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Segment Customers
You need to know who your customers are and what makes
them tick. What triggers a purchase? What do they appreciate
about your brand? This kind of information allows you to
craft compelling text marketing messages that prospects
and customers simply can’t ignore. The best way to learn
about your customers is to segment text marketing contacts
into smaller groups based on the unique characteristics
that they share. A well-organized customer database allows
you to create deeply personalized and relevant texts.

You can use Groups to segment contacts based on the

4 Strategies
Keyword they used to join your list, demographics, purchase
history, or text message marketing activity.

for Successful
Mobile Marketing
 Introduction
Mobile marketing via text is the most effective way to connect
with prospects and customers. Here are four key strategies
for making these connections work:
1. Promotions 2. Engagement
3. Alerts 4. Reminders

You may decide that your text marketing program will focus
on one area, while other marketing channels will focus on
others. Alternatively, you may decide to use all four in your
texting campaign for a more diverse program. No matter
how you use text marketing, you should bear in mind cer-
tain best practices for optimal outcomes. To that end, it is
important to understand the nuances of each of the four
elements so you can use them advantageously.

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 PART 1

Promotions
Promotion refers to the way in which you advertise
your products and services. It is focused on spreading
the word about your company and increasing brand
awareness and recognition. It’s often found at the top
part of the sales funnel, where you are taking in as
many potential prospects as possible with the goal of
eventually converting them into customers.

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There are many ways to utilize text marketing for promotion,
but one of the best ways is to provide a call-to-action.

Any strong piece of marketing or advertising material requires

a good call-to-action. It should motivate the person to act
easily and quickly.

You lose a significant amount of advertising power if a person

is required to remember to take action at a later time. That
is where SMS marketing really demonstrates its power.

It is easy to promote your text marketing program on any

existing piece of marketing collateral:
• Radio or TV spots • Digital properties
• Billboards • Social media accounts
• Print ads • Email
• Flyers

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Do so by simply encouraging them to text a Keyword to a short
code. Around 90 percent of people carry their cell phones
with them at all times, so they can take action right away.

Promotion: Best Practices

When you use texting as a call-to-action, there are some best
practices to follow. First, incorporate terms and conditions
that are easy to understand. Let people know that when
they text in your Keyword they are signing up for a regular
marketing program.

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Promotion combines well with other elements of marketing.
You might use a texting program to send new product alerts,
offers and deals, and other messages that promote a certain
event, service or products.

This is easily done with an automated confirmation text. In

this confirmation text, include some brief terms and con-
ditions and -- if necessary -- a link to more information on
the web. You can also ask them to reply to confirm their
desire to join the program.

The great thing about texting is that people can take action
from anywhere.
When you create a call-to-action, you want to use wording
that encourages people to take action. This typically includes
strong motivational language. This works no matter where
you include a call-to action.

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“ It works far better and faster
than email, very good

”
support and effective results

Steve Brownlee
Assistant Manager, Professional Salon Concepts

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 #1
PART 2

Engagement
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you to create deeply personalized and relevant texts.

You can use Groups to segment contacts based on the

Keyword they used to join your list, demographics, purchase
history, or text message marketing activity.
This makes it even more important to provide excellent
customer service and to find ways to continually engage
with customers.

Text marketing is a great way to engage with customers. In

fact, it has a higher engagement rate than email and other
channels. There are several types of messages you could
send to increase customer engagement:
• Surveys • Exclusive news
• Polls • Customer service
• Contests messages
• Information and tips • Offers and deals

Each of these types of engagement provides something

different for customers. Surveys and polls let them tell you
what they think. Contests are fun and increase the number
of people who choose to opt-in since people love to win things.
And many customers will want to learn new information
and tips.

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Offering customer service via text is becoming increasingly
popular -- and expected -- as it is an easy way for your cus-
tomers to contact you from anywhere at any time.

Some of the most common message types are offers and

deals. These are effective at getting people to come in and
shop at your business; however, you’ll want to provide a
variation of offers over time.

There are several ways to determine what your customers

would likely want from your program:
• Perform market research
• Review demographics
• Directly ask your customers via a poll or survey

Engagement: Best Practices

Many companies choose to use several of these message
types in order to keep customers interested in their program,
thus reducing opt-outs. It is critical that your engagement
messages provide content that your customers will find
valuable.

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Many companies find it beneficial to create personas based
on their target audience groups by looking at shopping
behaviors, demographics, and psychosocial characteristics.
Create messages that will resonate with your personas.

