Customers immediately anticipate advertising personalization. Blah blah blah—we all know that. Old information. But, eager about find out how to personalize is the place innovation and novelty can nonetheless flourish. To personalize advertising communications for your clients, manufacturers want to grasp what content material every buyer desires and the way they need it delivered.
One advertising channel that has gained traction just lately is SMS. Sending textual content messages to clients is an efficient strategy to join, particularly once they’re on-the-go. After all, as Findstack factors out, “People check their phones up to 160 times a day, or once every 9 minutes.” But, to essentially use this channel the way it was meant for use, manufacturers need to go a step additional and take into consideration what clients anticipate from SMS, outdoors of the advertising panorama.
For instance, often, people who find themselves texting are having a dialog—there’s a backwards and forwards. So why not apply that mannequin to your advertising messages? “SMS has eight times the response rate of email,” so let clients reply after which ship advertising messages to them based mostly on their responses. But, how? Since you may’t have your customer support crew or advertising crew responding to each textual content message out of your clients, you’ll have to make use of SMS key phrases as an alternative.
What are SMS Keywords?
SMS key phrases are phrases or phrases that your clients can textual content you that end in an automatic content material stream associated to that key phrase. It’s related for opt-in or opt-out language. If a buyer now not desires to obtain your texts they’ll ship “STOP” and your advertising know-how will acknowledge that key phrase and chorus from sending SMS messages to that buyer sooner or later.
But, key phrases aren’t solely for opting in or out of communications, they can be utilized to assist tailor the advertising messages you ship to your clients. For instance, possibly you ship a message to your clients asking them to reply with a listing of their favourite merchandise. Your SMS platform can acknowledge the product key phrases after which set off a journey that solely sends them SMS messages associated to these merchandise. Not solely are you decreasing guide efforts for your advertising crew, however you’re additionally making a extra joyful buyer expertise.
The Positives of Personalized SMS Keywords
SMS key phrases give your model deeper entry to buyer preferences. Because clients need to opt-in to obtain SMS advertising messages, you already know they’re excited about your model. But, with customized key phrases, opening the dialog, you will discover out precisely what about your model resonates with them. In her session at Activate Virtual, MeUndies’ Senior Retention Marketing Manager, Alyssa Aquino, talked about, “45% of US respondents said that message frequency and irrelevance were the top turn-offs for the channel.” Staying related is vital to sustaining engagement and a robust buyer relationship.
Below is a favourite instance of ours from the TV community, Bravo. They’re utilizing their SMS advertising program to provide clients the “inside scoop.”
Bravo asks customers to reply with their favourite reveals to verify future messages are related.
SMS feels tremendous private, so Bravo is sensible in utilizing acquainted, conversational language (which aligns with their model). Not solely that, they’ve requested the person which Bravo reveals they like—SMS key phrases—to make sure the content material despatched going ahead will spark person engagement and retention. Using reveals—a.okay.a. merchandise—as key phrases can also be a very good technique as a result of it’s not one thing the person will neglect simply.
This brings up a very good level. What key phrases ought to manufacturers select to verify their clients don’t neglect and may at all times re-enter the dialog?
How to Choose an SMS Keyword
When selecting an SMS key phrase your model must do some perspective taking. Think about all the occasions you, as a buyer, have obtained a reduction code and it’s a string of random numbers and letters that you simply’re anticipated to recollect and kind within the subsequent time you make a purchase order. It’s irritating, annoying, and definitely doesn’t create a joyful buyer expertise. On the flipside, a reduction code like “SUMMER20” tells you when the low cost code was issued and the way a lot the low cost is for. Plus, it’s straightforward to recollect.
The similar fundamental rules ought to be utilized to SMS key phrases. According to our pals at Telnyx, “Ideally, your keyword should be a single word that’s easy to remember and related to your business. Avoid using special characters. And avoid using a keyword that’s related to your business in a way that your customers won’t understand, like an internal joke or mantra.” At Iterable, for instance, Growth Mindset is considered one of our values, and each Iterator is aware of and understands it. But, if we used GROWTHMINDSET as a key phrase in an SMS program, it might not be as memorable to clients as one thing like MARTECH or CROSSCHANNEL. (Hi Google crawlers!)
SMS Keywords to Fuel Cross-Channel Harmonization
Speaking of cross-channel, (see what we did there?) having an understanding of buyer preferences will solely assist to enhance the general cross-channel expertise. For instance, for those who’re receiving an onslaught of SMS key phrases from a buyer and so they’re extremely engaged together with your SMS content material, make that the first channel for the shopper. Email, whereas necessary, will be ancillary and help the expertise the person is having through SMS. So, if the shopper says they like ladies’s denim by means of SMS, be sure that your emails take that data under consideration.
Your different advertising channels—email, push notifications, in-app messaging, unsolicited mail, and so on.—are necessary for making a holistic, harmonized expertise, however SMS is a platform constructed for dialog. Start a dialog in SMS and carry the learnings to your different channels.
To be taught extra about SMS key phrases and the way Iterable can assist, schedule a demo immediately.