Natalia Ustimenko

Head of Direct Marketing

Simple techniques for composing text for SMS newsletters

At first glance, everything seems simple: write the text you need, add your contacts and send SMS messages to the entire database. But think about what exactly it takes to get maximum response from your customers?

That’s right: an effective text that falls within the reader’s circle of interests, which will not only attract customers, but also bring in money.

How to write effective text for SMS mailings to clients?

We have compiled our own selection of tips and examples to make it easier for you to learn from the mistakes of others and prevent them from happening in the future.

1. Write simply and clearly

Even a short SMS can kill the whole idea of ​​sending a message. Let's see an example of newsletter text , when they were a little too clever with him.

The last sentence is not only difficult to read, it is also difficult to understand. In the best case, this SMS will be left to be re-read until better times, in the worst case, it will be immediately deleted.

2. Avoid unclear words

It is important that your SMS does not include slang, acronyms and obscure text abbreviations that cheapen the perception of your brand and can ruin your campaign. The client may consider SMS spam and delete them without hesitation.

3. Leave your contacts

The client should not look for your phone numbers or email on the Internet if he has any questions or interest. You should not place high hopes on the Alpha name, that it will tell users who you are and where to look for you.

Add numbers with an area code to SMS so that they work on a click and the subscriber does not have to perform a bunch of unnecessary steps to contact you.

4. Personal correspondence - personal messages

It is important to consider what kind of relationship your company has with the recipient. You can walk up to a stranger and say, “I bought this shirt, 50% off.” Do you want one?” Even if you start a dialogue with people you know, it’s most likely with the word “Hello.” So why do we immediately write directly when composing SMS?

As in the case with, the letter is most likely addressed to one person - the owner of the number, of course, if they do not leave you with corporate contacts.

To avoid a negative reaction, try to establish a relationship with the recipient starting from the moment the customer bought something from you and gave you permission to send text messages. Alternatively:

“Hi Ivan, thank you for your purchase! We look forward to meeting you soon. Show SMS at the checkout and receive 20% on your next purchase in “Our Store” tel. +380686868686.”

5. Minimum capital letters

In SMS there is no way to add color, change the font or text style. Therefore, if you want to highlight something in capital letters, then it will be enough to add one or two words, but not to stamp the entire SMS with Caps Lock.

6. Write in the client's language

Latin is very difficult to read, especially for those who know English and are trying to strain their brains and eyes so that this text is perceived in their native language.

For example, the letters “Y” and “J” in such messages are generally universal soldiers. They act in the roles: w, yu, i, y, e, b and this is only in the examples that I was able to find. Such variations of the same letter occur even in the same message:

SMS messaging will work well to attract customers only if it is written in their language. It is clear that the Latin alphabet will be cheaper, but do not skimp on characters if you really care about your subscribers.

7. Segment your base

Perhaps some companies plan to have their clients receive absolutely all SMS newsletters and share them with their friends. But why not just segment the base and not annoy them with unnecessary SMS?

I am very grateful for the concern that the clinic administration reminds me that it’s time for me to get a lift and go to the proctologist, but I left my number for a completely different reason. Although the clinic thought that I was interested in everything.

When exporting contacts, add additional fields containing information that can be used for SMS. For example, for a veterinary clinic or pet store, you can divide clients into lovers: dogs, cats, turtles and elephants.

The more you know about the client, the easier it is to segment contacts for SMS messaging and send messages depending on their interests. Know who's yours target audience and contact them directly.

8. Give a call to action

The text of the SMS newsletter should interest the client and at the same time be concise. There is no room for air and space, as in email newsletters. Discard all extraneous details and simply describe your offer and why the client needs it.

Such a set of products is unlikely to be understood by customers if they do not have a clear call to action. What exactly should the client do: look for where it is cheaper, go and buy, wait until the price drops?

To get the best response to your newsletter, write what you want from the client, adding a clear CTA. Make sure the SMS includes everything including detailed instructions about what the client should do:

• I need to call - give me the number,
• go to the site - leave the site address,
• write to you - give me your email.

Just don’t use two calls to action in one SMS message - this can confuse the reader.

9. Show benefits

Nobody wants to receive SMS, being distracted by reading them and cluttering up the phone's memory, if there is no benefit in them.

The wording of the message is very strange and it’s not even clear why I need to go to this exhibition.

Add offers in real time, share information about a sale or a new product, describing the benefits currently in effect.

10. Talk about what the client needs

Based on previous experience in communicating with the client and write about promotions and discounts that will be truly interesting to people.

