By Sophorn Chhay
Just because you have room for 160 characters in your texts doesn’t mean you should use them all.
In fact, texting experts seem to agree that an ideal text should be short and sweet, especially in a business environment, where the name of the game is brevity. Essentially, focus on quality, not quantity.
This can sometimes be a challenge for people who enjoy being verbose. But keeping your message under 160 characters can be good practice—and it’s still easier than beating Twitter’s 140-character limit.
For those interested in crafting professional messages that get to the point but are also well written, try these strategies:
1 Figure out a reason. To directly promote a sale or event? Build your database? Ask recipients to join a loyalty club or complete their membership profile? Alert your audience to something new in your company or site? Unlike social media, where it’s OK just to say hi or put up a fun picture, professional texts need to have a purpose. Since people are likely to check out a text within a few minutes of it arriving, it needs to get their attention and justify them taking the time to read it.
2 Identify yourself. Even if someone has given approval to receive texts from you and your business, they may not recognize your phone number or name and could immediately reject it as spam. So in the first few lines, identify yourself, either personally or by your company name. It also can help your recipients decide if they want to keep reading or go on to the next text, based on their past experience with your texts.
3 Make it personal. You may be sending the same note to thousands of subscribers, but you can still make it sound like you’re talking directly to each recipient. Try something like “We have a deal we’re sure you’ll enjoy” or “You need to come check this out.”
4 Extend an invitation. If you want customers to come buy from you, invite them to your store or your site. It could be more meaningful for recipients to read “We have a sale we’re sure you’ll enjoy” rather than a general “We’re having a big sale.”
5 Include a link. The link could send people somewhere on your site or to a special landing page for this particular promotion. But send them somewhere—they can receive more details, and you can get useful info about click-throughs.
6 Vary your voice. You can have a general voice for your “everyone” list of recipients. You also can have different categories in your database—maybe “users who like ___ product,” “members of our loyalty club,” or “super shoppers.” If you send separate notes to these groups, use slightly different language—maybe something more casual or informal.
7 Be enthusiastic but professional. You’re not a fifteen-year-old and your audience probably isn’t either, so there’s no reason to go bonkers with exclamation points!!!!! But you can throw in adjectives like “exciting,” “very cool,” or “amazing” to convey how appealing your message or special offer is.
8 Appeal to your customers’ need to improve their lives. You may already be including this lure in your marketing materials, but do it faster here. “Come and save money!” “Get a haircut and look your best!” “Plan ahead!” “Prepare to fall in love with our new dessert menu.” Various studies show that saving money is a prime reason that people join loyalty clubs —supporting a brand is nice, but what’s nicer is helping the budget.
9 Be direct. Sound confident and convincing in your invitation. Instead of saying, “We think you’ll like this,” try “We know you’ll love it.”
Looking at this list, it might seem like quite a lot of instructions and suggestions to keep in mind when you have only 160 characters to work with. The good news is that you’re allowed to practice—the more you write and the more your database grows, the more opportunities you’ll have to nail these.
Sophorn Chhay is an inbound marketer specializing in attracting targeted visitors and generated sales qualified leads. Through Trumpia’s SMS and marketing automation solution, he helps businesses and organizations communicate effectively with their customers or members. Trumpia is offering a free Mobile Marketing Success Kit, so don’t forget to grab your free copy.
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