SMS ads are the quickest way to get in front of a warm audience. You can set up and launch a campaign in minutes and reach an active group of people likely to read and act on your message. 

An SMS ad is one of the most effective strategies businesses looking to promote products and increase brand awareness can engage in right now. This guide will walk you through how to set up an SMS advertising campaign and provide tips and  text message examples that will help generate better results. 

What is SMS advertising? 

SMS advertising is the act of using text messages to achieve a goal, like persuading a group of contacts to buy a product or introducing them to a brand. Like a bulk SMS broadcast, an SMS ad is a marketing message that attempts to engage and influence the recipient.

Such ads are not sent to a cold audience. Anyone who receives an SMS ad from your business must have given you explicit permission to send them text messages. Once you have permission, you can send SMS ads to promote: 

• Deals
• Contests
• Upcoming sales
• Free content
• Events
• Upsells

SMS ads can benefit a business in several ways:

1. Texts encourage engagement. People check their phones nearly 160 times per day. They open and read around 90% of texts (compared to an estimated 20% of emails), which means significantly more people will notice your advertisement.  
2. They have more reach. More than 5 billion people in the world own mobile phones. They don’t need to download an app or create an account. You can send an SMS ad to anyone in the world (as long as they’ve opted-in to your SMS contact list).
3. SMS campaigns are quick and easy to create. You can launch an SMS advertising campaign in minutes if you have a contact list. 
4. They support your other marketing channels. SMS ads work with your email campaigns, push notifications, website, Messenger, and more. For example, if someone doesn’t open a sponsored ad on Messenger, you can send them a follow-up via SMS. 

While people may assume SMS ads focus on generating sales, there are numerous other ways to leverage them. Businesses large and small use SMS ads to raise awareness, solicit customer feedback, share important information, and more. 

How to run an SMS advertising campaign with ManyChat

To set up an SMS ad, you’ll need:

1. A ManyChat Pro Account
2. A contact list with compliant SMS opt-in

1. Head to your ManyChat dashboard and click Broadcasting on the left-hand side menu. 

2. Click + New Broadcast in the upper right screen.

3. Select the SMS widget to create an SMS ad.

4. Next, you’ll be directed to Flow Builder to create the ad. You’ll see a Starting Step and Send SMS block. (ManyChat automatically sets up your Starting Step to send your ad as a text.)

Click the Send SMS block to open the message settings.

5. Create your SMS ad. You can add text, images, and links back to your website or Messenger experience. If you have a Shopify store, you can also add personalized coupon codes through ManyChat’s Shopify integration.  

6. To complete your SMS broadcast, click Go Next in the upper right corner of the screen. Then adjust your settings to choose the group of contacts you want to target. 

ManyChat already checks that people have opted in to receive your messages in the conditions block. You can refine your audience by clicking + Condition and adding your desired fields. 

SMS advertising tricks and tips

With so many possibilities for promotional SMS, what can a business do to create an effective one? Keep the following tricks and tips in mind for a successful SMS ad.

Provide offers exclusive to SMS

As with first-time customer deals, SMS-exclusive promos help ensure contacts remain excited to be on your SMS list. You could send promotions such as:

• Get 15% off when you show this text
• Use the code “textme” at checkout for 10% off
• SMS EXCLUSIVE: Save $10 when you shop this weekend ONLY! Shop now.

Considering 92% of shoppers use a discount code at least once a year, SMS exclusive promos offer people an incentive to stay on your contact list. 

Keep copy short

Once someone gives you their permission to text them, you’ll want to respect their time. Create SMS ads that are concise yet engaging. 

Give people an offer they cannot refuse that provides value. If you consistently send spammy ads to your list, you’ll likely lose their trust and their sales. 

Use time-sensitive offers

SMS is a great tool for prompting spontaneous sales. It doesn’t matter if you’re an online business or local shop—any company can send time-sensitive offers that encourage contacts to buy.  

Don Marler, owner of food truck Daddy O’s Cheesesteaks, travels around the Pacific, Missouri area selling his famous cheesesteaks. He has a contact list made up of local residents segmented by residence; whenever Don is in a particular area, he sends an SMS ad to nearby local contacts to encourage them to come down and buy. 

After using this text marketing tactic, Don’s food cart raked in an additional $7,000 per month and increased revenue by 30%. 

Personalize ads

Chances are you’ve collected different pieces of information over time about your SMS contacts. This data could include names, recent purchases, or birthdays. You can use this information to create personalized messages that motivate readers to take action. 

Think about it: Would you rather see the following SMS message from a brand…

Or a dull blanket statement with the same coupon code everyone else receives? Personalization helps capture your viewers’ attention and makes your text stand out from the competition in the mobile inbox. 

Use MMS 

Concise copy doesn’t have to result in boring messages. Try adding media like images, GIFs, and emojis to help spice up your message. MMS messages are slightly more expensive than a standard text, but their 15% average click-through rate can lead to higher conversion rates and sales. 

MMS content also creates a better experience for recipients because people can see what you are promoting. Moreover, emojis in text have been shown to increase the lasting impact of the message. What’s not to like?

Read more: MMS Marketing: Tips for Enhancing Your SMS Campaign.

Use Live Chat

SMS is a two-way communication channel. You can’t get away with sending a text and thinking your job is over. If you want to build a meaningful connection with your contacts, you’ll want to be ready in case they respond with a question. 

Make sure you have a live agent available before you send any SMS marketing campaign. The agent can help answer any questions or concerns about your offer and help encourage recipients to make a purchase. 

Using an SMS marketing software like ManyChat, you can manage these conversations right from your dashboard. 

Increase sales and engagement with text message marketing

It’s clear that text messaging can be a genuinely valuable tactic for your business. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, promoting flash sales, or sending exclusive offers to customer groups, SMS advertising can help achieve (and exceed!) your goals. 

Run your first SMS advertisement today, and you’ll quickly see how SMS marketing can positively impact your bottom line and grow your business.

Get more from your SMS marketing efforts with ManyChat. Start free today.

The post What is SMS Advertising? (+ What Makes an SMS Ad Successful) appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Each message is a sales pitch for your products. SMS is an always-on service that welcomes new customers into your brand and is a great tool for keeping existing customers around. A top-notch SMS marketing campaign can help grow your business on autopilot with minimal effort.

Whether you’re a brand new or established small business, SMS is a valuable marketing channel for building awareness, acquiring leads, and increasing sales. This text message marketing for small businesses guide will walk you through five ways to use mobile marketing to boost revenue.

Text message marketing for small business tips

• Provide SMS customer support
• Send promotional broadcasts
• Launch date-triggered campaigns
• Recover abandoned carts 
• Collect feedback and reviews

Provide SMS customer support

Customer support is no longer a one-way street, especially for small business owners.  According to data from Twilio, nearly 85% of customers today receive information from a business through text messages and want the ability to reply or have a conversation with them. 

You can save customers time and energy by answering their questions through a text message. Considering 88% of customers expect a response from your business within 60 minutes, it’s an excellent way for business owners to meet demand and improve customer satisfaction. 

The easiest way to provide SMS customer support is through live chat. The text message example below illustrates how one customer who received a birthday promotion was able to get their questions answered without any delay.

You can manage the conversation through automation or use the Live Chat option in your ManyChat dashboard. 

Send promotional broadcasts

SMS broadcasts are one of the fastest ways for a small business to boost sales. Over 90% of recipients will read an SMS marketing message; only 25% will read emails. An SMS broadcast takes five minutes to set up and will cost roughly $.01 per message sent. 

A broadcast allows you to send bulk SMS messages to a group of contacts in one go. They help you get your message for text marketing in front of people who may otherwise ignore it on other channels.

You can use broadcasts for:

• Sales promotions 
• Product launches 
• Text-to-win campaigns
• Customer feedback 

Broadcasts in a SMS marketing campaign tend to be short-term and time-sensitive, which is why they are ideal for driving revenue quickly. 

