Summer is quickly approaching! While vacations, sunny weather, and time off of school may be great, they are also a distraction from your business. That’s why more and more companies are starting their summer marketing campaigns early in order to stay at the head of the pack. The success of these campaigns can be crucial for your business, so it’s important to use a channel that can reach your customers, even when they’re on the go.
And that channel is texting! More and more, companies are taking advantage of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages, also known as picture messages, to drum up business faster than an ice-cream cone can melt on a summer day. MMS marketing is a great complement to SMS messages because sending attractive photos or advertisements of your products can literally make mouths water, show off your vibrant colors, and express sentiments not possible in plain text. After all, a picture’s worth 1000 words, right? MMS also allows you to send much longer messages than the 160 characters that SMS is limited to.
MMS is also a strong way to advertise as not everyone will take the time to read a text all the way through, but a MMS picture message can get your content seen instantly.
In order to send text messages, you need to have subscribers who have opted-in to receiving your advertising. There are two ways to do this, with mobile keywords that they can text in to a short code (five or six digit phone number that you text) and opt-in links from your website, or online signup pages on your website or social media.
Here are some ideas on how you can use MMS in your marketing campaigns in order to boost customer engagement and get them buying during the scorching summer months!
1. Send Coupons or Special Offers
Making your customers feel special is important for generating repeat business, and that’s where mobile coupons come in. In fact, mobile coupons are ten times more likely to be redeemed than paper ones, so you need to be sending them if you want to make an impact on sales with your marketing. Jack's Surfboards used Trumpia's MMS Marketing to send thousands of promotional text messages with stunning images to their customers. This helped drive a wave of revenue at their special event that ultimately resulted in $6,000 sales within just hours. MMS is the perfect way to send coupons, offers, and discounts. It’s so powerful because in a image and a few words, your customers will understand what you are selling and will be far more likely to redeem them.
Plus, MMS coupons are quick, so if you are having a slow day you can quickly turn it around with an offer for a one-day-only sale or promotion.
2. Send Attractive Images
If you want customers to see your new products or learn about a sale, do it through colorful and fun picture messages! In order to increase traffic both online and in-store, your text messages need to be inviting. If you include an offer like showing the MMS at checkout for a discount, your customers will be more likely to show up and shop.
If you have a large customer list, dividing it up into certain categories will allow you to better target your customers. That means you can group them by things like sex, age, preferences, or interests. You can then send them targeted offers that are relevant to them, so you can send things like new veggie dishes to vegetarians, or send offers to customers over 65 if you are offering a senior discount. If you have a SMS solution like Trumpia, this can even be done for you automatically. If you take advantage of this correctly, you can have high customer engagement year-round.
3. Have Customers Vote
One great way to engage customers is to have them vote for different options. If you send a picture of two different products like your pizza versus your burgers, and you can then send them a coupon depending on what they voted for. This allows you to learn more about their preferences and makes them more likely to spend money in your stores or online.
4. Run MMS Contests
Hosting a contest is another great way to use MMS, as picture messages are a lot more fun to receive than just plain-text SMS. In fact, Starbucks ran a trivia based contest during one of their summer ad campaigns. When the customer replied, they were added to a list that gave them special summer deals.
Texting is a two way street, so you can also have customers send you MMS pictures. So if you are a restaurant, you can have customers text in funny pictures of them eating your food, and then you can choose a winner who might get a gift card. Or if you are a clothing store, have them send you a picture of them wearing your clothes outdoors, and the best picture can be posted on social media and given a gift card. Anything that gets your customers excited to talk to you will boost engagement and increase the chance of them coming back in the future.
5. Track Your Results
Once you have a good database of text subscribers, you need to be able to see where you stand. If you have a SMS solution like Trumpia, you can track things like click-through and engagement rates, and you can see what’s working with your campaigns. This will allow you to see what you can improve and help with things like timing your campaigns or sending better and more targeted offers.
6. Don't Forget Your Customers!
Once you have a text subscriber, it’s crucial you don't forget about them! Customers who sign up to see your sales are often the most loyal and most likely spend more, so it’s vital you send them deals that they will be excited to redeem. It’s also important that you send them updates on new products or services, which will increase your traffic both in-store and online. And finally it’s important you use a personal touch, even when you have thousands of customers.
An automated service like Trumpia can send customers offers automatically when it’s their birthday or some other special occasion, and customers that receive these messages will really appreciate the extra attention you give them on these special days. If you use what you know about your customers properly, you will have a loyal brand ambassador who will refer your business to family and friends for years to come!
By now you must be itching to use MMS to kickstart your marketing efforts. Click here to learn more tricks of the trade and see how Trumpia can help you make this a summer to remember!
