As we’ve said many times, an SMS mail-out is one of the best and cheapest ways to advertise your business. Attracting customers’ attention is the main goal of sending text messages. However, sometimes marketers can be so ‘creative’ that their SMS mail-outs end up scaring customers. To avoid this pitfall, today we want to talk about messages which it’s better not to send.
Too much familiarity
In a previous article, we wrote that you need to speak customers in everyday language, avoid being over-formal and maintain a friendly tone of conversation. But sometimes marketers cross the fine line between having a pleasant tone and over-familiarity, creating messages which bring into doubt the rationality and professionalism of the company on whose behalf they were sent.
“Buy a new toilet in our store and your a*s will thank you”
What about slang?
While we’re on the theme of finding the right tone for communication with clients, we should warn you that efforts to be creative, get their attention and make friends with them, can end up simply not being understood. For example, if you use too much slang and too many abbreviations in your messages, it can be difficult for some recipients to parse your cryptograms.
“Watzup dude! I dunno know what u r doing now, but u need to be in our bar! We have a do here. Every fifth drink is free. Come right now and take ur friends”
The risks of neglecting segmentation and targeting
Segmentation and targeting can help you cut the cost of your advertising campaign and get the attention of genuinely interested clients. If you don’t pay enough attention to who you’re sending your messages to, or simply abandon this step, you may lose clients forever and earn your company a negative reputation.
If you haven’t specified the correct segments for SMS mail-outs, then two diametrically opposite offers may come to the same subscriber:
“Do you need a new car, but you don’t have the savings? Our bank will give you a loan at a low interest”
“Want to make better use of your savings? Then open a deposit in our bank. We will find you the best interest rate”
Properly setting up targeting is also important. Imagine you are a tattoo artist in New York and you receive the following message from an unknown contact:
“Hi! We are a new tattoo studio in Los Angeles. Come and get your next tattoo from us and bring your friends. For each friend, we will give you a discount on the next tattoo”
SMS mail-outs like these are liable to irritate their recipients.
We don’t urge you to completely forget about creativity, but you definitely need to be careful with it. And for your SMS mail-outs you can use the Intis Telecom platform.
