Got a new sale or product to share? Learn what a promotional message is and the key to writing the perfect one.
What’s the best way to get the word out about an exciting new deal or product launch?
Promotional messaging, or “promos” are messages sent with the intent to sell, upsell, or advertise a product, business, or service.
They can be a great way to share news and engage customers. But when they start to slide toward the overly promotional end of the scale, it starts to get a little dicey.
There’s nothing like receiving a text like this…
…to turn you off from a brand.
But you can still share deals, coupons, products, and more with promotional messages. We’ll show you how and give you some helpful examples.
Disclaimer: Please note that this advice is for informational purposes only and is neither intended as nor should be substituted for consultation with appropriate legal counsel and/or your organization’s regulatory compliance team.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Promotional messages are just that — promotional. The trick to an excellent promotional message, however, is not to come off too salesy.
What do we mean by salesy?
The trick to writing a good promotional message is to simply send a text that you would want to receive from a business.
It should be conversational, stick to one main topic, be timely/topical, provide a clear picture of what action the customer should take, and deliver some added value/information.
Like this:
There are a few variations on the traditional sales text. Here are just a few examples of promotional messages your business might send.
Sharing discounts directly to customers’ phones is a great way to translate messages into actions quickly. 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile devices in the last six months.
Shopping from your phone is the new norm, so why not drive more mobile purchases with mobile coupons?
Sometimes your business may go through a slow period, in which case you may want to give people a reason to visit.
Because 98% of texts are read, text ads are a great way to push people to your business right when you need them.
If you’ve recently launched a new product or service, it’s a newsworthy event for your customers. Build up some momentum by sending an SMS broadcast before, during, and after the big release.
Another event worth noting to customers would be sales and clearance events. Your sales alerts must include what’s discounted, for how long, and specific price points in order to draw the most intrigue.
If it’s a larger sale, like an annual or semi-annual event, priming your customers with texts leading up to it can also help build anticipation.
According to Adobe Analytics, U.S. holiday shoppers spent a record $211.7 billion online holiday shopping last year. The rules tend to go out the door when it comes to the holidays because spending habits simply aren’t the same.
In order to help you break through the noisiest marketing season of the year, send customers promotional text messages. With texts, the open rate is significantly higher than email, giving your message a much better chance of getting noticed.
Also, be sure to include a photo whenever possible. Research shows that messages with photos have higher click-through rates.
A flash sale is a type of promotion that runs for only a short amount of time and usually features a specific product/service.
Another common hallmark of flash sales is a limited quantity of items up for grabs. Flash sales are great for offloading old products that may be out of season. They can also just be an exciting way to drive new or more traffic to your site.
Either way, texts are a fantastic way to announce a flash sale because they’re read so quickly. The odds of your customer seeing the text right when the flash sale is happening is exponentially higher.
When it comes to sales, promotional messages may very well become the lifeblood of your business.
Now you know a lot more about what promotional texts are and the creative juices are flowing.
Before you start sending, keep a few key best practices in mind.
With those five tips in mind, you’re sure to see an ROI like many of our customers already have!
Meghan Tocci is a content strategist at SimpleTexting. When she’s not writing about SaaS, she’s trying to teach her puppy Lou how to code. So far, not so good.
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