How to Create an SMS Campaign that Gets Results

Happy festive season! Here we are on a two-month ride with back-to-back shopping bonanzas all the way from Singles Day to New Years Day! When you plan ahead for holiday sales success, don’t forget about SMS in your marketing plan – it’s a sure-fire way to reach customers. The best of all? You can take control and tailor an SMS campaign yourself! What are the benefits of an SMS campaign?

Straight to customer fingertips

If customers give their phone numbers to receive SMS, they want to receive something valuable from a brand they trust. That explains why compared to other digital marketing channels, SMS has the highest open rate of 98% and a 209% higher response rate than phone, email and Facebook.

Personalised engagement

Today’s world has nurtured a generation expecting to be wooed in a different way. For some consumers, luxurious service means highly personalised, valuable, and consistent across their favourite channels. They also want a quick response to meet their cravings for social warmth.

The intimate nature of SMS makes it a perfect channel to fulfil this desire:

1/ Hyper personal and authentic

Perceived as less invasive and more personal, SMS campaigns build a more one-on-one and authentic relationship with customers with content according to their behaviour and preferences.

2/ Valuable updates and offers

SMS subscribers are serious shoppers who expect REAL value in return. Valuable offers such as early access to promo codes and even customised rewards programs can make customers feel pampered with exclusive incentives.

With online events and video consultations being the future of many industries, an SMS reminder is an unobtrusive way to recover the abandoned carts with a high open rate, too.

3/ Connect with customers like their friends

60% of millennials like to communicate with brands via instant messaging because they like the genuine human touch. For locations where customers pay to text brands, a live chat link in an SMS can do the same magic, guiding customers to check out through conversations.

Run your SMS campaign with CINNOX

CINNOX provides Campaigns, a broadcast message feature that lets you run your own campaigns to your customers anywhere in the world, without having to expose your customer data to a third party. Currently available for SMS, the feature will support more channels soon including Facebook, WeChat and WhatsApp.

With CINNOX, you can run a Standard Campaign to send bulk SMS, or design a Dynamic Campaign with variables and customisations for a deeper and more personalised program.

Ready to run your SMS campaign? Let’s get started!

Steps: Start from Navigation Pane, click Campaigns > Submitted Campaign > Create Campaign > Choose campaign type

How to send bulk SMS via Standard Campaigns?

1/ Import campaign details

Click on the Import Standard Campaign button and download the sample CSV or XLSX file. Follow the sample file and fill out the recipient numbers with country codes and message content. When it is ready, upload the spreadsheet to import the details.

2/ Schedule the campaign

After validating your details, continue to complete the campaign details, including Campaign Name, the service number as the Sender Address, as well as Timezone, the Schedule Type and Time.

How to create a personalised Dynamic Campaign

Design a personalized and interactive Dynamic Campaign with customisations and web links for omnichannel and real-time conversation.

1/ Define variables and import campaign details

To start off, click Import Recipients & Variables and download the sample CSV or XLSX file. The file is where you insert recipient numbers and set up variables for each recipient in the following columns, such as dates, names and promo codes. To align with other telecom, digital and marketing channels, you can also put international toll-free numbers, DID numbers and web links for video calls and live chat. Once the recipient’s numbers and variables are ready, upload it to CINNOX and get it validated.

2/ Create message content with variables

‍Here we are in the most important part: tailor your content!When creating the message content, you can insert uploaded variables, which are conveniently displayed at the bottom for you to click and insert.

CINNOX supports web links for direct chat and call with specific agents, as well as phone numbers, so you can conveniently insert links and numbers with accuracy.

3/ Schedule the campaign

Similar to Standard Campaign, you can finish off by setting up the Campaign Name, the service number as the Sender Address, Timezone, the Schedule Type and Time

Tips for nailing the first SMS campaign

• When filling out the phone numbers with country codes, make sure the cells are in text format in order that the cells are displayed exactly as entered.
• Invalid records? The dashboard would display error message in a pop-up window. Check out the error log downloaded from the pop-up window, and correct the invalid records in your campaign spreadsheet before you upload and get it validated again.
• When everything’s ready, it’s always good to take a preview before you send for approval and launch the campaign.

Collaborative approval process

When you are ready to send it for approval before launching the campaign, click Send for Approval then Select Approver from the corporate directory. By then the Approver will receive a maaiiBot chat and notification email about the campaign pending for approval.

The Submitted Campaign section is where the Approver can quickly approve or disapprove a campaign. The Approver can also open a specific campaign to make comments and edit the schedule. Once the campaign is approved, SMS messages will be sent in bulk. If disapproved, the campaign will be moved to the draft campaign list for editing.

Gauge and optimise with SMS reports

After launching the campaign, gauge the performance and optimise your next campaign! Get analytics from the SMS report on CINNOX which shows the results of each sent campaign, including the Sender Address, Number of Successful and Failed Recipient, and Send Date & Time.

How to send 1-on-1 SMS on CINNOX?

Sometimes you need to send individual SMS messages right away to your clients in order to build an intimate and exclusive relationship. With CINNOX, you can send messages to mobile phone numbers easily from Dial Pad, the Contact Lists and Recent Chats.

In order to specify the recipient, you can type the phone number and select your SMS Sender ID on the Dial Pad.

After clicking the SMS button, a new chatroom will pop up among your recent connections for you to type the text message. Similar to Campaigns, you can add shortcuts to web links for call/ chat and phone numbers so you don’t have to memorise them every time.

When sending out the message, the platform would check with you again that the recipient and sender numbers are correct. The number of characters for a message are also displayed.

Use Case: Bring success to a skincare online consultation with SMS

This festive season, organic skincare startup Honey & Honey Cosmetics wants to encourage people to pamper their skin and care about their emotional well-being.

Seeing it as an in-demand opportunity, Honey & Honey Cosmetics pilots a 15-minute one-on-one video consultation for its customers and provides personalised skincare advice and regimen.

SMS: Appointment reminder to reduce dropouts

As soon as the advertisement on Facebook is out, registrations from the Millennial-shopper community pour in. The response rate is excitingly high, but they fear many will drop out before their appointment.

Honey & Honey therefore schedules an SMS appointment reminder 30 minutes before the session starts, containing the customer’s name, session time, as well as a web link that directs them to a video call with an aesthetician. It also gives customers a sense of seriousness!

Pre-chat Form: Understand the customers in advance

When it is about time, customers click on the call link for the consultation. Before it initiates a call, Honey & Honey has already activated a skin quiz via CINNOX’s Pre-Chat Form for customers to fill in so they can understand the customers’ background. The form also contributes to enrich the CRM data for better insights and to boost sales.

Video Call: Make skincare accessible

During the crystal-clear video session, customers are able to show their skin issues and the aesthetician in return can give advice. From cleansing, moisturising, to treatment, the aesthetician suggests new skincare routine. A tip that they should not forget is to nourish their lips with vitamins C and E for feeling hydrated and healthy!

Live chat: Converse to convert

In the end of the SMS message, there’s also a chat link directly to the aesthetician responsible for the session, so that customers can always instantly consult the same aesthetician for their skincare inquiries. They appreciate the real-time response in a skincare brand as it provides a level of transparency.

There are myriad ways to incorporate SMS in different stages and touchpoints throughout the journey to ensure the success of video consult programmes. Honey & Honey is now more ready for the next chapter of its business growth.