Set up and launch a broadcast in five minutes by reading How to Set Up an SMS Broadcast Campaign.

Send date-triggered campaigns

Date-triggered campaigns send messages to customers at times when they are primed to shop. Think birthdays, anniversaries, or Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale reminders. It’s a type of personalization that can cultivate customer loyalty and makes them feel valued. 

Over 40% of consumers say they’ll become regular customers of brands that offer personalized shopping experiences, while 80% of frequent customers only shop with businesses that do. 

You can automate sending date-triggered SMS messages using a text messaging service like ManyChat. First, you’ll need to secure an explicit SMS opt-in, be it through your website or in-store sign-up form. Then collect information like birthdays or anniversaries through User Inputs. Your ManyChat CRM will store all the data so you can use it for future campaigns. 

The next step of an SMS campaign is to create a Rule that triggers a text message to your contact’s phone. If you’re running a birthday campaign, like the fictional Loving Mommy brand above, you can trigger a promotional message to send five to seven days before a contact’s birthday. Chances are, they’ll be excited about your birthday gift and will use it to buy something in your store. 

Recover abandoned carts

Encourage shoppers who’ve left products behind to come back and buy with a text message. Nearly 88% of people never finish the checkout process, and abandoned cart messages are an easy way to recover some of that lost revenue. 

An abandoned cart text message follows the same steps as an email. When a shopper leaves items behind in your online store, your SMS marketing software sends a follow-up message to their phone (but only if they’ve opted-in to your SMS marketing list!).

If you’re a Shopify store owner, the SMS message setup is simple with ManyChat; you can use the Abandoned Cart trigger. Choose one or all of your products to trigger messages, plus add GIFs, images, and customer information to add a thoughtful, personal touch. 

Learn more by reading How to Reduce Abandoned Cart Rate with SMS. 

Collect feedback and reviews

Customer feedback in an SMS campaign is a great way to improve your products and make customers feel valued. It shows you want to involve them in your business and product development, and acting on their input can strengthen the relationship. 

A small business can use ManyChat SMS to collect reviews through text messages. After a customer purchases something online or shops in your store, you can send a quick poll to get feedback. Take a look at how Sweet Sweaters does it:

A simple polling system lets customers share their opinion with a number or letter. You can also use a Net Promoter Score (NPS) score calculation to determine customer loyalty. Your NPS score question could ask something like:

“How likely are you to recommend [brand/product] to a friend?”

Customers can rank their experience with a number between 0 and 10. According to the NPS system calculation:

• Customers who rate a nine or 10 are Promoters. They are highly likely to recommend your company to friends. 
• Customers who give a score of seven or eight are Passives. They are on the fence, and likely won’t recommend you unless you ask for a review or recommendation.
• Customers who rate a score of 0 to six are Detractors. They are dissatisfied and won’t tell people to give you their business. 

Follow up with customers after they answer with an open-ended question like, “Tell us a bit more about why you chose 9,” or “What could we do to improve your response by just one point?” Their answers will give you more insight into how customers feel about your brand. You can collect this information easily with ManyChat by leveraging User Inputs.

Here is the review process:

1. People will text the keyword “review” to the business
2. They will receive an NPS survey on their mobile device
3. The company sends a coupon as a thank you for their answers

Asking for feedback and rewarding customers for their insights through texting is a smart way to build loyalty and drive sales in your business. 

Adding business text messaging to your marketing strategy

There’s no doubt text marketing and an SMS marketing strategy can benefit your small business. It’s the easiest way to connect with new and existing customers, send promotions, and increase revenue, both in-store and online. With the tactics above in hand, you’ll be well on your way to running profitable SMS campaigns that positively impact your company’s bottom line.  

For more text message marketing tips, read How to Do SMS Marketing at Every Stage of Your Funnel.

Start texting your customers today with ManyChat SMS. Sign up free.

The post 5 Ways for Small Businesses to Increase Revenue with SMS appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Regardless of if you’re sending promotional campaigns or communicating with customers one-on-one, your landing page can make or break your mobile campaign performance. Mobile sales are projected to drive 54% of all eCommerce sales in 2021, so your landing pages must help drive conversions.

What is an SMS landing page?

A landing page is a single web page focused on driving user actions. Actions range from filling out a form, making a purchase, requesting a demo, and more. Landing pages collect customer data and direct visitors to your products or services. Landing pages should be built to match the intent of your visitors. It’s recommended to have landing pages unique to each campaign that you run. 

For example, if you send a customer an SMS campaign with a link to a product on sale, you should link directly to the product page and not your home page. If you link directly to the home page, you’re putting more work on the customer to navigate your site in hopes they’ll find the product they’re looking for. This means you’re more likely to lose the sale.

SMS landing page best practices

The more relevant your landing page is to visitors, the more likely it is to convert. Here’s what to keep in mind when designing landing pages for your SMS campaigns. 

Landing pages are for conversions

Landing pages shouldn’t be a carbon copy of your home page. Since you’re focused on driving conversion with a landing page, you should only include the relevant information. For example, if you’re running an SMS campaign to increase the sales of a specific collection of products, you should only have the products on the page and not link to any other collections in your online store.

This helps improve conversion rates and increase the ROI of your SMS campaigns.

Get straight to the point

Your about us page doesn’t need to be on the landing page. Make the content easy to read and skim. Bullet points and short lines are great ways to get your page’s message across without having to write endless paragraphs. 

Make the call-to-action (CTA) prominent

A clear CTA makes it obvious to the reader what the landing page is trying to do. If you’re sending visitors to a landing page for your software product, the CTA could be “Request a Demo” or “Sign Up” to make it clear that you want them to learn more about your product. 

CTAs are best when displayed as buttons, and they should stand out from the other elements on the page. If your page has an orange banner, the CTA should not be orange because it’ll be hard to see on the page. Make the CTA easy to see, so customers are more likely to click on it.

A/B test landing pages

You should constantly A/B test landing pages to test their performance. Make use of testing various factors like button placement, messaging, different CTA text, and more to see what drives conversions. Once you pick a winner, you can keep that design for a short timeframe and create other A/B tests as time goes on.

How to use landing pages to run successful SMS marketing campaigns

Landing pages are great to use in SMS campaigns. While landing pages have historically been used in email and PPC campaigns to drive traffic to desktop landing pages, mobile landing pages are gaining traction. Here’s how to use landing pages for SMS campaigns.

Mobile comes first

We know it sounds obvious, but we’re going to repeat it: make sure to design landing pages with mobile devices in mind. Only a tiny percentage of customers will access your site’s desktop version when clicking a link from their SMS app. Your landing page’s mobile design should account for typical mobile device concerns such as limited screen space and easy to read text.

Above the fold content matters

Customers will scroll when they see your page, but the content above the fold is going to determine if they scroll in the first place. Attention spans are short, so you want to ensure the above the fold content is clear and drives engagement from your customers. Include a clear CTA in the fold to entice visitors to take action.

Landing page copy should match the SMS message

Your landing page shouldn’t confuse customers when they visit your website from an SMS link. If you text customers about a sale for Product A, but take them to product B’s page, they’re going to be confused. It’s acceptable to create landing pages for each unique text you send, so feel free to tailor individual pages to meet the original text’s messaging.

Keep forms short

Landing pages are an excellent tool for lead generation. If you’re using forms on your mobile landing pages, keep them short. 3-4 fields are more than enough for landing pages. Since mobile devices have shorter screen sizes, customers don’t want to fill our multiple fields that take up siginificant screen space. While auto-fill might help drive form completions, it’s better to play it safe.

Get better SMS performance with ManyChat 

To improve the performance of SMS campaigns, start by optimizing landing pages. With a landing page optimized for SMS conversions, you’ll grow your customer base in no time.

To further improve your SMS campaigns’ performance, use a tool like ManyChat to implement Chat Marketing and drive more personalized engagement with your users.

