3 mistakes in SMS marketing that you need to avoid

1. The dangerous one – sending SMS without permission

Many mistakes in SMS marketing that you can make are not particularly bad, but simply part of the learning process. However, this does not apply to our first mistake on this list: Sending SMS to recipients who have not explicitly agreed to receive them!

It is imperative that you thoroughly understand the legal basics before sending your first SMS. The requirements for sending SMS change depending on what you use SMS for and who your customers are. This applies not only to consents, but also, for example, to the content of your SMS and the way you manage your SMS marketing.

Failure to comply with the GDPR and the laws of other countries can be really expensive. In the US, for example, under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, you can expect to be fined between $500 and $1500 per SMS if you didn’t use opt-in or continued to send messages to recipients after they opted out.

We therefore strongly recommend that you always use a double-opt-in, especially in SMS marketing, and that you thoroughly investigate the current legal situation in the recipient countries before launching your campaigns. We have summarized legal basics and an overview of international practices for you. Please note that we cannot guarantee that the data is complete or always up-to-date and that we cannot and do not provide legal advice.

3. The low achiever – sending SMS without personalization

If you have the opportunity to talk to your customers via SMS, you are in a very privileged situation. Your SMS will show up where your customers also receive personal messages from friends and family. You should definitely use this opportunity wisely. One-on-one conversation with your customers will benefit you a lot and will feature heavily in the marketing strategies of all major companies in the coming years, not least because zero party data is becoming increasingly important as a source of information.

At the same time, one-on-one conversation also means that you need to really engage with your customers. If you send messages that are not personalized or, in the worst case, even irrelevant, you can expect a very high unsubscribe rate. This makes the lack of personalization one of the most unreasonable mistakes in SMS marketing.

While it’s especially important that your conversation with customers is as organic and authentic as possible, you can still have some level of automation in your processes. The use of placeholders and precisely defined target groups must go hand in hand here, so that your customers still receive messages that are tailored to them.

Avoiding mistakes in SMS marketing: Careful planning and clear target groups

Learning from our top three mistakes, there are clear guidelines that should be considered when planning any SMS campaign.

1. Make sure your SMS sending is legal and desired.
2. Define and separate your target audiences as best you can and validate the numbers of future recipients.
3. Customize the message in detail for each target group and remember to personalize them.

Once these points are checked off, you can get creative and enjoy an SMS campaign with great potential.

Another tip: Before sending your SMS, ask yourself: is the message personal, easy to understand and will your customer know what to do even without prior knowledge?

If these points are also met, you will not have to worry about making the biggest mistakes in SMS marketing.

If you still need inspiration for your campaign, we recommend our blog post on the customer journey, where we show different ways of using SMS profitably.

Do you have any other tips on which mistakes should be avoided at all costs? We look forward to your comments!