How to Make Sure You're Getting the Best ROI Possible for Your SMS

There’s one thing on every business’s mind for almost any project that they undertake…

What’s the ROI?

And the same is true for your SMS efforts.

You want to make sure you’re making back what you’re putting into it—and beyond.

So how can you make sure you’re getting the best ROI possible for your SMS efforts?

Here are some things you should keep in mind…

Optimize Your Subscriber List

We all know that it’s important to keep your subscriber list clean when it comes to email—and for SMS it can sometimes be even more important in terms of ROI.

Why? Because SMS is higher cost on a per-message basis, so anyone on your list who shouldn’t be there could be a hit to your ROI.

A few ways you can make sure you’re optimizing your subscriber list would be…

• Although there's a place for cold SMS, for your ongoing SMS campaigns, make sure you’re promoting your SMS subscription in a way that only attracts subscribers who are actually interested in your product or service.
• Attract more legitimate subscribers with a real-value incentive to get them to subscribe.
• Promote your SMS list across multiple channels—social media, your website, email, physical displays, or anywhere else you can think of.
• Segment your list into relevant groups so that you’re only using up message credits on recipients who would actually benefit from your service.
• Clean up your lists periodically—removing inactive subscribers or people that for one reason or another should no longer be on your list.
• Make sure your opt-out instructions are clear so that people who are no longer interested can easily unsubscribe.

Make Sure You’re on the Right Plan for You

You can spend a lot more money than needed if you’re not on an SMS plan that suits your needs.

If you don’t have enough messaging credits available on your plan, you’ll end up running out of messages and having to purchase more at a higher price.

It’s usually a better deal to purchase a higher tier plan which would offer more messages at a lower rate.

Find the Right Messaging for Your Audience

As with any communication effort, it may take time and testing to find out what best resonates with your specific audience.

What times of day are most effective?

What language do they most connect with?

What CTA’s do they find most enticing?

These are the kinds of things you can test and optimize to make sure that you’re connecting with people in a way that really speaks to them—and therefore will bring you the best results and ROI.

Don’t Message Too Much

If you’re used to email and other communication channels, you may find it difficult to adjust to SMS—because people generally have a lower tolerance threshold for how often they’re willing to receive messages.

Sending SMS messages too often can hurt your ROI in more ways than one:

1. You’re using more messaging credits.
2. You may be lessening the effectiveness of your SMS in the long run (as more people grow numb to the medium).
3. You may be causing more opt-outs.

A good rule of thumb is to stick with just 1–2 messages per month, but, of course, it will depend on your specific audience.

Integrate SMS with Your Other Channels and Workflows

You’ll likely find the most effectiveness with your SMS campaigns if you can integrate your messaging processes as much as possible with other channels and workflows.

Integrating in this way means that you can create seamless flows for your audience in regard to the messages they receive and the actions they take.

The more you can integrate, the more you can make your workflows more cohesive and, therefore, more effective—therefore yielding better ROI.

Start Getting Better ROI Now

You can start implementing any of the suggestions above to start getting better ROI right now.

Or if you haven’t gone all in to sending SMS yet, you can get better ROI for your business simply by starting to send texts.

Get your free trial now to see for yourself how it works.