Get started with ManyChat today.

The post How to Build a Mobile Landing Page Optimized for SMS Campaigns appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Using text message templates for your business

Templates make life easier. They save time and money because you don’t have to create messages from scratch. They get your message across clearly and consistently. Not everyone on your team writes or speaks the same way. Text templates give your business a unified voice when communicating with leads and customers. 

After you create and save a template in your SMS marketing software, employees can click on a template, update any custom fields, and send without changing the original template. 

To help you start, we’ve created a list of 25 SMS templates to use right now. These templates offer new and exciting ways to connect with your customers. You can use them for SMS broadcasts, lead generation sequences, or customer retention campaigns. 

The benefits of Custom Fields 

If you are a ManyChat Pro customer, copy and paste the text message examples below in your SMS block and edit the words in brackets to fit your message. These words are Custom Fields.

They make personalizing text messages easy by pulling contact information from your CRM and using it in your texts.

SMS templates to copy

Browse our list of templates that apply to various areas of business:

• Sales and marketing
• Order confirmation
• Customer service
• Exclusive offer
• Appointment reminders
• Text to order
• Customer satisfaction

Sales and marketing SMS templates

Promotional SMS messages are the main reason SMS has picked up so much traction in recent years. Here are some templates you can use to drive more sales and leads for your business.

Start by offering your customers a reward when they text a keyword to your phone number. This message can appear as a pop-up on your website with a widget that directly inputs the keyword on their text messaging app.

• Get 15% off — text “DINNER” to [Number] to unlock an instant discount on your next order.

Once they send the message, you can respond with:

• Hi there! Thanks for texting us. Use code ”WELCOME” to get 10% off your entire purchase when you pick up your order from our store.

Below are other SMS templates you can modify to announce a sales promotion:

• [COMPANY NAME]’s annual sale is just 12 hours away! Use the code “SALE” to get exclusive early access to our deals.
• We know you love savings! We’re offering a 10% discount on all online orders for supplement products. Valid thru 11/11/21.
• Yay! It’s another Two for Tuesday. Order a box of popcorn today and get another one FREE. Hurry now and visit [URL] to order. Valid for orders above $20.

Order confirmation alert SMS templates

Order confirmation alerts can get lost when sent via email due to flooded inboxes. If you want your customers to see your order confirmation messages, consider sending SMS messages. Here are a few order confirmation text message templates you can use.

• Thanks for using the promo code ”PROMO”. Your order will be delivered on or before 12/12/21.
• Thanks for your order! Visit [URL] to confirm your shipping address.

When sending order confirmation messages, it’s crucial to include your company name as sender ID and provide as many details as you can.

Customer service SMS templates

SMS is an excellent customer service tool because messages are delivered and read almost immediately — and there’s room for two-way communication. If you leverage this channel, your business saves money on phone service and customer service personnel training. Here are a few templates for customer support messages.

• Hi [FIRST NAME]. It appears there’s an issue with your order. We’re sorry for the mixup, and we’re working to resolve it. We’ll get back to you once we’re done.
• Hello [FIRST NAME]. We had to delay your shipment. Your new delivery date is 01/01/21 with tracking code ABD458S473823. Please reply to this text if you have further inquiries.
• Hello [FIRST NAME]. Thanks for contacting [COMPANY NAME]. Please reply to this message to schedule a consultation with a personal trainer.
• Hello [FIRST NAME]. Your complaint with ticket number [TICKET NUMBER ###] has been resolved. We appreciate your patience. Kindly let us know if you’d need anything else.

Exclusive offer SMS templates

Exclusive offers are meant to make your customers feel special. Therefore, such messages should be as personal as possible. Achieve this by addressing customers by their first name or some other title that shows they’re special. Here are a few examples you can modify to suit your business.

• Dear [FIRST NAME]. We appreciate your loyalty over the years and we’d like to thank you with this $50 voucher to purchase any item of your liking. Valid till 10/10/21
• Dear [PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER]. It’s been 12 months of consistently reading from our platform. To celebrate your anniversary, next month’s subscription is on us!
• Dear VIP customer, show this message to the stylist to receive the next hair cut FREE! Thanks for trusting the brand. Offer valid thru 12/12/21.
• Our product launch is 05/06! Text club members get to enjoy a front seat plus 10% discount on purchases. Visit lunch.com to reserve your spot.

Appointment reminder SMS templates

If your customers are in the habit of missing their appointments, it’s probably because they’re not getting the reminders at the right time. Why not help them out and send the reminder as a text message. Remember, 95% of people read their text messages within the first three minutes of receipt.

The text should contain important information, such as appointment time and venue. Plus, you can tell the customer what they’ll need for the appointment and include an option to reschedule or cancel. Here are a few helpful templates.

• Hi [FIRST NAME]. Your appointment with [EMPLOYEE NAME] is scheduled for 2 p.m. today. Please arrive at the clinic 10 mins prior. Follow this link to reschedule or cancel [CALENDAR LINK]
• Hi [FIRST NAME]. Don’t forget your monthly manicure today at Gracious Salon. Please come with your facemask. Call (888) 999-6666 if you have questions.
• Hi [FIRST NAME]. Your weekly session is today @ 18:00. [EMPLOYEE NAME] is looking forward to seeing you. Please arrive early for our mandatory pre-tests. See you @ 17:30!

Text to order SMS templates

Text to order or text to buy has been tipped as the next big thing in eCommerce. Marketers stand to gain a lot from adopting a strategy that makes buying from mobile completely hitch-free. Offer this purchase feature by sending exclusive offers to customers and urging them to respond with their order.

• Get a 15% discount on all orders today! See our attached menu and send your order using the codes in the image. We’ll deliver 30 mins after order confirmation.

Note: This template is only suitable for MMS marketing messages.

You can also ask customers to text in a keyword, and they’ll receive a message with a link to order online. For example, you can ask your customers to text “BACON” and they’ll get a message like this:

• What smoked treat are you having today? Place your order via baconlover.com and we’ll get to it right away. Call us at (555) 431-6517 if you have any questions.

Text bot SMS templates

Text bots have a wide range of applications in SMS marketing. They can be used to automate or support customer service, collect feedback, confirm orders, track shipping, etc. Typically, when using text bots for SMS marketing, you should encourage the other party to communicate with keywords, letters, or numbers representing their requests or answers.

• What would you like to order? Text “1” for [PRODUCT A], “2” for [PRODUCT A], “3” for [PRODUCT A].

Customer satisfaction survey SMS templates

Reviews are a great way to attract new customers and improve your services. However, customers aren’t always keen on spending time leaving a review (unless they’re unhappy). One way to encourage your customers to leave a review is via SMS messages. You’ll benefit greatly from using an SMS tool that allows customers to respond to your text.

• Hi! Thanks for stopping by today. We’d appreciate it if you took a moment to tell us what you like about our services and how we can improve. 
• Hello. We hope you’re enjoying your power blender. Please click here to let everyone know how great it is. It will only take a minute.
• Thanks for choosing [COMPANY NAME]. We hope you enjoyed your stay. Please let us know how we did so we can serve you better.
• Hi. Thanks for shopping with [COMPANY NAME]. How would you rate our service, on a scale of 1-10? Kindly reply to this message with your answer. 

Conclusion

As long as you have the right SMS marketing strategy and tools, you can launch text message marketing campaigns that are tailored to your business needs. So, what are you waiting for? Start texting customers today using the templates above to increase engagement and better help your customers.

Get started with ManyChat today for your SMS, Messenger, and email needs by clicking the button below.

The post SMS Templates You Can Use For Your Business Today appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Recipients open and read a whopping 90% of texts (compared to 20-30% of all emails). It only takes five minutes to set up a broadcast, and at roughly $.01 per message sent, it’s an affordable way to reach contacts. 

