There is no doubt that the use of text messaging has grown significantly in the last few years. Despite that growth, SMS marketing still remains a relatively underrated marketing technique. And it’s not the only one.
The fact is, consumers use texting more than ever these days.
According to recent research by Constant Contact:
- 91% of consumers are interested in signing up for texts
- 80.5% of consumers check their text notifications within five minutes of receiving a text
- combining SMS marketing with your other marketing channels can boost a company’s average user lifetime by 76%
Yet, SMS marketing remains a technique that flies under the radar when businesses are looking to monetize their website successfully
In this article, we’re going to outline some of those underrated marketing tactics that your business should be using. They can increase your online visibility and grow your sales. Let’s get started.
Personalized SMS marketing
SMS marketing involves sending promotions to customers using text messages. SMS messages can feel more personal and help you build stronger connections with your customers, because they’ll be used to receiving texts from their nearest and dearest. These messages can be used more generally to announce sales or draw people to your website, for instance — but, if you personalize your SMS marketing, you can achieve even more.
Here are a few different ways that you can personalize your SMS messages to improve the results of your marketing efforts:
- Incorporate the customer’s name into the message.
- Segment your audience. This will allow you to send different types of messages to different people based on their interests, location or personal details.
- Use dynamic fields that let you customize a message based on the location, products or services most relevant to your customers
If you need help with your text message marketing, Emotive is a platform that can offer a lot of support. Not only are they able to automate your text message marketing for you, but their service also allows for two-way conversations with your customers.
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Working with micro-influencers
Influencer marketing has become very popular. It’s a type of marketing that leads to endorsements and product mentions from influencers. These are people who have a strong following relevant to a certain field or niche.
Micro-influencers are likely a better choice for your business. These people have anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 followers. They’ll also often have very dedicated followings, meaning working with them can be very fruitful, especially if you sell particularly niche products or services.
To identify micro-influencers in your industry, consider using a service like Scrunch, which lets you search for influencers by category and provide you with statistics concerning their audience sizes, the platforms they use, the topics they post about and more.
Creating and publishing interactive content
Interactive content can be very helpful for improving your website engagement. Quizzes, virtual try-on features, calculators and virtual tours are all examples of interactive content you could create, depending on what you sell.
This type of content can also help you to increase your sales numbers. Calculators and quizzes, for instance, can help the user determine which of your products would suit their needs. Virtual tours and try-ons, on the other hand, can give people a better idea of what your products will look like in real life, so they feel more confident about buying from you.
To get you thinking, let’s look at an example of interactive content.
Truthfinder, an online public records search company, has helpful interactive content that supplements their blog posts.
For instance, in their article on how to run a background check, Truthfinder discusses what types of people they can help you pull background reports on, how to search using phone numbers, full-time jobs and possible relatives, and what information their search can uncover. The interactive element is at the top of the page, where the user can simply begin to search for the individual they’re looking for. In taking this approach, Truthfinder is able to convince more people to use their tool, as they’ll have a much better understanding of how it works and what it can be used for.
Consider adding interactive elements to your content, as Truthfinder has. This will help give your readers a better understanding of what your services and products are capable of, making them more likely to want to spend money with you.
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Promoting your company with useful freebies
Freebie marketing is the process of offering something like a free sample, gift or trial in order to draw people into your business and increase your future sales. Freebies can be very helpful for showing your ideal customers that you understand them, and provide an idea of what your company is capable of offering. This will make them more likely to make a purchase!
There are a lot of different ways you can use freebie marketing. If you offer a service, you might consider providing a monthlong free trial for those who want to sign up. This will help you build trust with prospective customers, making them more likely to sign up with you later. Or, you could offer them a resource, like a tool or eBook, for free in exchange for their contact information. This will let you send them more marketing materials, helping to encourage future purchases.
Adding calls to action to your content
Whether you’ve started a great self-employed job or run a large enterprise, having a great call to action is one of the basics that businesses need to be reminded of. A lot of businesses invest their time and money into creating great content, but many of them fail to turn their readers into customers. Fortunately, you can help push your readers to make a purchase with the help of a call to action, or CTA.
A CTA is a word or phrase — often placed on a button — that tells the reader what they need to do next. Sometimes, people just need an extra push to get them to do what you want them to. This means that adding an effective CTA to your content can help encourage newsletter signups, sales, and more.
Here are a few tips for creating effective CTAs in your content:
- Post your CTA at the end of your blog or article.
- Help them stand out by using a button with a bold color.
- Start with a strong action verb.
- Make them easier to use by linking your in-text CTAs.
Even when you add CTAs to the text of your blog, you should also add a button somewhere below it. With a simple blog design tweak, button CTAs become easier to spot and therefore more likely to attract clicks.
Let’s take a look at an example of a business with great CTAs in their content as inspiration.
Tipalti Approve, a procurement management software company, has a very solid CTA at the end of their blog post on business procurement.
The article outlines what procurement is, its end goals, its impact on suppliers and how technology can help improve it. Once a user has read the article, they’ll see the CTA shown in the image above. It clearly states that Tipalti Approve offers a free trial of their services and, if a visitor has just read through the article, they’re fairly likely to be interested in this. Not only is the placement of the CTA smart, but the color helps it stand out. Plus, it’s clear the company is offering something for free, which will further encourage more people to click and move forward in their customer journey!
Following a strategy similar to Tipalti Approve’s can help you get more clicks, more trial sign-ups, and ultimately more sales and privileges to bnb wallet.
Revisiting cold leads
When a lead goes cold, many businesses will be tempted to give up and move on to the next thing. But cold leads can actually be great targets for generating more business — after all, these are people who have previously expressed interest in what you do. So, you need to keep track of your leads in order to ensure that you can revisit them in the future if necessary.
Consider using a software program like ActiveCampaign to keep track of any cold leads and reach back out to them when appropriate. And keep in mind that re-engaging cold leads is always easier than marketing to new ones — after all, cold leads are already familiar with your business.
Summary
Sometimes, to take your business to the next level, you need to think outside of the box. In this article, we outlined some underrated promotional techniques you can use, including SMS marketing, micro-influencer marketing and more.
Start thinking about what tactics would work best for your business, and begin implementing them! You’ll be surprised by how effective these techniques can be.
Originally published in April 2022
