Text messages are a great way to reach your audience quickly, but sometimes 160 characters aren’t enough to tell your audience exactly what you want to. This is where SMS attachments come in.
SMS attachments allow you to send menus, brochures and much more to your customers with ease. All you need to do is pick the file you want to send and upload it to our cloud. You then receive a link to that file, which can be placed in your messages. Then, all the receiver needs to do to see the content you’ve sent to them is click!
Why should you choose to use SMS attachments instead of simply inserting normal links to your website, though? Well, here are the benefits of including SMS attachments as part of your mobile marketing strategy:
Track your click-throughs
SMS attachments make it incredibly easy for you to see how many people have clicked-through to view your additional content. You can track who opened it, when they opened it, and even what handset they’re using. The reports you build with this data will allow you to better understand your leads and customers.
Knowing their level of engagement will make it easier to know which follow-up communications to send them. After all, there’s no point sending the same text message to someone who’s at the top of the buying funnel and someone who’s about to convert. Personalised campaigns are a must if your mobile marketing is to succeed, and tracking your links can help build those campaigns.
No extra costs involved in attaching documents to messages
Sending texts with attachments is not any more expensive than sending normal text messages. This makes it a cheap way to send PDFs, mobile surveys, Word documents and photos. There are a wide of files you can attach to your SMS messages, and the attachment can be as large as 10Mb.
Moreover, sending SMS messages with an attachment is much more cost effective way to promote your new menu or brochure than direct mail. Anything that’s sent through the door that isn’t addressed to the homeowner is often seen as spam and simply thrown away. In fact, the Mobile Marketing Association says consumers are five times more likely to respond to SMS messages compared with direct mail.
Make sure your messages aren’t forgotten
A text message containing just plain text can be easily forgotten, especially if you haven’t provided your customer with a call to action. Instead of just telling your customers it’s two for one pizza night, attach a link to the order page or an image of your most popular pizza to tempt them to buy. If it’s footfall you’re trying to drive, include a link to a voucher that can be scanned in store.
Visuals will ensure your customers remember your brand and notice your text message, instead of just reading it and letting it sit in their inbox or, worse, get deleted without a trace.
Text message attachments are suitable for all industries
No matter what industry your business is in, you could benefit from SMS attachments. Here are some examples of how different industries could make great use:
Restaurants/cafés: New menus could be sent to customers. This would help encourage disengaged contacts who haven’t visited in a while to come back and try something new.
Clothing retailers: Here, customers can be sent recommendations on what they need for their wardrobe. This should be based on their past/recent purchases, and the attachment could be a link to that particular product.
Travel agents: Customers could be sent the latest holiday brochures. Again, this should be personalised and based on the person’s travel habits – an 80 year old probably won’t want to go on an 18-30 holiday, after all.
Dating service: When a dating site has found a ‘match’ for one of its customers, it could send them a link to the match’s profile/video. This is more effective than sending an email as the customer is more likely to read a text.
Record company: When one of its artists has released a new video or single, it could attach a link to listen or watch. This will appeal especially to the artist’s ‘superfans’, who want instant updates on new releases and other important news.
Events company: To find out how well a recent event went, an events company could send a survey as an attachment. This is an easy way to gather feedback, so that it can improve the event for next time.
This list could potentially go on forever, but you get the idea.
The attachments you choose to send should be based on what you want to achieve. Do you need customer feedback? Do you want to increase sales? Or are you only interested in raising brand awareness? Don’t forget that your customers don’t all want the same thing from your messages either; personalisation is key if you want to keep everyone engaged and subscribed.
It’s a good idea to send out a survey as an SMS attachment to customers when they first sign up for your text alerts. That way, you can ask people what types of messages they want to receive, and how regularly, thereby ensuring you don’t spam anyone. If you want to know about use attachments in SMS, check out our handy how-to guide.