If you have more than one ideal customer persona, divide

your subscriber list into groups based on their characteris-
tics and send targeted messages. This increases the effica-
cy and engagement of your program.

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“
We use EZ Texting to administer a portion
of our nutrition coaching…We have found
that sending it right to them, eliminating
the login or check your email step, has
improved our read rate and adherence
by at least 60%. In health and
fitness, that’s the name of the game!

”
Jaclyn Weber
Marketing Director, Faithfully Fit

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It is tempting to send several messages to leverage the
benefits of customer engagement; however, people do not
appreciate being inundated with text messages, even if they
do (otherwise) wish to hear from companies via text. This
means you need to find the right frequency of texts for your
program to be successful. If you text too little, customers
will forget about your program or decide to opt out. If you
text too often, customers will get annoyed and opt out.

Most companies find that texting between two and four

times per month is optimal; however, you may need to poll
your customers and perform testing to determine the ideal
frequency for your business.

Timing is also important, especially for offers and deals. You

want to provide customers sufficient time to use the deal,
but you also want to create a sense of urgency. Because
most people open texts within a few minutes of receipt,
texting is the perfect medium for flash sales and limited
time coupons.

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 PART 3

Alerts
Send out texts to let people
know about emergency situations.

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Another common type of text message is alerts:
• Emergency alerts
• Alerts about events
• Transactional messages

Educational institutions find text marketing a great way to

alert their students, faculty, and staff of activities on campus,
including emergencies that may arise.

Because most people open text messages and have their

phones on them, you can feel confident that they will receive
the message. That is why text messaging for important
information, like emergency alerts, is so effective.

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“ We contact volunteers by text
alerting them to time-sensitive
volunteer opportunities. EZ Texting
is affordable and easy to use.

”
Sarah Nejdl
CEO, Families to Freedom

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Many customers prefer receiving transactional messages by
text. Such messaging might be for when something they have
bought has shipped or is ready to be picked up.

When it comes to alerts, there are a few best practices. Avoid

sending them more often than you need to, and be careful
about the timing. Emergency alerts might be fine to send
outside of business hours, but any other messages should
be sent during the day at times that are not disruptive to
the customer.

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 #14
PART

Reminders
Segment Customers
You need to know who your customers are and what makes
them Reminders’ purposeaispurchase?
tick. What triggers -- quite simply
What--do tothey
remind
appreciate
customers
about your brand? about
This something of which they
kind of information are you to
allows
already aware.
craft compelling textFor businesses
marketing that sell that
messages products
prospects
or offer services, these messages might
and customers simply can’t ignore. The best way to learn be
aboutreminders of salesisor
your customers toin-store
segment events. Businessescontacts
text marketing
maygroups
into smaller also send last-minute
based event reminders
on the unique characteristics
to boost attendance.
that they share. A well-organized customer database allows
you to create deeply personalized and relevant texts.

You can use Groups to segment contacts based on the

Keyword they used to join your list, demographics, purchase
history, or text message marketing activity.
Medical professionals, service-oriented businesses, and
other appointment-based businesses find that sending
appointment reminders via text leads to fewer no-shows,
thus reducing the financial loss associated with no-shows.

You’ll want to find the right time to send appointment re-

minders. They should be close enough to the event that
people do not forget; otherwise, you have missed the
purpose of the reminder. However, you want to provide
sufficient time for the person to alert you if they need to
change or cancel the appointment.

Most people send out reminders about 24 hours ahead of

time, but you need to determine the optimal time based
on your event and situation.

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“
This tool is a huge time saver
for our organization. Now we
are able to blast out group
reminders and deadlines.

”
Jayre Zimmerman
O’Brate Foundation

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SMS Marketing
Best Practices
The content above discusses certain best practices
for each of the central elements of marketing.
There are some additional practices that should
be considered with every text you send, no matter
the intention behind it.

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Make sure to get permission before you start texting customers.

First and foremost, always get permission from your sub-

scribers, especially if you plan to send marketing messages.
This ensures that you remain in compliance with texting
guidelines and rules.

If you send out several types of messages, such as reminders,

transactional messages, and marketing messages, you will
need to have permission to send all three types of messages.
You cannot assume that someone who signed up for reminders
will also want to receive your marketing messages.

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Text marketing is a unique and powerful channel that should
be utilized as such. Do not simply reproduce the same content
you’re posting elsewhere to text to your subscribers. Remem-
ber that several of them will also follow you on social media,
regularly read your blog, receive your emails, and otherwise
engage with you.

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EZ Texting is the #1
Mobile Marketing Solution
and the right partner for thousands of businesses

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