You and your clients have evolved with the times—but has your marketing strategy evolved with you? Text marketing (SMS marketing) is a strong complement to your email marketing efforts that embraces the technology your clients love most to deliver your marketing messages quickly, easily, and conveniently.
Using Text Marketing to Supplement Email Campaigns
Over 70% of Americans prefer text messages to voice calls, and according to Salesforce, text conversion rates can be as high as 85%, which is fully 250% higher than through email alone. The average mobile phone user receives fewer daily texts than they do emails, meaning your text marketing messages stand out. Additionally, more mobile device users have text notifications turned on—there’s a lesser chance of your message getting lost in the information pipeline or flagged as spam.
Why Choose Between Email and Text When You Can Double Up?
The popularity of SMS text marketing isn’t the end of email marketing. Text isn’t a replacement for email marketing—it’s a supplement that makes your marketing campaign stronger. Texting is better suited for short, time-sensitive marketing communications: think daily discount codes, flash sales, urgent business notifications, appointment reminders, etc. Email, on the other hand, allows you to provide more content, context, detail, and information to your messaging, and allows your client base to read your messages at their leisure.
Stronger Marketing Campaigns Start Here
Email and text marketing sync up nicely to complement each other, giving your marketing a greater scope reaching more of your targeted customers. Text marketing has an over 95% open rate, but did you know that over 43% of consumers use their cell phone to check their inbox? Your clients rely on their phones to check messages—by using text messaging to complement your email marketing, you increase your ability to reach them on the platform where they’re most comfortable hearing from you. By combining both email and text marketing, you create a powerful marketing campaign that enables you to send the right message at the right time to the right customers, with easy ways to act.
Marketing Promotional Campaign Guidelines
There are five basic guidelines to keep in mind when you begin to add text messaging to your email marketing efforts to create a marketing promotional campaign.
- Opt-In.
Text marketing is permission based, so your first text marketing should include
your opt-in message. With Vagaro’s Text
Marketing, your opt-in message is automated and doesn’t count toward your
monthly texts.
- Keep It
Short! With Vagaro, you can use up to 304
characters, with the 160 being the recommended industry standard to make
sure your push stays within a single text message.
- Provide
Value. Because text marketing requires an opt-in, make sure your messages
have value to your customers, such as discounts, flash sales, time-sensitive
updates, reminders, etc.
- Clear
CTA. Make sure that your CTA is clear, easy to understand, and easy to act
on. For example, “Pre-book your December appointment today and use code DEC15
to get a 15% discount.”
- Frequency
Matters. Standard industry guidelines recommend 2-6 text campaigns per
month, ideally 1 promotion per week on a reliable schedule.
How to Use Email and Text Marketing Together
Adjusting your marketing campaigns to accommodate both email and text isn’t as tricky as it sounds. Both types of messaging require brevity, value, and a clearly defined way to act on the message. The main difference is that your email message allows you to develop your message in greater detail, personalize the messaging at a deeper level, or to provide more information to the customer.
Marketing Promotional Campaign: Sample Scenario
Below, we’ve provided a step-by-step sample scenario where you might use email and text marketing together. In this scenario, your yoga studio will be hosting an open house and free yoga workshop to strengthen customer relationships, increase membership enrollment, and attract new customers. Here’s how to get started!
Step 1: Draft Your Marketing Email
Compose an email to announce your yoga studio’s open house and free workshop and schedule the email to deploy 2-3 weeks prior to the event, so recipients can work it into their schedule. Remember to include the date, time, and contact information for your business. Consider including a map and directions, so if the email is forwarded, new recipients have everything they need to RSVP or drop in. Once you’ve sent the email, remember to cross-post it to Facebook or other social media, to expand the reach of the message.
Step 2: Build Anticipation for the Event with Text Marketing
Use text marketing to remind clients of your event, keep your business top-of-mind, and build anticipation of the event. Here, you want to time the text message a little closer to the event, but not so close that new recipients think they’ve missed out. 1-2 weeks prior to the event is the ideal time to send a text marketing reminder:
Step 3: Use Email to Entice them with an Exclusive Sneak Peek
Another way to build anticipation of your event is using email to provide an exclusive sneak peek. Because email marketing supports media files, you can include photos of the studio, event preparations, or a video snippet of a staff member walking recipients through an easy office yoga move. After giving them an select look at the event, include all the event specifics again, as well as any RSVP or registration details.
Step 4: Use Text to Send Event Reminders
The day before the event, use text marketing to send a timely reminder, to both guests who have registered or RSVP-ed, and to subscribers who may have waited until the last minute to decide. Use welcoming language to let them know there’s still time to act on the event, and you’re sure to add a few more guests to the list.
Step 5: Use Email to Follow Up with Guests
About a week after the event, use email marketing to send a thank-you note to registered guests and new email subscribers from the event. You can include candid photos from the event, exclusive promo codes for attending guests, or even a poll or survey to collect information from new and returning customers on what they’d like to see next.
Marketing is easier when you use the marketing approach and let text and email marketing work together. Get started with Vagaro’s text message marketing and email marketing today, and give your email marketing efforts a boost!
Header Image: Mia Montemayor via Vagaro