Engaging Copywriting Tips For Your SMS Strategy
Despite the plethora of other tools and technology available today, SMS messaging is still a viable marketing strategy for businesses, small and large. But creating the perfect SMS requires careful copywriting to make it land — it’s a lot different from writing for social.
Read on for engaging copywriting tips that will take your SMS strategy to the next level in the coming year.
Let power words compel your recipient to act
Texts are great for marketing because they give you an instant and direct route into your customer’s attention. But once you’ve got that attention, it’s important that you act on it fast before losing them.
This is where power words come in. Power words are certain words or phrases that evoke a strong emotional or psychological response from the readers. Examples of these include:
- Prize
- Cheap
- Best
- Last chance
- Value
These are great for evoking a reaction from your recipient immediately after they open your text. Urgency, in particular, is a good feeling to incite because it compels your audience to take your desired action.
Give your text messages urgency by using words such as ‘now’ or ‘hurry’. You could even include time limits for when an offer expires for added pressure too.
Your call-to-action is important here. Use power words to make your call-to-action clear and compelling. That said, keep it simple — don’t confuse your recipient with mixed messages. Make it clear what you want your audience to do and make your offer irresistible.
Create a personal connection through personalisation
Every good marketer knows the value of personalisation. The simple inclusion of a name is enough to grab your recipient and have them engage with your message. You break down the business-to-consumer wall and make it personal instead of transactional.
If you have access to further personal information about your customer, consider using this to personalise your texts too. If it’s their birthday, for instance, you could send a happy birthday text with a discount code.
Keep it clear and concise for maximum clarity
One of the many benefits of an SMS strategy for your recipients is that it conveys the necessary information in a clear and direct way. However, this means that you need to work hard to keep your copy as concise as possible.
Long-winded texts full of irrelevant content will irritate your customers, and your SMS strategy will fall flat.
The best texts convey a lot of information in as few characters as possible. There’s no optimum number for this, so spend some time practicing to find the shortest SMS but one that conveys the most meaning.
One drawback of being concise is that you can’t address all your customer questions at once. In this case, it’s worth creating a dedicated FAQ page and including a Bitly link in your SMS to guide people to if they have any further queries.
In the same vein, strive to write in short, snappy sentences. Long sentences easily distract the reader, and you’ll lose them before they reach the end.
Use capital letters to emphasise important points
While an SMS strategy has plenty of advantages, it’s not without its limitations. For instance, while you can use different colours, fonts, and italics to emphasise words online, your options are more limited in a text.
Thankfully, capital letters are a useful alternative to these options. Highlight crucial words in capital letters to ensure your message lands with your recipients. Alternatively, use capital letters to highlight benefits for your audience, such as FREE or DISCOUNT.
Remember not to overdo it with capital letters — too many, and you will repel your audience.
Writing copy for your SMS strategy is a lot different from your other marketing strategies. Follow the tips above and start writing engaging texts that get read and engaged with today.