7 Pillars of SMS Marketing Success in India

If you do the right things in marketing SMS in India you'll succeed, if you do the wrong things, you won't see the results you desire. It is that simple. Want to see a significant return on investment in your bulk SMS marketing? Design a plan that put these critical principles into use.

1. Get phone numbers

It is common sense, isn't it? You need people's phone numbers in the first place in order to market to them. The best way to get phone numbers is to allow people to give them to you with their permission. You can achieve this via sign-up forms on your website where you give something valuable away for free. You can buy or rent other people's phone lists, but be careful who you buy from.

As a business or a marketer, capturing the phone numbers (and even names) of your prospects and customers should be one of your priorities - in fact, your number one priority. Listen, if you don't have a phone list, you shouldn't be talking about marketing SMS in India.

2. Segment your phone list

Make no mistake about it, everyone on your phone list doesn't have the same needs, they don't respond the same way. So, communicating and marketing to them the same way is a pure waste of resources.

You must divide up your phone list into segments under different categories. Sometimes, the list will segment themselves by their behaviours. Sometimes, you'll need to poll those using surveys. Another very potent way is to offer highly specialized and targeted free information and see those that respond and those who don't.

3. Ensure deliverability

If your bulk SMS aren't going to be delivered, there's no point to send marketing SMS online in the first place. To ensure your SMS will be delivered, test the bulk SMS service provider you want to use if they deliver. Second, know the words that if included in your SMS will lead to non-delivery and avoid them. Some bulk SMS services ban certain words in messages in a bid to block scammers from using their service for their pernicious activities.

Again, you want to make sure your phone numbers are entered in the format as stipulated by your bulk SMS service provider. And basically, ensure the phone numbers you are gathering exist in the first place.

4. Engage for maximum impact

The more you engage your subscribers the more they know and like you. And the more they like you, the more they respond to you and ultimately patronize you. You can engage your list by asking them questions and requesting for their response. You can send marketing SMS online to your social media pages and ask them to contribute to things that affect them directly. Tell them to ask you questions bothering them.

5. Track, track and track

Understand that no marketing succeeds or endures without a tracking mechanism in place. Tracking your bulk SMS marketing lets you know whether your efforts are yielding results or not - and in what magnitude.

You can track your bulk SMS marketing by the number of responses you get. You can track how many people clicked on the link you sent in your message using a URL shortening and tracking service. And when they are on your site, you can use Google Analytics to know how customers from your bulk SMS campaigns are responding in comparison to prospects from other traffic sources.

6. Test, test, test

The great philosophers have said that all of life is experiment and nowhere is it truer than in marketing. To know what works, you have to combine tracking with testing. Test your opening sentences and words, test your call to actions, test sending your SMS on different days, test the response at different times of day, test your offers, test everything significant to your overall success.

7. Be frequent

People don't start noticing you until you get back to them at least seven times. Putting your message in the front of your prospects frequently helps you stay at the top of their mind. And if you consistently provide quality content, they will be looking forward to your SMS. When that happens, you become a welcome guest instead of an annoying pest.

Don't worry if they don't respond immediately, the whole point is to get you to stay at the top of their minds so that when they do need your services, your name will be the first to pop up in their minds.