How people use and interact with technology is constantly evolving, and this means digital marketing strategies must be equally adaptable. Smart teams stay on top of current trends, implementing new, innovative strategies regularly.
One effective marketing strategy for businesses is using SMS, a text message service, to connect with potential and current customers. This is basically text message marketing—a powerful marketing tool that can be used to reach any potential customers with mobile phones around the world.
The click-through rate, or CTR, is the number of times users click on a link. The CTR of SMS messages demonstrates how many people engage with the campaign.
More clicks equal more engagement with your business. There are a number of strategies businesses can use to boost SMS CTR and get more engagement on SMS marketing campaigns.
What is SMS CTR?
SMS CTR, short message service click-through rate, is a metric used to measure the effectiveness of SMS (text message) marketing campaigns. Specifically, SMS CTR measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link or took a desired action within an SMS message, compared to the total number of messages delivered.
SMS CTR provides valuable insight into how engaging and compelling your SMS messages are to your audience. A higher CTR indicates that the message resonated with recipients and motivated them to take action, such as clicking on a link to visit a website or making a purchase. It also signifies that your audience is actively engaging with your brand through SMS. This engagement is crucial for building a relationship with customers, increasing brand loyalty, and keeping your brand top-of-mind.
What are the most important factors that influence SMS CTR?
Several key elements contribute to the success of an SMS marketing campaign and its resulting CTR. By delving into these factors, marketers can gain valuable insights to optimize their SMS strategies and enhance engagement with their target audience.
Message content
For SMS messages, use clear, concise communication that demonstrates value quickly to grab recipients’ attention. Highlight what the recipient stands to gain from clicking the link or taking the desired action. SMS marketing campaigns include a compelling call to action (CTA) within the message that prompts immediate action from the user.
With smartphones, there usually isn’t a character limit for texts, but don’t be wordy just because you can. For the best return on investment in text message marketing, keep messages short and to the point. Deliver the necessary information without overwhelming the recipient.
Avoid using industry jargon or complex language that might confuse the recipient. This simple tactic can significantly increase the engagement rates of your SMS marketing messages.
Timing and frequency of delivery
When you use SMS marketing, understand the impact of timing on the functionality. Send the messages during peak engagement times for the target audience. Exclusive offers that include a time-sensitive component, such as flash sales and limited-time offers, help maximize customer engagement from your target audience.
Time-sensitive messages maximize revenue within a short window of opportunity and keep recipients intrigued and engaged. Examples include flash sales, extended sales, coupon codes, or coupon expiration reminders. Remember to factor in time zones to ensure messages are sent at appropriate times.
Also, consider triggered text messages, or automated messages, sent to SMS subscribers based on their actions on your website. These actions include opting into your text messaging program, abandoning an online cart, and completing a purchase. Building automated flows for triggered messages ensures engagement with high-intent shoppers, which can save lost revenue through re-engagement and conversion.
Personalization and relevance
Personalization and relevance to your target audience can improve your SMS click-through rate. Your customers will feel like the SMS marketing messages are meant just for them. Simple touches—like adding names, past purchase history, or items in an abandoned cart—create more relevant and engaging messages.
Be sure to strike a balance between personalized and intrusive messages. Remember, nearly three-fourths of consumers are concerned about online privacy.
Quality of landing page
Achieving a stellar SMS CTR isn’t the only step in mobile marketing. You also need to create a quality landing page. The landing page is where you convert casual clicks into paying customers.
Ensure the landing page is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and provides a seamless user experience. Align the landing page closely with the message’s call to action to maintain continuity and increase conversion rates.
Top strategies to improve your SMS CTR
To maximize the effectiveness of your SMS marketing campaigns, implementing the right strategies can make a significant difference. Let’s look at the top strategies to boost your SMS click-through rate.
Use Bitly for URL tracking
Calculating ROI, or return on investment, in marketing campaigns is a significant challenge for many businesses. While you should consider factors like the number of users reached and customer feedback when determining the campaign’s success, ROI is an important metric.
Custom short links for SMS help personalize mobile marketing messages while providing a simple way to track ROI. By using Bitly’s short, trackable links for SMS messages, you don’t need to stress over character limits or overly lengthy links that may look like spam to potential customers. With the Federal Trade Commission cracking down on spam in text messages, it’s important to show users that you’re a legitimate business offering real value.
