Customer outreach is a key element of any business model’s effort not just to sell products but also to cultivate the integral elements of repeat sales, customer loyalty, brand awareness and shaping positive customer consciousness of a brand.
Before the Internet, customer outreach was accomplished in several ways –all time-consuming and limited.
Some examples were company reps often using the telephone for one-on-one chats with people. Sometimes it was hardcore “shoe leather” work –- just getting out there to interact with as many people as possible.
Of course, there were other tools, such as “snail mail” brochures & newsletters, conducting seminars and more.
Digital Platforms Vastly Expand Capability
Customer outreach today is astronomically easier, and geometrically larger numbers of people can be interacted with using digital systems, online networks, mobile devices and more.
However, one customer outreach method of the Digital Era that has proved among the most powerful –- if not THEE most powerful –- is SMS or Short Messaging Services. SMS has since evolved to include MMS. The latter is Multimedia Messaging Services.
SMS and MMS
SME is sometimes just called texting or text messaging because it involves building lists of phone numbers so a company can send regular and brief messages to stay engaged with customers.
In short, what happens is that a customer agrees to voluntarily “opt-in” to receive a message from a company. The business then sends brief texts, usually limited to 160 characters. A well-crafted short message is all that is required to keep a company “in the face and in the minds” of consumers daily –- and prompt them to buy more.
MMS does the same but with more power. That is, it goes beyond mere texting to include photos, short videos, graphics and much more.
What makes this truly powerful is automation. An automated SMS service hands marketers an unstoppable force that enables the marketer to implement effective and results-producing customer outreach virtually 24/7.
Best Customer Outreach Practices Using SMS & MMS
In recent years, SMS customer outreach methodologies have grown complex and into a high art. Also, what was true in this realm a year or two has already changed for the present. That’s why hiring a professional automated SMS service provider is essential to get this done right.
So, hiring a pro is Step 1.
Now, Briefly, 5 Key SMS Customer Outreach Must-Dos
1. Clear, Concise Crafting of Messages
Remember, 160 characters is the well-determined limit for an outreach text. If it can be done in even less –- all the better!
2. Make a Clear Call to Action
Two facets drive an excellent SMS text campaign. They are a keyword and a shortcode. Getting customers to act means prompting them to text a keyword you provide to a five-digit number which is your shortcode.
3. Timing is Critical
How often should contacts be texted? Also called “the cadence of texts,” much depends on the type of entity or group doing the sending. Not all audiences tolerate the same number of messages. Remember, “opt-out” rates are always a factor in building texting contact lists.
Experience will reveal whether once a day is okay, once a week or even as rare as one text per quarter.
4. Monitor ROI Carefully
ROI is Return on Investment. Average costs for sending thousands of texts range from $30 to $200. The seller must tie that cost to how many sales and net profit results. Keep an SMS provider on its toes by requesting lucid and transparent data on the ROI factor.
5. Make it Personal
Sending generic texts to a “subscriber” is bad practice. Tailor messages to specific customers using their real names. Personalized texts outperform generalized texts by a whopping 42%.
Finally …
Research shows that SMS customer outreach tools are most effective for companies adopting an omnichannel approach. That means interfacing and/or integrating texting efforts with other communication channels with customers.
One of the most obvious is coordinating an email marketing campaign to work hand-in-hand with a texting campaign. But there are other avenues as well that involve everything from social media platforms and even more traditional marketing vehicles like advertisements and in-store point-of-contact tools.