A thoughtful, well-designed broadcast will build brand awareness, drive sales, and turn your customers into your biggest fans. 

This guide will walk you through setting up an SMS broadcast and provide tips to help you easily achieve better results.

Table of contents

• What is an SMS broadcast?
• How to broadcast a text message
• Tips for broadcasting texts
• Send your first SMS broadcast today

What is an SMS broadcast?

A broadcast text message service lets you send bulk SMS messages (similar to an email blast, but on a different channel) to all your contacts at once. SMS broadcasts allow you to segment and send mass text messages to thousands of people who’ll read and act on your messages, whether the texts are informational, educational, or promotional. 

Considering users open 90% of texts, you can use SMS broadcasts to get your message in front of people who might otherwise ignore it on other channels. 

You can also:

• Reach specific customer segments
• Schedule broadcasts or send them right away
• Share your message quickly and easily

How to broadcast a text message

Before we get started, you’ll need two things:

1. A ManyChat Pro account to send any SMS messages 
2. A contact list with compliant SMS opt-in

1. Head to your ManyChat dashboard and click Broadcasting on the left-hand side menu. 

2. Click + New Broadcast in the upper right screen.

3. Select the SMS widget to create a text message broadcast.

4. You’ll land in Flow Builder, facing a Starting Step and a Send SMS block. Because this is a broadcast, ManyChat automatically sets up your Starting Step to send your message as an SMS text.

Click the Send SMS block to open the message settings.

5. Create your SMS broadcast message. You can add text, images, user inputs, and links back to your website or Messenger experience. If your ManyChat account integrates with Shopify, you can also add personalized coupon codes. 

If you’re including images in your SMS broadcast message, put it above the text so the system will consider it one multimedia message. If you place the text first, it’ll count your message as two separate messages and charge you more. 

To send people into Facebook Messenger from your broadcast, click Add Link, then Open Messenger. 

Now when a contact gets your message, they can seamlessly enter a Messenger experience. 

You can use this feature for multiple message types. For example, if you’re sending a promotional message, you can create a product carousel inside Messenger (and let people shop in the app) or allow people to watch educational videos on the platform. Whatever your campaign’s goal is, you can use a combination of SMS and Messenger to help achieve it. 

6. To complete your SMS broadcast, click Go Next in the upper right corner of the screen. Then adjust your settings to target the right group of contacts on your list. 

Here you’ll notice ManyChat already checks that people have opted in to receive your messages in the conditions block. You can refine your audience by clicking + Condition and adding your desired fields. 

In the settings section, you can schedule your broadcast to either send immediately or go out later.

When you’re ready, click Send Now or Schedule Message (depending on your desired send time) and launch your SMS broadcast!

Tips for broadcasting texts

Whether it’s your first broadcast or your twentieth, follow these SMS messaging tips for a more successful outcome:

1. Keep messages short and sweet. Once contacts permit you to contact them, don’t abuse their trust. Be engaging and brief. Give recipients an offer they can’t refuse or provide relevant information they will genuinely value. If you lose their trust by sending low-quality texts, you run the risk of increasing opt-outs and quickly diminishing contact lists. 
2. Add media. Just because you’re keeping your messages concise doesn’t mean they have to be boring—use media like images and emojis to spice them up. MMS messages are slightly more expensive than standard texts, but the increased engagement they elicit can lead to higher sales, and you’ll quickly recoup the additional costs. 
3. Use personalized fields. If you’ve previously collected information from contacts, use it to personalize the broadcast. You can tailor messages by adding a contact’s name, personalized coupons, or citing their most recent purchase. Personalization helps grab your reader’s attention and will help your texts stand out from competitors’ messages that rely on sending the same blanket statement to everyone. 
4. Encourage recipients to go into Messenger. Smart marketers are aware of omnichannel marketing’s benefits and set up interactions with people accordingly. One great advantage of using an SMS marketing software like ManyChat is that you can easily lead people from an SMS text into Messenger to continue the conversation (which is not always the case with other SMS broadcasting services). Messenger affords you more room to get creative, for example, by enabling you to send video and audio files.
5. Have a live chat agent ready. Remember that SMS is a conversational channel; you’re forging a personal connection with recipients. Before you send out a bulk SMS broadcast, ensure you have a live chat agent ready to respond to any questions or concerns.
6. Track your key performance indicators (KPIs): Remember to establish your success SMS metrics before you broadcast and measure results so you can see what content yields the best outcome. 

Send your first SMS broadcast today

It’s clear that an SMS broadcast is one of the quickest, most effective, and affordable ways to reach a massive audience. So what are you waiting for?

Every online business should leverage broadcasts to get the most from their SMS marketing strategy and achieve their business goals—whether the objective is to drive awareness, sales, or customer retention. 

Give SMS marketing a try, and you’ll soon see the importance of SMS broadcasting and how it fits into your business’s broader strategies.

Send targeted SMS broadcasts, faster, with ManyChat. Go Pro today.

The post How to Set Up an SMS Broadcast Campaign appeared first on Manychat Blog.

But to run great campaigns, you need a solid SMS marketing software.

Good SMS software can help you connect with customers in real time and build more meaningful relationships with them. There are several types of business texting software that can help you stand out from your competition. 

Below you’ll find a list of the best picks from around the web, selected based on a few choice features and capabilities. Each business has its particular needs, so we’ll walk through some of the most useful features of each SMS marketing tool to help you decide which one is best suited for your business. 

Best SMS Marketing software picks

Here are some key criteria that will help you assess your options and make it easy to choose the right SMS marketing software for you:

• Difficulty of use: Whether the software is intuitive, simple to navigate, and effortless to initiate texts from
• Integrations: How does the software connect with your existing marketing tools?
• Cost: How much you can expect to pay monthly
• Best for: Types of companies that’ll benefit from the software
• G2 Rating: Third-party rating based on peer reviews

ManyChat

Difficulty : Easy

Integrations : High

Cost (out of 5 ):  

Best for :  Ecommerce brands, agencies, and infopreneurs

G2 Rating :  4.6 / 5

ManyChat is a leading Chat Marketing platform. They’ve been on a mission since 2015 to help businesses build meaningful relationships with customers through chat and messaging apps. Today, over 2 million companies across 190 countries use ManyChat’s award-winning software and support to change the way they engage and delight their customers. 

ManyChat SMS has everything you need to run successful SMS marketing campaigns that excite people about your business and the possibility of becoming your customer. It’s also incredibly easy to set up SMS campaigns using Flow Builder, ManyChat’s drag and drop campaign builder. 

In Flow Builder, you can create, manage, and launch SMS drip campaigns in no time. You can add text and images to your messages and even include user input to collect information from SMS contacts. Before you send a message, you can preview what it’ll look like, as well as make any last-minute changes before you send. 

Building automated campaigns is also simple. You can use Sequences to create a series of SMS messages that send to contacts automatically based on predetermined timing. For example, you can send a welcome message to a new contact, then follow up with a promotion a few days later.  

If you have an existing contact list, you can import it into ManyChat in a few steps. Once added, you can create Customer Segments to target specific groups and send them relevant messages. If a customer responds to your text, you can find and respond to the message through ManyChat’s Live Chat. This enables you to have two-way text conversations with contacts, so you can resolve any problems and encourage sales. 

ManyChat also lets you:

• Build robust SMS marketing automation
• Send bulk SMS messages to contacts
• Acquire SMS opt-ins from website visitors through widgets
• Create SMS messaging templates
• Send multimedia messages (MMS) with images, audio, and video
• Track campaign performance with ManyChat Analytics
• Determine how much revenue an SMS campaign generates

The best part? ManyChat also provides email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram messaging services so you can manage all your communication channels in one place. If that’s not enough for you, you can even add marketing and sales apps from the ManyChat App Store to manage and grow your business more efficiently. 

Grow your SMS marketing list and make more sales with ManyChat. Start free today.

