We all know that SMS is an opt in strategy – that you have to convince consumers to choose to receive messages
from you. There are three basic enticement techniques that work well:
1) Offer a Big Prize to One Winner
By offering something that is a big prize to one winner you can garner a lot of excitement and get people opting in to win the prize.
Be sure the prize is congruent with your long term offer. Don’t offer the chance to win free ice cream for a year if you want to send them weekly specials about shoes.
Also, know that your list may be most interested in winning the prize and not as interested in your regular contact. Be sure they are aware they are also signing up to get regular communication when they enter the contest or your list building efforts will fail.
2) Give Something to Everyone
Giving something to each person who signs up for your SMS campaign is an excellent incentive to get people who are truly interested in what you offer on your list. As an example, if you are a restaurant and give away a free lunch entrée to everyone, you can be sure these are people who want to eat at your restaurant.
The price of the free initial item is sure to be recuperated quickly in repeat business and you will have built up good will with your customers.
3) Capturing Customers When they Purchase
When is it that customers are probably the most happy with your business? When they are purchasing something. So putting your SMS offer at the point of purchase – either on a counter display or on the receipt or by verbal delivery from the customer service person – is smart marketing.
As the method of enticement you can use a discount on a future purchase or quite possibly offering alerts when discounts are available. These are your customers already, you don’t have to convince them to do business with you, just to receive regular communication from you.
Bottom line, you need to give people a REASON to want to sign up for your SMS campaign. You are, after all, asking them to give you one of their most prized pieces of information – their cell phone number. Make it a good, compelling and interesting reason and your campaigns will do much better.