Send necessary information to the right people and they are more likely to want to collaborate with you.

11. Make the client feel special

Text messages may clutter up a reader's phone, but they won't take advantage of any of the offers. Give customers a sense of uniqueness in your copy and tell them about exclusive promotions. This makes them feel special and encourages them to stay with you so they don't miss out on great deals in the future.

Otherwise, they will most likely refuse to receive any texts from you.

12. Grab attention from the first word

For example, start your message with the words NEWS, NEW, Promotion, etc. That is, from what the reader would like to see and what might interest him in the text preview of the general list of messages. This increases the likelihood that your messages will be opened and read.

13. Keep your messages specific and short

The simpler you make your messages, the more likely you are to be understood. Set yourself a limit, say 100 characters, and proofread the message back and forth until it meets your “standards.” Learn to concisely fit as much as possible into an SMS useful information without unnecessary details, conveying to the consumer the essence of the promotion.

Throw out all unnecessary words and see what your SMS looks like: does it contain ambiguous words, difficult phrases, clusters of vowels, complex combinations of consonants, etc.

14. Add a brand name

The alpha name YvesRocher may not say anything to the client, but the Russian Yves Rocher in the text seems to decipher who is writing.

The reader already perceives the text holistically and does not look at the name to see who is writing to him.

15. Stick to a simple structure: benefit + CTA + contacts

Rearranging the terms does not change the sum, so the order may be slightly different. Make the message effective so that the subscriber immediately understands the essence of the offer and can evaluate the benefits by making a purchase from you.

16. Give us some numbers

Such an SMS is very difficult to read and this is due to everything: the Latin alphabet, capital letters and, of course, the text itself - by the time you read to the end, you already forget where it all began.

After all, the text could have been shortened and written clearly: “Hurry, only until 14.04 leather jackets, fur coats and sheepskin coats from the new collection with a 50% discount.” For example, as the company 925.ua did in SMS on Black Friday

17. Think about your target audience

Imagine the image of the person you are sending SMS to and tailor the text to this category of people. If you are sending SMS to students, it is quite appropriate to speak their language, but the same text will no longer be acceptable for older people.

18. Anticipate questions

Better yet, write in such a way that no questions or doubts arise. Not everyone will search the Internet for additional information about your SMS. If the client does not call immediately to clarify the details, most likely, he will then completely forget about it. Imagine yourself in the client's shoes. What would you like to receive in an SMS so that you can understand what it’s about?

19. Check your links

A few years ago, select mobile phones began to display . These images are taken directly from Open Graph tags placed on the page to which the message links.

20. Test, repeat, speak your text

Mobile emails are no different from other customer marketing methods you use in your business. Always send a test message to several mobile phones, with different screen sizes. This will give you a chance to see: how the letter is read, whether everything looks as you intended, compare the text with previous SMS messages (if it is on a smartphone), etc.

Text messages are well received if they are short, simple and personal. If what you want to say does not correspond to at least one of three things, look for another way to say it or develop your own formula for effective SMS texts.

If you are not confident in yourself, contact us and we will discuss with you not only the text of the message, but also help you build your marketing strategy, protecting you from typical mistakes and unnecessary waste;)

Many entrepreneurs intuitively or quite consciously understand the prospects that mass SMS mailing opens up for them. True, the lack of experience or the necessary personnel on staff can play a cruel joke, but we have already written about how not to get burned over the little things. You can familiarize yourself with the main factors that can cause a negative response from customers, and therefore avoid them.

Now let's talk in more detail about the texts of SMS mailings to clients. We, again, wrote about, but theoretical knowledge is one thing, seeing it in practice is quite another. Let's take a closer look at the texts for stores, that is, for everyone who sells goods.

Just in case, let’s make a reservation that your notice to the client should contain information that is interesting and valuable to him. Therefore, before you start creating an SMS newsletter, formulate your proposal clearly and understandably for yourself. If you find that it will be useful to the subscriber, start composing the message.