Twilio

Difficulty : Medium to hard

Integrations : High

Cost (out of 5 ):

Best for : Developers and enterprise businesses

G2 Rating :  4.5/5

Twilio is an excellent SMS marketing software for businesses with seasoned developers and coding newbies. The platform provides a globally available cloud API developers can use to build customized communications apps. You can craft SMS messaging and phone number redirection, and build just about any other app you can think of. 

There are options for non-technical people as well. Twilio provides three different ways to build:

1. With code: Customize anything you want
2. With minimal code: Build on top of Twilio’s existing code samples
3. With no code at all: Launch an app with no preexisting code

If you have little coding knowledge but want to create your own system, you’ll love Twilio Studio. Studio is a drag and drop builder used to create automated workflows like surveys or autoresponders. Start by adding a trigger, such as a form sign-up or scheduled event. Then create replies based on the actions a user takes. Twilio has an excellent library with tutorials, guides, and templates to help you get started. 

Twilio also hosts CodeExchange for SMS marketers. It’s a library of code samples you can use to quickly build SMS autoresponders, SMS forwarding and notifications, payment links sent through SMS using Stripe, or even create a basic chat interface with JavaScript. 

While Twilio’s capabilities may extend past the scope a small business needs, it’s a reliable option for big teams that need proprietary SMS apps. It can be a bit costly, but the benefit of accessing a reliable API with unique features can often outweigh its hefty price tag. 

EZ Texting

Difficulty : Easy

Integrations : Low

Cost (out of 5 ):

Best for : mid-market, small-to-medium businesses, and local chains

G2 Rating :  4.5 / 5

EZ Texting has been around since 2004 and has served over 160k customers in the U.S. and Canada. Its cloud-based SMS platform enables you to send bulk messages, reminder campaigns, keywords, short code numbers, and text-to-landline messages. Local businesses will get the most use out of it. 

EZ Texting gets the job done for SMS marketing. You can text groups of customers in the Campaigns tab, or create keywords to collect SMS opt-in and check your results in the Reporting section. 

After you sign up, the platform will ask what you want to do with EZ Texting, whether it’s delighting customers, marketing, or simplifying operations. Next, the in-app wizard will walk you through how to accomplish whatever objective you’ve chosen. You can import contacts easily and send your first message in minutes or schedule messages to send later. If you have any trouble, you can contact support through live chat or by phone. 

EZ Texting will let you know if any of your text messages are too long, allowing you to shorten them and improve SMS deliverability. It’s easy to edit the message and send them out error-free. The only drawback is that you will not get notified if someone responds to your text—not the best way to deliver a great customer experience.  

Overall, if you want a no-frills, straightforward SMS app, you’ll like EZ Texting. 

SimpleTexting

Difficulty : Easy

Integrations : Low

Cost (out of 5 ):  

Best for : non-technical marketers

G2 Rating : 4.6 / 5 

SimpleTexting is an easy, uncomplicated SMS campaign builder. After registering your account, you’ll be prompted to answer a few questions about your industry and goals, which helps SimpleTexting personalize your setup. You’ll then move through a guided five-step walkthrough to create your first text message. 

The builder is also quite intuitive. You can see what your message will look like on a receiver’s phone by sending it to yourself, toggle quickly between SMS or MMS messages, and add emojis, custom fields, and shortened URLs. If you need a little inspiration, you can access SimpleTexting’s template library and find pre-written messages, including upcoming event reminders, appointment reminders, coupon codes, internal alert messages, and more. 

After creating your message, simply hit “Send,” and your text message will go out to recipients in minutes. 

There’s no drag and drop tool available here, just a rudimentary campaign builder, which may not work for bigger brands who prefer customization. However, you can still create automated campaigns through the Autoresponders tab, set keyword opt-ins, build custom marketing integrations, and view performance. 

Overall, SimpleTexting is another high-quality SMS marketing software for businesses that don’t need advanced capabilities. You can get a campaign up and running quickly, but if you want to create more personalized experiences through SMS, SimpleTexting may not be the best software for your company.   

ActiveCampaign

Difficulty : Medium

Integrations : High

Cost (out of 5 ):

Best for : small-to-medium-sized businesses

G2 Rating : 4.6 / 5

ActiveCampaign was initially known for its email and CRM capabilities. Yet, with the rise in mobile marketing, it was a logical next step to add text messaging to its service offerings. 

The SMS function works much like ActiveCampaign’s email automation builder: Use the drag and drop workflow builder to set up SMS campaigns that will be sent automatically. It’s easy to leverage the customer data and behavior from your ActiveCampaign CRM to create a series of highly personalized, engaging campaigns. If you have any questions along the way, you can browse ActiveCampaign’s tutorial content or reach out to support via a chat window to get help. The customer service team is fast and responsive, so you’ll get answers quickly.  

ActiveCampaign also offers “recipes,” or marketing automations you can set up in just a few clicks. Users will also appreciate the ease with which they can make changes to messages or workflows to suit business needs. ActiveCampaign’s contact management abilities are another strong point. Features like lead scoring, win probability, and automated segmentation enables you to tie text marketing performance to sales, helping you keep all your teams on the same page. 

SMS marketing is only available on Plus, Professional, and Enterprise accounts. Paid plans start at $49 per month. 

Choosing the best SMS marketing software for your business

Now that you have some options for a great SMS app, it’s time to start testing them out. Each software has its pros and cons, but hopefully, now you have a better idea of which one could be the best fit for your business. 

Remember to identify your criteria for an optimal SMS marketing provider in advance and continue to test different text message marketing techniques over time. You’ll soon start to see how an incredible SMS marketing software can positively impact your business.

Get more from your SMS marketing efforts with ManyChat. Start free today.

The post The Best 5 SMS Marketing Software Picks for 2021 appeared first on Manychat Blog.

But with customers’ attention being split amongst so many brands now, it’s hard to know which channel is best for communication and generating a return on investment (ROI) for your marketing campaigns. To achieve maximum ROI, it’s important to identify the right strategy for your marketing campaign. Sometimes, SMS wins. Other times, email wins. Sometimes a powerful duo of both SMS and email marketing can achieve the desired results.

What to compare with SMS and email Marketing

With ever-changing customer preferences and new marketing tools, it can sometimes be confusing to choose between SMS marketing and email marketing. Here are some factors to consider when choosing right strategy for your marketing campaign

1. Open rate

SMS marketing has a striking edge over email marketing in terms of open rate. The average open rate for an SMS campaign is as high as 98% while email rings in at just 20%. By extension, response rates for text messages are much higher than emails as well.

Text messaging is a more direct route to customers because recipients are notified instantly, and usually have a better chance at bing seen. Text messages are generally opened within 90 seconds of delivery, while email open rates hover around 90 minutes.

2. Deliverability

Around 269 billion emails are sent every day with roughly 50% of them ending up in spam folders. (Fun fact: A typical office worker receives around 120 emails per day.)

Whereas around 22 billion texts are sent every day with an average millennial receiving roughly 67 messages a day. Users get text notifications right away on their phones as compared to the email notification. While text marketing seems like the automatic choice, like email, it does require users to opt in to receive SMS communications from your brand. Once subscribers have opted in though marketers can incentivize customers with small rewards, hopefully increasing the brand’s mobile number database.

3. Click-through rate

SMS messages are shorter to read and the click-through rate is around 19% because of its short length. Only 3.2% of people click the links in a marketing email mainly because it’s long and they get bored halfway before actually reaching the link.

4. Cost

The cost of a text marketing campaign varies by length, the number of texts being sent, and region. It also depends on the service provider and carrier. Comparatively, email marketing campaigns are typically less expensive; however, email customization varies from business to business and can vary in cost depending on the type of campaign.

5. Customization

Email campaigns are way more customizable than SMS messages where you’re limited to only 160 characters only. If you choose to go with an SMS campaign, make sure your message is short, precise, and has absolutely no fluff. If you’re looking to provide my details, consider using email as it allows you to send hyperlinks, attachments, images, videos, forms, etc. It also highlights your brand tone and voice clearly through colors, design, and logo.

