It’s quick. Texts get glanced at, and if that glance is rewarding, texts get read.
It’s targeted. Texts can be tailored to the customer’s preference, ensuring the marketing message is one they want to see.
But if mobile marketing is not done intelligently, it can backfire big-time. When the dust settles, three basic issues become clear:
- The customer did not opt in to the retailer’s marketing program.
- The customer was getting far more messages than they expected.
- The customer asked to stop getting texts and it was ignored.
SMS vs CRM
SMS text messaging is an excellent way to engage consumers, but it has to be done with CRM — Customer Relationship Management — in mind. When SMS is working against CRM, everybody loses. The customer ultimately is the party who decides if your mobile marketing is worth their time, so all mobile marketing should be considered through the lens of customer experience.
- How do people opt in to your mobile marketing? Is it easy or confusing? Do customers get text messages because their phone number is in your database or because they actually asked for notifications of upcoming events? If they didn’t ask for it, it’s usually not welcome. It’s simple to make opt-in procedures that work for CRM when your software has the tools to make it happen.
- What do people expect when they opt in to your mobile marketing? Are you promising a limited number of texts? Are those texts customized to the customer’s preference? If someone signs up for a weekly text about specific promotions and they get multiple daily texts about every promotion in the entire chain, that someone is rightfully annoyed. Professional software can prevent this from happening.
- Why do people want to opt out of your mobile marketing? It should be simple to unsubscribe, and convenient for people to tell you what’s wrong. With the right use of mobile marketing and integrated retail management software, it can be easy to correct past mistakes and avoid future SMS backfires.