The success of your enterprise depends on your ability to communicate efficiently with your customers

You also know that the majority of your business comes from a handful of loyal customers. They’re the ones you want to stay in consistent contact with. There are a variety of ways to do this. Email is one popular way. However, email has its downside.

Consumers are tired of being bombarded with emails, they’re likely to go ignored. Some email providers even send them straight to the junk folder. If they are opened, it can be hours or even days after they’re sent. Fortunately there is a better way.

Unlike emails, text messages have a 99% open rate. In other words, if you send a text message to a consumer, it’s almost certain that consumer will see it and read it. Even more impressive, over 90% of texts are read within the first few minutes of being sent. Best of all, text message marketing is cheap: just a few cents per text. Compared to other types of paid advertising, nothing is more cost effective than text message marketing.

Here are some text message marketing strategies that work.

Timing matters

The difference between an effective text and an ineffective one often comes down to timing. At best, a text sent at the wrong time will simply be ineffective. At worst, an ill-timed text can upset consumers and lead to lost customers. Pay attention to your timing when using text message marketing and make sure you’re sending texts when they’ll be most effective.

Relevant messages are everything

Your customers subscribe to your texts because they feel there is value in it. As soon as they feel that the value isn’t enough to outweigh the burden of getting texts, they’ll opt out.

If you want your customers to keep getting your texts, you need to make sure that you’re sending relevant and valuable messages. Make sure that your customers are profiting from getting your texts.

Each word counts

Texts are limited by characters. That doesn’t mean you should feel pressured to use up every single one. A major advantage of texts over email is that they can be very concise.

The more a customer has to read, the more likely that customer is to ignore that text. Choose your words carefully and make sure every single one counts.

Errors hurt

While a small typo or grammatical error might seem insignificant, it can really hurt your image. If you’re going to spend the money to send a message to customers, make sure you’ve proofread it carefully so that it is free of errors. Also, avoid the temptation to use text jargon. It might be what all the kids are doing but it looks unprofessional coming from a business.