Common questions about SMS marketing vs. email marketing

As mentioned earlier both email and SMS marketing methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but a combination of the two can result in a powerful marketing strategy. Here, we’ve flushed out a few common questions about using both types of marketing strategies.

Is SMS marketing effective?

As soon as an SMS is received it grabs the user’s attention. The average response time for SMS is just under 90 seconds and around 75% of people said they like to receive promotions via text. Plus, over 65% of marketers say that SMS marketing is very effective for them. Additionally, 82% of people say they open every message they receive.

Why would you choose email marketing over bulk text marketing?

We don’t recommend completely ditching one medium over another. But for some marketing campaigns where brand recognition, customer engagement, and interaction are required, email marketing is the way to go. For shorter, personalized messages, SMS marketing works well, but is not meant for every marketing campaign.

Is email marketing still effective in 2021?

Although there is a growing trend of social media and influencer marketing, email marketing continues to be the most cost-effective choice for marketing your business online. Your email marketing strategy should be optimized for the latest innovation and trends to remain effective in 2021. Email is expected to reach 4.2 billion users in the next three years, and in 2019, roughly 62% of all emails were read on a mobile device; therefore optimizing your email campaigns for mobile is a must in 2021.

When should I use SMS marketing?

SMS marketing is very effective if you want immediate connection with your customers. It’s important to keep messages short and creative, and works best for time-based offers, special promotions, alerts, and reminders. For example, clinics can use text messages for appointment reminders and restaurants can use them for limited-time coupons.

Why brands use email marketing

With the rise of modern technologies and analytical tools — which help you make more informed marketing decisions —  email marketing is more powerful than ever before. Email has the largest reach compared to all other platforms and is still the preferred communication channel amongst professionals. Here are some pros and cons to email marketing.

Advantages of email marketing

The benefits of email marketing are unmatched by any other type of marketing. Marketers have more control over campaigns, through targeted direct mail, based on user interests and demographics,  allowing brands to personalize marketing messages that lead to higher engagement.

1. Customers expect emails

Email adds a sense of authenticity to your brand and builds a better connection to your customers, especially since roughly 61% of consumers trust email as their preferred method of communication with online brands, increasing your brand recognition and, again, leading to higher conversion rates.

2. High ROI

In terms of ROI, email still leads the way across all marketing channels. According to Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generates $40 for every $1 spent in ROI, and is 40x more effective in new customer acquisition than Facebook.

3. Endless automation potential

The potential for email marketing automation is huge, and saves you a lot of time, effort, and money. And when combined with analytics, automation provides better conversions and click rates.

Disadvantages of email marketing

While email marketing is still effective, there are some limitations to the channel. Here’s what to keep in mind with email marketing.

1. Lower click-through and open rates

Low click-through and open rates are probably the most concerning issue with regards to email marketing. With inboxes flooded daily, it can be hard to ensure your messages are seen. 

2. Can be spammy

Customers hate spam, especially if emails are sent from larger, impersonal lists. That’s why email personalization is important to avoid ending up in spam folders and any damage to your brand reputation.

3. Filters block emails

Most email service providers have strict filters to segment inboxes. Gmail, for example, labels some email as “important,” automatically decreasing advertising email visibility.

Advantages of SMS marketing

With the increased use of mobile devices, SMS marketing is a massive opportunity to capture customer attention, but can only be sent after receiving explicit permission. Shortcodes are typically used instead of a regular phone number, and most smartphones support MMS which makes SMS marketing more engaging.

1. Read within three minutes

SMS’s greatest advantage over email is that it’s read within three minutes of receipt, giving it a 209% higher response rate than phone callls, email, or Facebook.

2. No internet required

You don’t need Internet access or a smartphone to send or receive an SMS and means your campaigns reach a wider audience.

3. High engagement levels

Engagement levels are much higher than email as it takes only 90 seconds to respond to an SMS; users are more likely to click on a CTA in a text because it’s short and precise.

Disadvantages of SMS marketing

A few major disadvantages of SMS marketing is its text and media limitations. It can also annoy your potential customer if campaign timing and frequency are off.

1. Character limitations

A single text message is limited to just 160 characters, so marketers need to be extra creative to deliver clear and poignant messages.

2. Cost

SMS campaigns cost per text sent and are at the mercy of regional charges and carriers.

3. Lack of trust

Sending an unlimited stream of or poorly-structured SMS messages can result in a lack of customer trust, causing potential users to opt-out of subscriptions. Sending text messages at the wrong time (like in the middle of the night when people are sleeping) can also annoy potential customers.

Email marketing vs. SMS marketing: Who wins?

Well, neither. While there is no clear winner between SMS and email marketing, both SMS and email perfectly complement each other and provide the best results when used as part of an omnichannel marketing strategy.

When to use email marketing

Relevancy and personalization is the key to an effective campaign. If your email is not relevant to a particular customer it may end up in the trash or remain unseen due to strict spam filters.

Promoting multiple products

Emails are customizable and interactive. You can highlight multiple products with different templates in a single, dynamic email, increasing the click-through rates and resulting in more sales.

Company updates

Informing your customers about your company increases brand loyalty. Email is the best way to let your customers know what’s going on.

Newsletters

Whether you’re sharing your brand’s story to build trust, explaining product development or promoting a loyalty program, regular newsletters help build brand authenticity.

Order & delivery updates

Email is a professional and trustworthy medium when it comes to transactions. Because email is secure and trackable, it should be used for orders, payment confirmation, and delivery updates.

When to use SMS marketing

SMS marketing works best for time-sensitive messages and is the most mobile-friendly way to interact with customers. Set up keywords for SMS campaigns and use shortcodes for  branding purposes. 

Promote a single product

Promoting a product through SMS marketing can positively influence buyers’ purchase decisions. By only promoting one product instead of multiple, you can keep customers attention and not have to worry about them switching to view other products.

Answer customer questions

SMS is the quickest way to engage customers in conversation to answer any queries or solve any issues, and is a powerful way to take your customer service offerings to the next level.

Ask for reviews

Sending a more personalized text message can help you get a review on your website.

Get sign-ups for your referral and loyalty programs

SMS marketing is an effective tool to ensure customer loyalty and commitment. Use SMS to increase your email subscribers and incentivize customers with discount coupons to join your loyalty program.

Combine SMS and email marketing to get the best performance

By implementing a mobile-first strategy for both channels, coupled with the right timing and frequency, can help businesses achieve their marketing campaign goals. Leverage the power of an omnichannel strategy to achieve robust business growth and build better customer relationships.

Conclusion

Consumer habits are continuously evolving. Both the marketing channels are effective and work even better when used simultaneously. SMS marketing helps build an email list while email subscriptions provide valuable insights for sending personalized messages to SMS recipients.

Regardless of which marketing channel you choose, user permission is vital for collecting emails or phone numbers. Plus, when you have customer consent, you are actually building trust and avoiding being sent to spam.

To get started with omnichannel marketing, try out ManyChat for free!

The post SMS vs. Email Marketing: Which Channel Wins in 2021? appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Text messages are a convenient way of conducting two-way communications, and, unlike phone calls, doesn’t force customers to respond immediately. Plus, text messages make it easier for the receiver to respond if, when, and how quickly they choose.

Why use SMS for customer service

Using SMS as a customer service tool is not only cost-effective but is also a great way to boost efficiency. Here are some of the reasons why you should use SMS for customer service.

Quick response times

With a much higher response rate than emails, SMS serves to be a more efficient mode of communication than emails. It’s quick response time not only helps you get more conversions in less time but it also helps you build customer loyalty by establishing a one-to-one relationship with your customers.

