So you’ve taken the plunge, selected a mobile marketing partner, and are ready to launch a mobile marketing SMS text club for your brand. Keeping a few of these simple steps in mind as you begin promoting your program can make all the difference between seeing early success and quickly growing your SMS subscriber list or struggling to see a strong ROI from your text message marketing programs.
Providing Your Customers with a Strong Opt-In Offer Gives Them a Worthwhile Reason to Join Your Program – and Stick Around
In mid-2016, Chick-fil-A released the Chick-fil-A One loyalty application, quickly shooting to the front of the line of the most downloaded apps on the Apple App Store, being downloaded more than one million times in just three days. As the Atlantic notes, the Chick-fil-A One app “offered all of the things that Taco Bell’s app [did], plus the immediate promise of a free chicken sandwich just for downloading the app.” But even with the most compelling acquisition offer, “less than 5% of downloaded apps are still in use after 90 days” – imagine how much more effective that customer acquisition strategy could be if implemented with the most used app already available on all of your customer’s phones – SMS text messaging.
Strong incentives lead to strong results. When you simply promote your text club as a way to receive great deals and specials, or even as an exclusive “insider” club, you will always reach your core customer base who will be likely to join any new digital initiative that your brand launches. A strong incentive, or Opt-In Offer as we like to call them, is one of the most surefire methods to get new customers, loyal customers, or the occasional passers-by to join the club. The stronger the Opt-In Offer, the faster your text club will grow, and the more redemptions you’ll see early on – creating an even clearer ROI path on an already incredibly profitable customer engagement medium.
Now That You’ve Chosen a Great Opt-In Offer, How Do You Get the Word Out?
When launching a new product offering, especially in the restaurant industry, you’re likely to see printed collateral spread throughout physical locations. Window clings on entrances and doors, promotions on or near the menu, possibly even a call-to-action to add to a customer’s order directly at the point-of-sale. All of these will help you engage customers when they’re in-store, but promoting across owned and paid media can supercharge the growth of your text message marketing program.
Using Owned Media Like Your Website to Gain Subscribers
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your own website – you’ve likely already invested time and money in building an audience across a myriad of owned channels. Promoting your newly launched, or relaunched, SMS text message marketing club across these channels is an easy way to get your message out to an audience who is likely to be receptive. Here’s an example from Mobivity client Papa Gino’s:
Using the channels you’ve already worked to put in place to promote your new 1:1 digital initiatives will help drive your program subscriptions, pulling in an already receptive base to a new and engaging channel.
Implementing Paid Media Campaigns to Grow Your Program and Earn New Business Simultaneously
When it comes to promoting the launch or growth of your text message marketing programs, we’re a big fan of double dipping. You’re likely already paying to promote new products or offers across any number of channels – TV, free-standing inserts (FSI), promoted social posts, you name it. By tagging each of these paid media campaigns with a call-to-action to join your text club, you can simultaneously grow your SMS subscriber database while also measuring the effect of legacy media, comparing how that channel’s audience responds to messaging against other channels in use.
Take Mobivity client Subway, for example, who used their most recent FSI campaign to promote their mass text marketing program with a specific keyword printed directly on the insert delivered to homes around the country.
Get creative! From promoted and paid Facebook campaigns that promote a new product offering with an SMS call-to-action to redeem, to adding a text promotion on your newest television ad campaign; we’ve yet to see a digital or traditional engagement channel that wasn’t effective at helping customers drive more subscribers, and more value, to their text message marketing programs.
Looking for a Partner Who Can Help? We’ve Got You Covered.
We’ve worked with international brands to drive guest frequency and spend through personalized text message marketing campaigns, and we can’t wait to help you discover how the power of the simple text message can help drive results for your business.