Let’s assume the original copy is: “The new designer range of sunglasses is now in stock, get down to Sunglasses world and check em out.” Variants could include: “Check out our new Designer Sunglasses range at Sunglasses World,” or “Come to Sunglasses world this weekend and see our new Designer Sunglasses range,” or even “Just in, New Designer Sunglasses at Sunglasses World, get em before the sun goes down!”
Your objective is not to keep the ones with the best response, it’s to drop the ones that get the worst response. You should always be tweaking the best ones, trying to improve them again and again. It’s an iterative process that doesn’t stop, just keep dropping the ones that do the worst.
Finally…
Once you’ve established the best times to send and some optimal copy, don’t stop tweaking. Go back and test different times again, and try entirely new copy. Things change, people change, and so should your SMS Marketing.
Very good tips.I think i will start explaining to my clients this.
I've been looking for ways to bring more value to the services I offer and to give clients a justification for ongoing management/consulting fees. The multivariate testing idea is an excellent tip. Thanks.
Great advice, thanks Gary.
A quality vs quantity approach will not only keep your subscribers happy to receive further offers but will allow you to learn more about your customers.
I think that Gary has provided some good tips here – nice work. One suggestion however would be adding all of these various tests as metadata to your subscribers profile. Once you start building up a database beyond stand alone phone numbers into something where you have all of those subscribers' activity mapped to their phone number you can embark on a CRM approach. For example, every time someone does respond, mark the time of their response and add it to the subscriber profile. Now you can start creating a complete view of that person so that you can send bulk messages to everyone who fits the profile of "morning responder" or "evening responder".
Excellent tip! Ever think of writing a guest post for us?
Would love to as MMW always has great content – let me know the process when you have a quick moment.
Thanks krussell, I would be interested to see this!
@krussell, thanks for the positive feedback. I like your suggestion on how to take it a step further. There is a lot of data to store and understand to take this kind of approach, do you know of any applications that would let you do this?
Thanks
These are some great tips. QR Codes are a great way to incorporate SMS Marketing also. Check out SMS Marketing at PRONTO! mobile. http://www.prontomm.com
Thanks,
Andy Lynn
Brilliantly articulated! This is a retweet for sure!
These are fantastic tips, thanks Gary. Ever wondered how your customers will react and view your company with the messages they receive from you?
Of course, if you don’t get the message right it can severely damage your relationship with your receiver – be it a customer or colleague.
With this in mind, we have developed some essential text-etiquette advice from nearly a decade of experience in the Bulk SMS industry. Check these golden tips article on our company blog http://www.routomessaging.com/blog/blog-post.pmx?…
Also I have to say that it is very important to target not just everyone but the right customers.