Along with providing great customer service, use SMS’s quick response time to your advantage and  gather customer feedback through the channel or send a pre-launch SMS poll to help you predict how your customers will respond to a new product you are launching.

Build personal relationships with customers

Communicating through SMS allows you to have a one-to-one conversation with your customers. While phone calls are considered one of the most effective ways to develop personal relationships with customers, telephonic communication comes with its own challenges.

You can easily frustrate customers by putting them on hold or failing to provide accurate information on the call.

With an SMS, on the other hand, the chance for inaccuracies is reduced. Moreover, calls are a much more expensive option than SMS, especially if you’re providing customers with a toll-free call service. 

SMS is not only a more affordable option with fewer chances for error, but it also lets you connect with the customer on a first-name basis — a strong customer relationship can go a long way for your business.

Automation makes it easy to scale customer service

There are a variety of customer service platforms available in the market that are easy to integrate with your existing systems and can help you scale your customer service. Customer service platforms allow you to create automated responses to commonly asked queries and send messages based on different customer actions.

For example, you can use automation to send sales alerts and abandoned cart reminders, new product launches, event notifications, and appointment reminders.

Collect direct feedback and send surveys

SMS is a great source for data, especially when you send customers polls and gather their feedback about your products and services. This not only increases customer engagement with your business but also serves as a great resource for your product management team. Product developers can use this collected insight to better understand customer preferences  and improve products in a way that ensures customer satisfaction.

Higher open rates than email

With an open rate of 98%, as compared to 20% for emails, SMS is a much more reliable way to reach potential customers as well as engage with existing customers. A high open rate combined with ease of use and convenience makes SMS a well-suited channel for businesses to create a loyal customer base.

Knowing that SMS has a higher open rate, it would be wise if businesses sent call-to-action (CTA) links to customers via text to make the engagement process as easy as possible.

How to implement customer support via SMS

Not sure how to get started with SMS customer support? Here’s how to implement SMS into your customer service strategy.

1. Set up a SMS customer service number.

The first step to implementing customer support via SMS is setting up a customer service phone number. Keep the number the same as your voice call number or use a different one — some businesses prefer to use shortcodes as their customer service numbers.

2. Customers text your business for support.

In the event of a complaint or a query, customers will contact your business for support. Save the customer’s number in your database using your customer service software, which should be setup to automatically save this type of information. However, if you don’t use customer service software for SMS, add this information into your business’s database manually. 

3. A customer service ticket is created.

When a  customer contacts you with a complaint or query, it’s time to create a support ticket. Creating a ticket helps you keep track of the interaction and makes the process more efficient. Again, if you are using customer service software for SMS, the software automatically creates the ticket for you.

4. Text the customer to help solve their issue.

After the ticket is created, respond to the customer and help them solve their issue. This can be done by sending an automated response to the question, linking to a relevant self-help page, or directing them to a customer service agent.

5. Close the ticket.

Once you’ve responded to the query or complaint  and the customer is satisfied, close the ticket marking the issue resolved. The customer’s number will still be in your database and can be used at a later time for customer engagement and marketing goals.

Best practices for SMS customer service

Providing customer service through SMS can help you hit brand goals if done correctly. Here are a few best practices to ensure customer satisfaction and business growth results..

Reply quickly

The whole reason customers opt in to receive SMS communications is for its convenience and quick response rates. The last thing you want is to take too long to respond and end up with a frustrated customer. To avoid this situation,  make sure the SMS customer support your business provides is foolproof. The quicker you respond to your customers, the more likely they are to continue business with you. A delay in response, especially if a customer is facing a problem, can negatively affect your brand reputation and lead to a higher churn rate.

Use automation to answer common queries

To ensure that every customer gets a timely reply to their SMS, businesses need to have enough customer service agents and the right customer service platform. And while having enough staff is important, hiring more customer service employees isn’t a wholly practical solution for sending timely responses to hundreds of queries every day. What businesses really need is to use the built-in artificial intelligence in customer service platforms alongside its workforce.

Customer service software can be easily integrated into your company’s systems, databases, and CRM, and allows you to automate your text responses resulting in a better customer service experience. While there will always be messages that need to be handled by agents directly, there are plenty of other messages, like queries about business hours and product availability, that can easily be handled through bots. The efficiency provided by automation will not only make the job of customer service reps easier but will also keep customers happy.

Make use of integrations

Integrations  link two softwares together and make it easy to share data. Utilizing an application programming interface (API) to create links between customer SMS software and your CRM can help you harness the  information gathered from customer service interactions into marketing campaigns. Similarly, the information stored in CRM and other software provides important insight and can help you create an exceptional customer service experience.

Leverage SMS customer service into your SMS marketing strategy

Since 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of being received, SMS marketing proves to be one of the most important resources for the growth of your business. Messages sent through SMS have more chances of being read and responded to than any other channel, making texting an undeniably great tool for marketing.

SMS’s higher click-through rate leads to higher customer engagement and conversion. Leverage your SMS customer service strategy to send new product updates, abandoned cart reminders, and CTA links while cutting down on your marketing expenses.

Emojis are OK to use (but don’t overdo it)

Emojis can bring a degree of personalization and liveliness to your SMS messages, and make people think they are having a conversation with a real person rather than a bot. It’s important to consider, however, what style of emoji to use. For example, is it appropriate for your business to use more laid-back and fun emojis, or does an infrequent use better fit your brand image?

If your brand’s general content strategy focuses on more serious content, make sure your emoji use (or lack thereof) is consistent with your branding. Alternatively, if you think emojis help you  connect with your customers and result in more engagement, just make sure not to overdo them.

Conclusion

If you Google statistics related to the increased use of SMS over time and you’d be amazed. There’s no denying that providing customer service through SMS not only has the potential to make your customers happy but also the potential to increase your profitability by cutting down costs. However, to achieve optimal results using SMS, it’s important you follow the best practices and align your customer service goals with your business goals.

To get started with ManyChat’s powerful SMS features, click the button below to try out SMS for free.

The post Best Practices for Customer Service via SMS appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Despite the effectiveness of text marketing, many businesses are still at a loss as to how to approach sending business texts. To help get you started, we’ve put together some of the most common SMS marketing campaign use cases, accompanied by example SMS messages you can modify to suit your needs.

Sales and marketing sample text messages

Flash sales and promotions are the top reasons people opt in to text messages from businesses. If you’re running a promotion and want your customers to take action immediately, there’s hardly a more proven method of getting the word out than text. You’re almost guaranteed a sharp boost in revenue and quick returns on your investment.

Start by offering your customers a reward when they text in a keyword. This message can appear as a pop-up on your website with a widget that directly inputs the keyword on their text messaging app.

• Enjoy 10% off — text “CUPCAKE” to [Number] to unlock instant discounts.

Once they send the message, you can respond with:

• Hi there! Thanks for texting us. Use code ”WELCOME” to get 10% off your entire purchase when you order your favorite cupcake from cakes.com.

In addition to helping you earn more revenue, this strategy is an excellent way to build your contact list.

Below are other SMS templates you can modify to announce a sales promotion:

• HouseholdPro’s annual sale is just 12 hours away! Use the code “MEMBER” to enjoy exclusive early access as a text club member.
• We know you love to save big. That’s why we’re offering a 20% discount on all online orders for beef products. Valid thru 01/01
• Yay! It’s another Two for Tuesday. Order a box of candy today and get another one FREE. Hurry now and visit chocolates.com to order. Valid for orders above $20.

Order confirmation alerts

Many of the order confirmation alerts you send via email get lost in the flood of messages customers receive daily. If you really want your customers to see your confirmation messages, consider texting them. Here are a few text message templates you can use.

