Effective SMS marketing brings a huge income to business. However, if you go about your SMS campaigns the wrong way, they can be counterproductive; lowering profits and raising your expenses. We’ve decided to find out what actions can lead to this.

Subscribers database

How can the database inflate the cost of an SMS campaign? Everything is very simple. The success of SMS mail-outs depends on the quality of the database; whether subscribers are willing to receive your messages and how often they open links and make purchases. That is why a database can’t be bought or compiled from public sources.

Over time, even a good base gets old; customers change phone numbers, duplicate contacts appear, etc. This leads us to the second issue which can eat up your budget.

Dead men

Also called inactive contacts. At first glance it may seem that this isn’t a problem, because the more subscribers you have in the database, the more impressive it looks. However, it may be better to have 300 active subscribers who are really interested in receiving information from you, than 1,000 who are irritated by your SMS mail-outs.

Remember, inactive subscribers are an extra expense. Although an SMS mail-out is much cheaper than other types of advertising, each unread text message costs you money that could be better spent in a more useful way.

Have you forgotten about segmentation?

We’ve already talked about the efficiency of database segmentation. Let’s reiterate this. Don’t forget to segment your subscribers base! One-type boilerplate SMS mail-outs to all subscribers on the database is ineffective. Text messages bring more profit when targeted to a specific person, taking into account their age, preferences, city and purchase history.

Lack of analysis

SMS marketing isn’t as simple as it may seem at first glance. You can’t mindlessly send text messages to your entire database of contacts. This behaviour is bound to put up costs, as well as potentially alienating some customers

Stop for a minute and analyse the first few SMS mail-outs; what worked, which clients were more interested, which text was more effective, etc. Believe us, this approach will definitely help reduce your expenses.

You may have forgotten about legal aspects

All countries have their own bodies which regulate the sending of SMS messages. For example, in America there is the CTIA, in Britain there is the PECR. The legal environment of each country has its own specific nuances. To avoid getting a fine, you need to know the laws and regulations of the countries in which you work and in which you send text messages. Never forget that the fines for illegal SMS mail-outs can be huge.

Try to approach SMS campaigns wisely, because your success depends directly on their efficiency.