A Dynamic Duo: The Benefits of Combining Content and SMS Marketing
After reading a few of our RoboCent blogs, you might be wondering how you can take your sms campaign to the next level. Maybe you've been running out of ideas or maybe you feel like it's just not working for you. The consumer seems more and more turned off by any advertisements, and you feel stuck.
RoboCent recognizes that in the new age of media and marketing, the average consumer is swarmed by thousands of advertisements a day. Whether they’re on television, online or even outdoors, a staggering amount of ads swarm the US citizen on the daily. As this reality begins to set in for consumers, they become desensitized to all of the pleas for patronage. Each ad is yet another nuisance on the way to work or in the way of their newsfeed. Silly, low-effort graphics and flashing deals just weren’t working anymore. People were either going out of their way to avoid them, or forgetting them altogether.
In dire straits, marketers needed to get creative, and they did with content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a type of advertisement that focuses on quality, rather than quantity. It usually can come in the form of entertainment or information, such as a video or an article, etc. The main goal is to give the consumer more than just the deal. It’s to engage them, therefore getting the consumer hooked on the brand and not just the product.
For many companies, campaigns, etc, the goal is to create something that becomes not only wildly popular, but useful. It builds the credibility of your brand. Spending time on creating quality content for consumers will create stronger loyalty and more interest. It’s all about listening to your audience. If you know that your target market values something, take interest in that. Create content that helps them, and in return you’ll not only grow your brand but gain loyal customers.
For example, AARP publishes an award-winning bi-monthly magazine each year that brings in masses of consumers and loyalty. It’s because they address their target audience’s needs and concerns, and give them the information and resources through their marketing material. Not only that, but their brand and company develops a reputation for creating quality content; this will transfer over to the services that they provide. People see that you're putting time and effort into something; they'll expect the same from your brand all around.
How Does This Get Political?
The same goes for a political campaign. If voters see that you're creating quality content and advertising in a meaningful way instead of a spammy way, then they will be more likely to trust your campaign. You'll seem more legitimate; like if you can run a good campaign with quality information, then you can certainly hold a position in office.
When Will Texting Come In?
So, how does content marketing get political, you might ask, and how can I incorporate it into my text campaign? Great questions, and combining these three elements is completely possible.
As a political campaign, it’s your job to make sure you’re doing all you can to create content that benefits the voters. Perhaps create a website that outlines all of the key issues in your campaign. Maybe create an interactive quiz that helps voters decide how they can best contribute to the campaign or the cause. Either way, always make sure to do more than just advertise to them.
When using SMS marketing, you can easily implement content marketing strategy into 160 characters. It’s all about paying attention to script tactics, personalizing your messages, and linking your messages to other things. Below are four ways that we've detailed making content marketing work in your text campaign.
1. Address Contacts by Name
Personalization is a great way to gear your political sms messages to content marketing. Sending a message that begins with “Hi, John!” as opposed to “Hi,” is one way to personalize your text messages. Doing this will take your messages from “spam” to a real connection. Not to mention that services such as RoboCent uses real people to send messages, meaning that you are creating relationships between your campaign and real voters. Voters can ask these live-texters real questions about your campaign, therefore turning the text into a real life interaction. This is the goal of content marketing in general, to take the presence of an advertisement and turn it into an impact.
One of the many effects of content marketing is that it will leave the consumer thinking about the interaction with the media that they've had. Having a text-message marketer address them by name will certainly do that, because it will leave them feeling seen and heard as an individual.
2. Text Contacts About Issues That Matter to Them
When reaching out to contacts, you’ll want to make sure that you’re texting them in regards to relevant information. Just like making a video or writing an article for content marketing, you want to treat each voter like they’re the only person in your contact list. Start a drip campaign with different strains of conversation depending on the user’s political interests.
If they’re concerned with the gun-control debate, create a script that gives them information on your campaign’s stance. If they’re just like more information about voting day, do one for that. Or you can utilize a service’s live operators to hold conversations with voters and give them specialized information about your campaign. Consult one of our blogs if you're asking yourself: what is a drip campaign?
SMS marketing has flexibility in that it’s a form of communication. You can use it to communicate almost anything you want. Information is a form of content that can easily be distributed via text. Content marketing is a way to take your text messages from “Vote for me!” to “Vote for me, here’s why.”
3. Link to A Website with More Interactive Information
You only have so much room in a 160-character text message. This is why you’ve got to make your website or social media top-notch, because you can use sms to enhance them even more. When sending out messages, make sure to link to your website for more information. As mentioned above, use a drip campaign to send out varied links to people who express different interests in your campaign. You not only increase the engagement in your website or social media, but you make your advertisements multi-platform, transcending just the text message.
This is the beauty of SMS: it’s an enhancement tool. SMS marketing can make every other area of your campaign flourish through its ability to reach people who haven’t been reached yet, in a way that no one else can reach them.
4. Always Try To Benefit Your Contact
As said before, you'll want to make sure that your text messages are serving a purpose that's not just checking it off of your list of marketing to-dos. Especially if you want to convert your sms messages to content marketing materials; there has to be another way that contacts can connect to content. This means using language that is positive and focuses on how the user can take the next step. Content marketing becomes real in SMS when users start to interact with it.
You can always incentivize messaging as it relates to your campaign as a whole as well; for example, the first few people to click on an SMS website link get discounted merchandise. Something as simple as a quick incentive to bring users to your website and content will work like a charm. Just make sure you're letting them know what will be good for them.
Since you only have 160 characters, be concise in your plea to benefit them. "Go to this website to learn how to be the change," is a simple example. It cuts straight to the point, uses positive language, and connects the voter to more of your content and your platform. SMS actually works when it can spot a call to action from a contact. Content marketing is the same way. In both senses, you've gained loyalty and engagement in a way that did more than just announce the campaign via flyer or one-way ad.
Conclusion
RoboCent is all about thinking outside of the box. Our entire skillset revolves around sms marketing, which is a growing and revolutionary marketing tool for all politicians. We also understand that sometimes, we might get in a bit of a marketing rut, which is why we're not afraid to combine various types of marketing strategy. The relationship between content marketing and SMS marketing is quintessential marketing symbiosis. What we're doing right now is even considered content marketing; writing blog posts to help our consumers with their marketing ventures. This builds our credibility because it shows our knowledge of what we do, and also displays our desire to fully benefit our consumers.
The phenomenon can be found anywhere. While many people view sms as spam texts, combining your sms campaign will fight against this reputation to not only improve the state of sms marketing but win you an election.