The way that customers interact with brands is changing as the digital world continues to grow and evolve. With everything accessible within seconds through desktops and mobiles, customers can access what they want, when they want it.
In many ways, this has removed the sense of urgency that shoppers once felt. Stores rammed full of buyers taking advantages of promotions is no longer a key part of shopping culture. Instead, customers can buy what they want online, at a pace that suits them.
This has introduced a new challenge for businesses who want to benefit from the sales boost that urgency can create. That sensation that you want something, and you have to have it now because later it won’t be available, or it will cost more, is a feeling that drives sales.
Urgency sells products.
To capitalize on that fact, more and more people are looking to introduce a sense of urgency into their marketing campaigns. Luckily, with the diverse medium of SMS marketing, there are plenty of ways to go about it.
Let’s take a look at how to turn your standard marketing text into a campaign that makes customers act…
Provide a Limited Time Value for the Customer
Limited time value is marketing gold. It puts a limit on how long a customer has to act, instantly creating a sense of urgency if the reason to act is good enough. Research has shown that around 50% of an audience will purchase something as a result of receiving a text message from a business, with 70% of searches performed by mobile users converting into an action within an hour of making the search.
Capitalizing on that one-hour period is how conversions are made. In that time, your brand is still memorable, your message is fresh, and the reason to act is clear. If the reason is tempting enough, then the limited time available to get the value you’re offering will spur customers into action.
There are multiple ways that you can provide a high enough value to develop a sense of urgency, including the use of coupons, contests, promotions, and polls.
Coupons
According to Statista, there were around 104.1 million American mobile coupon users in 2016. Coupons are big business, offering small to large discounts on everyday products and services, and luxury products. When a coupon comes with an expiry date, the reason to act now, rather than later, is incredibly prominent.
Contests
Contests hosted with a big reward for first place and additional rewards for runners-up, are a great way to get customers talking about your brand, above and beyond those on your subscriber list. Running a contest for hours, days, or weeks, already establishes a sense of urgency, and if the contest is limited to your subscribers, then you also benefit from the creation of exclusivity, a key marketing tool.
Promotions
Discount sales, limited time price reductions, and flash sales, are all effective ways to create a buzz around your brand. With the speed of SMS marketing, you can organize hour-long sales to get customers to sit up and take notice straight away – creating the ultimate sensation of urgency.
Polls
SMS polls provide feedback, generate new information, and engage an audience, but with the introduction of limited time value, they also instill urgency. If there is a reward for the completion of a poll and only a small amount of time to complete it, then you can create urgency with the added benefit of quick information gathering.
Limit the Number of Customers That Can Receive a Reward
Another way to approach the creation of urgency in your SMS campaign is to limit the number of rewards available for customers to receive. If you have a subscriber list of 1000 and only 100 products or discounts to give away, then running your campaign on a first-come first-serve basis will make your audience act quickly.
This could be implemented as part of a coupon campaign or promotion and takes the already established urgency one step further. Using this technique can also provide valuable information for your marketing campaigns in the future and help you to gage the current engagement levels of your consumers.
Introduce Previews for Upcoming Products or Services
Not every technique to establish urgency revolves around freebies or offers, sometimes the promise of more is enough to make an audience act or get excited about something in your company’s future.
Video trailers are a great way to utilize the MMS aspect of SMS marketing and give your customers a different medium to interact with your business through. Trailers for upcoming products create a sense of exclusivity that can evolve into urgency if an expiration date is put on the video.
There are many ways that you can create a buzz of excitement about new products and services. From video creation to limited time sign-ups to test out new products. Where there is interesting content and value, then expiration dates will create the urgency you need.
Tailor Your Content to Create the Sensation of Urgency
Another area to look at when trying to create urgency with your marketing is the type of content that you send and the language that you use. The impact that language can create is extraordinary:
Example One: Come and Take a Look at Our New Products
Example Two: Limited Time Only: Exclusive Reveal of Our New Products!
The phrasing in example one doesn’t create urgency or excitement, in fact, it creates almost the opposite, making it feel like there is all the time in the world to take a look at the new products available.
The urgency created in example two instills a sense of excitement and anticipation; it feels exclusive and special. There’s no mention of how much time there is to view the products, only that it’s limited; creating even more urgency.
No matter which technique you utilize for your SMS marketing campaign, the underlying essential to improve your SMS results, is to keep things special and valuable. The same coupon each week gets monotonous and will quickly lose its value. To create urgency, you need to stay interesting, relevant, and valuable.
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