Here is one example of an SMS newsletter from a clothing and shoe store (I won’t disclose the name):

"Cold? In "ХХХ" up to -50% on clothes and shoes from November 25.Details: 050ххххххх»

• First phrase hits right on target (considering that it’s the end of November outside the window).
• -50% - also good. This specific figure is all the more impressive. The only thing is that without knowing the original price (or average store prices), we don’t know what to expect. The discounted price can be 1,000 UAH, or it can be 10,000. As you understand, the income level of different people can differ significantly. If we had indicated in the message a price from..., we would probably have attracted the target audience closest to us. Please keep this in mind if you are going to send messages to a fresh subscriber base.
• From 25.11– dates are best used to limit the duration of the offer. Otherwise, the subscriber will not hurry up. Either write from 25 to 30.11, or only the deadline.
• Details- use a link to the site, or a phone number, as here, and ideally - free for the subscriber.

a few more text options for SMS newsletters for (online) stores. Examples:

Total sale! Until 6.12. All coats for 2111 UAH.
Address: xxx
Link to the site.

Sensational discount -15% on everything! Until 1.12. Telephone.

6.12 Buy any 3 products and choose a gift to suit your taste. Promotion details: link to website.

Furniture salon "XXX" gives discounts of up to 40%. Hurry up to use it before 1.12. Pleasant surprises and good mood are guaranteed!

Information about new promotions, sales, product updates, gifts and discounts - all this can be contained in a sales letter. It helps to attract more new customers, strengthen relationships with old ones and increase sales.

You can immediately inform a regular customer about loyalty programs, discounts and new products - he will forgive, understand and follow the link. But unlike him, a new subscriber is not yet a client. And he may never become one if immediately after subscribing he is bombarded with intrusive advertising.

Your task is not to scare off or anger the subscriber, but to earn his trust and arouse interest in the newsletter. To do this, start with a greeting and a content chain of letters:

• with interesting information;
• useful tips;
• games and tests in exchange for a gift or discount.

The blog of the online agency TexTerra contains a case study of the Aromatny Mir wine supermarket chain. The entire base was relatively cold, but the result was successful: the Open Rate was 28.4%, and the number of unsubscribes was only 0.5%.

Welcome letter from the Aromatny Mir chain of stores

If the mailing started with an offer to buy a box of wine, there would be more unsubscribes. At the initial stage, try to have a confidential conversation with the subscriber: talk about why you are sending the newsletter and what will be in it. And let the reader decide for himself whether he needs it or not. This way you will get an active and responsive base.

Continue sending out interesting information, life hacks and other useful content until you see interest from the subscriber. It is expressed in clicks on links and views of the catalog. If you notice such activity, make a commercial offer, spice it up with a special price, a time limit, and hit it right on target.

Maxim Ilyakhov, famous journalist, editor and creator of the Glavred service, in an article on the blog platform Medium:
– The best and first segmentation is segmentation by involvement. If a person reacts to your posts, give them 100% of the marketing. If it doesn’t react — 30%.

Basic elements of a sales letter for a cold base

Before you write a sales letter for mailing, work through each element: subject, headline, text, call to action. Miss something, and the subscriber will not open the letter, and if he does, he will not go to the site.

Subject and preheader (preheader)

The email newsletter service SendPulse conducted a study among 120 subscribers of online stores. Result: the majority of recipients (62%) open and read an email only if it has an interesting topic.

The preheader, also known as the preheader, complements the topic. These are the few words you see in mail client to the right of the message subject. Often, without a preheader, the topic looks unclear and requires continuation.

Greetings

The “header is required” rule does not apply to email newsletters. Often this is replaced by a subject line, and the letter begins with the reader's name and greeting. An email with a name will better position the subscriber and set him up for dialogue.

If you use only the name: make sure that it is written without errors and in the correct declension.

If you use a title: compose it using the 4U method. It should be useful, unique, ultra-specific (contain numbers), and urgent (time-bound).

Example 4U header:

Slim waist in 2 months according to the program of Ekaterina Usmanova. If you register before December 10, the sports menu is free.

If the title is too long, the last parameter (urgency) can be removed.

Text

A sales text for a cold base that you want to read to the end looks like this:

• it is informative and not loaded with unnecessary details;
• matches the theme;
• easy to read;
• well structured (there are subheadings, lists, highlighted blocks);
• does not contain unclear abbreviations and terms;
• not overloaded with images - one picture is enough.

It is necessary that the reader understands from the first seconds what exactly you are offering him, why he needs it, and how he can get it. If he gets distracted bright pictures, slogans and abstract wording, he will close the letter, and next time you will need to try hard to arouse interest in the newsletter.

Let’s take an example of a sales letter for email distribution from the online accounting company “My Business”:

1. They talked about WHAT they offer: a series of webinars;
2. told WHY watch the webinar: there is a program;
3. showed HOW to register - placed a clear CTA button.

Below the letter - additional information, links to social media, contacts, unsubscribe button.