• Thanks for using the promo code ”NOBIGGIE”. A 10% discount was applied to order #A5124. Your backpack will be delivered on or before 12/12/12.
• Your hotel booking is confirmed. The check-in code is XYZ123 for room number 123. Kindly present your ID at reception on check-in day.
• Your PNR is WE456 for flight EA2222 on Mon., Dec. 12 from XYZ to ABC at 10:00. Your e-ticket has been forwarded to your email. We wish you safe travels!
• Thanks for your order! Visit gift.com/confirm to confirm your shipping address. Also, follow this link to sign up for our email list and enjoy exclusive offers.

When sending order confirmation messages, it’s vital to include your company name as sender ID and provide as many details as you can.

Customer service

SMS marketing is an excellent customer service tool because messages are delivered and read almost immediately — and there’s room for two-way communication. And SMS customer service can be scaled and automated. Plus, if you leverage this channel, your business will save money on phone service and customer service personnel training. See a few templates for customer support messages below.

• Hi [First name]. It appears there’s an issue with your order. We apologize for the mixup, and we’re working to resolve it. We’ll get back to you once we’re done.
• Hello [First name]. Sorry we had to reschedule your shipping. Your new delivery date is 01/01/21 with tracking code ABD458S. Contact us at 88-45-99 if you have further inquiries.
• Hello [First name]. Thanks for contacting OBARIN Gym. Please reply to this message to schedule a consultation with our fitness instructor with the following format: “MM/DD/YY” “TIME.”
• Hello [First name]. Your complaint with ticket number ABC215 has been resolved. We appreciate your patience. Kindly let us know if you’d need anything else.

Payment reminders

There aren’t many nice ways to remind people to pay up, and plenty of not-so-nice ways of doing it. When sending payment reminders, aim for a tone that conveys a sense of urgency without sounding harsh. Plus, you should provide clear instructions to make the payment process smooth. Below are a few examples that illustrate friendly payment reminders:

• Hello Barry. Your quarterly subscription expires 02/07. Kindly visit our Broad Street gym to renew or go online to gymnasium.com.
• Never get caught off guard. Renew your vehicle insurance policy before 01/01 to enjoy a 5% discount. Visit policy.com today.
• Hi Nick. This is to remind you about the $75 minimum payment on your credit card ending in XXXX. Payment is due on 01/01. Pls visit order.com to make your payment.
• Hello Dave. Your subscription expires 05/06. Text “SUB” to 7788 to activate the same plan and rollover unused coupons. To unsubscribe, text “UNSUB” to 7788.
  

Lead engagement messages

Lead engagement messages are a great way to stimulate a prospect’s interest in your brand. The message should have a friendly tone and offer the prospect a clear reward for engaging with your brand. Below are a few sample texts for lead engagement you’ll find useful:

• Want to receive the reading recommendations for your favorite authors? Send “BOOKHUB” to 5331 to join our subscribers list. Msg or data rates may apply.
• Our daily weight loss tips can help you stay on track with your fitness goals. Reply “YES” for access to actionable tips from industry experts.
• Take a giant step towards becoming the best version of yourself. Text “I WANT” to 787898 to receive daily motivational quotes and life hacks.
• Hi Pauline. Thanks for joining our text club. Send “COUPON” to 7555 to enjoy 10% off your next purchase as a welcome bonus. Offer valid till 05/05.

Exclusive offers

Exclusive offers are meant to make your customers feel special. Therefore, such messages should be as personal as possible. Achieve this by addressing customers by their first name or some other title that shows they’re special. Here are a few examples you can modify to suit your business.

• Dear Marie. We appreciate your loyalty over the years and we’d like to thank you with this $50 voucher to purchase any item of your liking. Valid till 10/10/21
• Dear PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER. It’s been 12 months of consistently reading from our platform. To celebrate your anniversary, next month’s subscription is on us!
• Dear VIP customer, show this message to the stylist to receive the next hair cut FREE! Thanks for trusting the brand. Offer valid thru 12/12/21.
• Our product launch is 05/06! Text club members get to enjoy a front seat plus 10% discount on purchases. Visit lunch.com to reserve your spot.
  

Appointment reminders

If your customers are in the habit of missing their appointments, it’s probably because they’re not getting the reminders at the right time. Why not help them out and send the reminder as a text message. Remember, 95% of people read their text messages within the first three minutes of receipt.

The text should contain important information, such as appointment time and venue. Plus, you can tell the customer what they’ll need for the appointment and include an option to reschedule or cancel. Here are a few helpful templates.

• Dear Caroline. Your appointment with Dr. Brown is scheduled for 2 p.m. today. Please arrive at the clinic 10 mins prior. Follow this link to reschedule or cancel.
• Hi Diane. Don’t forget your monthly manicure today at Gracious Salon. Please come with your facemask. Call (888) 999-6666 if you have questions.
• Hi Jim. Your weekly session is today @ 18:00. Dr. Diane is looking forward to seeing you. Pls arrive early for our mandatory pre-tests. See you @ 17:30!
• Hello Kanye. The scheduled demo you requested to join is at 6 p.m. today. Kindly reply “YES” to reserve a seat and “NO” if you’re unavailable.

Text to order

Text to order or text to buy has been tipped as the next big thing in eCommerce. Because retailers generally get most of their traffic from mobile devices, marketers stand to gain a lot from adopting a strategy that makes buying from mobile completely hitch-free.

Offer this purchase feature by sending exclusive offers to customers and urging them to respond with their order.

• Enjoy a 10% discount on all orders today! See our attached menu and send your order using the codes in the image. We’ll deliver 30 mins after order confirmation.

Note: This template is only suitable for MMS marketing messages.

You can also ask customers to text in a keyword, and they’ll receive a message with a link to order online. For example, you can ask your customers to text “BACON” and they’ll get a message like this:

• What smoked treat are you having today? Place your order via baconlover.com and we’ll get to it right away. Call us at (987) 431-6517 if you have any questions.

Text bots

Text bots have a wide range of applications in SMS marketing. They can be used to automate or support customer service, collect feedback, confirm orders, track shipping, etc. 

Typically, when using text bots for SMS marketing, you should encourage the other party to communicate with keywords, letters, or numbers representing their requests or answers.

• What would you like to order? Text “1” for Big Mac, “2” for Quarter Pounder, “3” for McDouble…

SMS Contests

SMS contests are a great way to drive customer engagement. Keep in mind, however, that some customers may not be keen on participating in contests making it even more important to pay attention to opt-out best practices. Make it easy for subscribers to opt out or unsubscribe.

• Wish to participate in the biggest car raffle in town? Order your ticket online or reserve your spot by sending “YES” to 007588. Texts cost $xx each.
• Here’s a chance to have your most stylish summer ever. Enter our contest for a chance to win a $2,000 wardrobe voucher. Follow this link to register.
• Want to win $5,000 in this summer’s treasure hunt? Text “YES” to 4555 to reserve your ticket.T&Cs apply. 

Customer satisfaction surveys

Reviews can be a great tool to attract new customers and improve your services; however, customers aren’t always keen on spending time leaving a review (especially if the experience is positive). One way to encourage your customers to leave a review is via SMS messages. You’ll benefit greatly from using an SMS tool that allows customers to respond to your text.

• Hi! Thanks for stopping by today. We’d appreciate it if you took a moment to tell us what you like about our services and how we can improve. 
• Hello Keith. We hope you’re enjoying your power blender. Please click here to let everyone know how great it is. It will only take a minute.
• Thanks for choosing Mantle Hotels. We hope you enjoyed your stay. Please let us know how we did so we can serve you better.
• Hi Ann. Thanks for patronizing our jewelry store. How would you rate our service on a scale of 1-10. Kindly reply to this message with your honest answer. 

Conclusion

If the numerous use cases highlighted above are anything to go by, there’s no arguing that SMS messaging remains one of the most versatile marketing channels out there. As long as you have the right SMS marketing strategy and tool, you can launch text message marketing campaigns that are tailored to your business needs. So, what are you waiting for? Start texting your customers today. Your bottom line will thank you.

Get started with ManyChat today for your SMS, Messenger, and email needs by clicking the button below.

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