Smartphone users hear a lot of different rings, beeps, blips, etc. There’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, personal email(s), work email(s), texts, picture messaging, chat clients, app alerts,the list goes on and on. And there’s phone calls, less we forget the prime use of the device… That means these wonderful devices are alerting the user a lot, and it is up to the user to define a hierarchy of the order of importance for each type of notification. Imagine each different type of alert had a completely different sound. Which, out of all of these, would you think ranks highest with most users?
My “guess” is text messaging. It is the easiest to read, and respond to. It only comes from people that actually have your phone number. They are typically from people that you know, and have regular dialogues with. Plus, it’s not exclusive to smart phone users, as everyone can get text on their phone. This “guess” is based on the fact that text messages have an astounding open rate of 97%. The average email open rate is around 20%.
Sufficed to say, Text messaging rules the roost, when it comes to communication methods.
What does this mean for marketers? It means that you’d better start texting! Here are some rules and suggestions.
- Don’t extend past the 160 character limit. If your offer extends beyond one message, it’s too complicated for a text message.
- Make the offer good. You are making an offer via a more personal form of communication, and if the offer isn’t good, you can actually harm a relationship.
- Remember to offer an “unsubscribe” message. You can offer an unsubscribe message for 28 characters a message (reply “stop” to unsubscribe.)
- Don’t overdo it. I recommend against texting more than once a week. You don’t want to overextend your welcome.
- Short links are your friends. Need to bring people off the text message? Use a short link to bring mobile users to a mobile landing page, and make sure that traditional desktop users that enter the short code into a traditional browser have a pleasant experience as well.
- Don’t forget calls to action! Interaction is key. If the person receiving the text message wants to call right away, or respond with some form of answer, you’ve been effective. Read and delete messages are not memorable, and you’ll receive a lot more “Unsubscribe” or “Stop” messages if there is no call to action.
- Everyone likes games, and everyone likes winning. Set up some contests, random drawings, and games, like trivia, with winners being awarded some prize. Signing up for a newsletter is much more fun if I can win an iPad when I do!
Have any suggestions or rules of your own? Leave them in the comment section below!