Call to action button

This is the main element of a sales letter. A bright theme, title, text, cool design - all this is so that the user becomes interested and goes to the site/places an order/registers.

The call to action button should be clear, contrasting, with a short and motivating phrase.

Example:

• “Get a free coupon”;
• “Choose stockings on sale”;
• “Buy grape seedlings with a 20% discount”;
• “Purchase 14 demo lessons”;
• "Download the book in one click."

To ensure that the reader sees the button right away, place it at the top of the page. If the email is long, there may be 2-3 such buttons, but don’t overdo it.

Letter from a trainer English language— Alena Privedentseva

Sales letters for mailing: examples of email for new subscribers

We have selected 3 examples of sales letters for a cold base, which are sent after the content chain and announcement:

A sales email with an offer to sign up and pay for a training session on freezing food. Initially, the messages were informational: ready-made menu options, recipes and useful tips for housewives.

Newsletter from the online cosmetics store M A C

M A C offers free shipping using promo code. Valid for 1 day - a great motivation to quickly make a purchase. There was no content mailing, they immediately sent interesting, bright letters and introduced them to the assortment. If the store is well known, it can do without an information chain of letters.

New subscribers and those you haven’t written to for a long time are a minefield. Walk through it carefully: send welcome letters, then content ones, and only after that advertising ones. And when you receive orders from the site, you can record them in: the program itself will appoint a responsible manager, assign him the task of contacting the client and give tips at each stage of the sales funnel.

If your goal is to achieve business efficiency, increase sales and develop a large customer base, then SMSint is what you need. We suggest you use new method mobile marketing, which reached the peak of its popularity in 2012, is an SMS advertising service. It's lightweight and affordable way advertising your company. By becoming our client, you get the opportunity to use a cloud-based SMS mailing program via the Internet for free, come up with a message text or use examples on our website, provide a subscriber base, and we take care of the rest.

The SMS notification system helps many businessmen establish communication with their clients and attract new ones. Thanks to such mailing, people will learn about your company and will definitely come for your product or service. The SMS notification service will allow you to inform you in a timely manner about new promotions, discounts and offers. Doing business with us has become much easier.

The SMSint company offers you its SMS services. We have favorable terms of cooperation, which allows you to use alerts and notifications via SMS for a long time.

Using the benefits of SMS information, inform your customers directly about all interesting events and activities. SMS mailing service SMSint offers you ready-made solutions by business area.

1. • New arrivals;
   • Expansion of the range;
   • Seasonal change of collections;
   • Sales and special offers;
   • Discounts and special promotions;
   • Prize drawings, lotteries for clients;
   • Opening of new stores, branded departments;
   • Personalized congratulations and messages.
2. • Seasonal discounts on services and certain types of work;
   • Discounts and promotions for additional equipment and spare parts;
   • Presentations of new models in dealership centers;
   • Attracting customers for test drives of new products;
   • Informing about the availability of new services in service centers;
   • Messages about the need for scheduled maintenance;
   • Service appointment reminders;
   • Notifications about the delivery of a vehicle or previously ordered spare parts;
   • Informing about the completion of repairs/maintenance;
   • Opening of new branches and service centers.
3. • Announcements of thematic events, parties;
   • Seasonal menu changes;
   • Performances by famous musicians, DJs;
   • Special offers, discounts, promotions;
   • New dishes from the chef, festivals of national cuisines;
   • Information about business lunches, additional services.
4. • The emergence of new services or the opening of new centers;
   • Reminders to make an appointment, class or procedure;
   • Mobile discount coupons or special offers;
   • Personalized congratulations to clients on holidays and birthdays;
   • Announcing master classes and other thematic events;
   • Reminder to undergo preventive examinations.
5. • Informing about new services, special offers and promotions;
   • Individual reminders about the deadlines for loan payments, when paying for insurance in installments;
   • Reminder about the expiration of the insurance contract, storage, etc.;
   • Personalized congratulations to clients on holidays and birthdays;
   • Informing about the time of reception of clients on holidays and pre-holidays.
6. • Informing about the expansion of the range of goods and services;
   • Notifications about receipt of an order and stages of its implementation;
   • Informing about the availability of discounts or special offers;
   • Announcing technical work on the site, indicating its mode of operation;
   • Notifications (confirmations) about changes in the registration data of site users;
   • Personalized congratulations to clients on holidays and birthdays;

Whatever your main activity, thanks to the SMS information service, you can always launch any campaign to solve the current problems of your business and constantly maintain the interest and activity of your customers.