How To Keep Your Opt-Out Rate Below 2 Percent In Text Marketing

Up to, and possibly beyond 2013, text message marketing seemed like an underutilized forum in the marketing strategy arena. However, almost 25 percent of marketers currently use this platform as a means of reaching their customers. Since up to 75 percent of customers in the U.S. would prefer to get business contacts through SMS text messaging, having an opt-out rate at higher than 2 percent probably means that you are doing something wrong in your marketing strategy with this forum; a mistake that could be damaging your brand and not just SMS contacts.

So to help your text messaging campaign turn into one of those that fall into the 45 percent that can boast a successful return-on-investment, here are a few things to consider.

Don't be annoying

It is estimated that over 80 percent of text messaging users would prefer to have only about two marketing text messages per month. When you factor in the many text messages that each customer might receive from your various competitors as well as other business forums, you might already be operating at a disadvantage. However, since 98 percent of text messages are read and approximately 90 percent of these are opened within 3 minutes of being received, you do have a chance to make a great impression each time. Therefore, you need to keep your messages short, non-repetitive and relevant to each customer. 

Additionally, you can help to prevent the annoyance factor by being mindful of when your text messages go out to your customers as those that come in to a cell phone in the middle of the night, during holidays or special events and even on weekends (depending on your business) may ramp up the annoyance factor.

Engage

A great way to ensure that your customers remain with you is by encouraging them to engage with you. An approximate 44 percent of customers would prefer to be able to get rapid response from a business service through text rather than having to wade through the mire of successive connections and automated operators to speak to an agent. Your aim is to have your customers become regular, repeat customers and to have them utilize the also effective method of word-of-mouth in promoting your business. Your text messaging can therefore be a valuable source of providing reminders, birthday and anniversary messages as well as the required discounts and sales announcements.

Engaging with customers can also increase your ability to have them involved in other platforms such as emails and social media forums. In fact, it is estimated that successful text marketing can increase your email engagement by 20 to 30 percent. 

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