Bitly Analytics lets you measure helpful metrics, including how many clicks your links receive over time, the types of devices your audience uses, where they’re interacting from, their referring source, and more. These SMS marketing statistics allow you to optimize future mobile marketing efforts through a data-driven approach.
Integrate SMS with other marketing channels
Enhance visibility and reinforce your message by incorporating SMS as part of a multi-channel marketing approach. Coordinate SMS with email marketing, social media ads, and other channels to create a cohesive brand experience for customers.
This cross-promotion encourages users to engage with your brand across different platforms and ensures consistent messaging and branding for the best impact. By leveraging the strengths of each channel, you reach a wider audience and drive more engagement.
Offer exclusive SMS promotions
Offers like early sale access and SMS-only deals make users feel they’re receiving something others are not. This exclusivity creates a sense of uniqueness and special treatment for SMS subscribers.
Special offers also help build brand awareness and foster a positive sentiment associated with your brand. The initial announcement should be enticing, with clear instructions on how to redeem the offer. This encourages immediate action. Follow-up messages can be simpler, directing recipients to the store through a link, for example. Sending a few targeted reminders toward the end of the sale gives your campaign one last boost.
Keep all messages concise and focused. Overwhelming your audience with excessive messages leads to irritation and opt-outs.
Monitor the performance of exclusive SMS promotions and adjust strategies based on feedback and results.
Use engaging visual content
A multimedia messaging service (MMS) includes images or GIFs to make messages more engaging, which leads to more clicks.
Incorporate visually appealing product images or promotional graphics to capture attention. Make sure all visual content is relevant to the message, and test out different types of visuals to see which ones your target audience prefers.
Remember to optimize image sizes and formats for quick loading on mobile devices. Doing so helps improve the user experience.
Implement feedback loops
A feedback loop is the process of collecting and analyzing customer feedback to help improve and refine marketing strategies.
Implement feedback loops by engaging subscribers beyond the initial sale or promotion. This is done through post-purchase messages. You might provide helpful transactional updates like shipping notifications that build excitement, or you could offer deals for future purchases. Other options are offers to enroll in a loyalty program or a request to leave a positive review about their purchase.
Feedback is an excellent tool for refining SMS campaigns, improving customer satisfaction, and increasing the click-through rate.
Leverage FOMO (fear of missing out)
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is a powerful tool for increased customer engagement.
Craft messages that capitalize on FOMO, such as limited-time offers or exclusive deals, to create a sense of urgency. Highlight the limited nature of the offer or the time remaining to get the deal. This tactic is also helpful in encouraging high-intent shoppers to complete purchases from abandoned shopping carts. Include the link back to their online carts to make it as easy as possible for them to complete their purchases.
By incorporating these strategies into your SMS marketing campaigns, you can enhance engagement, drive higher CTRs, and ultimately achieve greater success in reaching your marketing goals.
How to measure the success of your SMS campaigns
How will you know if your SMS campaigns are resonating with your target audience? Do they prefer certain messaging, and if so, how can you determine what it is (so you can do more of it)?
With A/B testing.
A/B testing compares two versions of a marketing asset, such as an SMS message, to see which had better engagement and conversation rates. In other words, which one had more clicks and created more paying customers?
In SMS marketing, A/B testing involves comparing two variations of an SMS message. The average CTR is a helpful metric to consider in A/B testing. The click-through rate is a direct indication of interest from your target audience.
Try out different message variations in your SMS marketing campaigns. Add a new call to action, exclusive offers, or real-time deals for each message. Test out other variations in wording, tone, and placement of the CTA.
Bitly can provide key data that helps marketers understand which messages had higher engagement rates, which strategies were successful in driving that engagement, and which segments of the audience responded best. This information allows for data-driven decisions in future campaigns, such as optimizing message content, timing, and targeting to maximize CTR and overall campaign success.
Ramp up your SMS marketing with Bitly
These actionable strategies will enhance your SMS marketing efforts and boost SMS CTR. From creating exclusive SMS promotions to leveraging engaging visual content, each tactic is designed to captivate your audience and drive results.
Using Bitly for URL tracking opens doors to a world of insights so you can understand what works best, refine your strategies, and add more loyal customers to your brand.
For the best ROI, incorporate time-sensitive offers, exclusive campaigns, and seamless customer experiences with Bitly’s custom SMS short links.
If you’re ready to take mobile marketing to the next level, try out Bitly today.