Direct Marketing Strategies for Mastering SMS Lead Generation

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Like most people, your potential customers are obsessed with their cell phones. They can’t resist the urge to check it within seconds of it pinging them with a notification. They check it even when it hasn’t buzzed with a notification.

Depending on what company’s survey you look at, people reportedly check their phones anywhere from 58 to 144 times a day. If you aren’t capitalizing on their cell phone obsession in your marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a prime marketing communication method that helps generate leads, foster relationships, and drive conversions.

The same rules I’ve successfully applied to direct mail marketing for decades apply to cell phones and their users, too. It’s called Short Message Service (SMS) communications. It’s a text message you send to those who elected to hear from you. Text messages help you generate leads, foster relationships, and earn more paying customers.

​Below, I’ll tell you more about harnessing the power of SMS for your business.

You should already be using email marketing to stay top-of-mind with your former and potential clients. If you don’t send SMS messages, make that your next priority.

Email is efficient for marketing to your audience. However, it shouldn’t be your only means of staying in touch with former and potential customers. Your audience’s inbox gets bombarded with electronic messaging. Some of it ends up in the Junk folder, never to be seen.

​Texts have a far greater likelihood of getting noticed and opened. Use that fact to your advantage.

As the name suggests, Short Message Service (SMS) communications must be kept short–160 characters. They work well for blasting offers through text messages.

SMS lead generation is a process. First, you capture potential customers’ contact information, specifically phone numbers. Then, you steadily remarket to them through text offers.

​In addition to phone numbers, here are a few more things you might want to capture:

SMS is an excellent strategy for building a potential customer list with those who signed up to receive information, updates, and offers. In other words, they showed interest in hearing from you, making them way more likely to read and enjoy your messages.

SMS lead generation helps you build a base of prospects who are more likely to engage with you and your messages. You then develop the leads through targeted SMS marketing efforts, encouraging their conversion to paying customers.

​You can use various strategies and approaches to have your audience supply their phone numbers and opt-in to receive text messages.

How do you entice people to sign up for your SMS messages? After all, they must do so willingly.

Allow potential customers to opt-in to receive messages from you through various methods, like reaching out to email subscribers, creating online forms, sending a QR code in the mail, using opt-in widgets on your website and various other areas of your funnel, and running promotions and contests.

​Rewards make profitable incentives. Improve your odds of capturing their contact info by providing something of value in the way of:

Customers love and have come to expect personalized messages.

Been browsing a product? Here’s an SMS acknowledging that.

Abandon your cart? Here’s a reminder message to finish purchasing.

And, of course, you might add an incentive to drive their purchase.

Always strive to tailor your messages to each recipient based on their behavior, preference, or demographics to improve engagement rates and your campaign’s effectiveness.

​Here are some personalization tactics:

Grab your audience’s attention with short, relevant keywords. For example, a software company might send a message that reads something like “Text DEMO to try for free.” A retailer might send a message that says, “Text BOGO for 50% off your second pair.”

Don’t neglect or silo one system of communication from another. Both work best as a team to keep the conversation going with potential buyers, keeping you top-of-mind. Maybe they aren’t buying from you now, but they’ll turn to your product or service when ready.

​Here’s how to integrate SMS and email marketing:

Consent is critical to staying within regulatory and legal requirements, keeping it ethical, and preserving a good relationship with your target customers. Only those who choose to receive messages from you should.

Start building an SMS marketing list that helps you personalize interactions, build relationships, stay top-of-mind, recover abandoned carts, and earn repeat business. A high-quality list (SMS or email) takes time. For better long-term success, honor communication preferences, offer value, and personalize. SMS messages can boost your business success with better engagement and conversion rates.

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