How can you build and manage an effective SMS marketing database?

A majority of global consumers are now millennials, GenX, or GenZ - so empathy is a key core value of theirs and their expectation for your brand's too. Advancing marketing technology, or Martech, makes personalizing SMS easier than ever, resulting in sending relevant content to each individual, at scale! Use AI powered chatbots for customer care, social listening, and content creation. Use a CDP (customer data platform) to aggregate, analyze, and identify customer personas across all channels with unprecedented complexity. With those 2 upgrades, your SMS marketing will be able to connect with customers on more deeply personal levels, increasing engagement and improving ROI far better than traditional marketing methods could ever!

SMS marketing,"Enterprise Messaging", provides unmatched open rates-98% are viewed within 10 minutes-global deliverability, and seamless integration across voice, email, IVR and video, makes SMS an essential tool in the marketer's arsenal. High open rates ensures an SMS is not just sent but seen--urgently. It's reliability creates trust and validation of the content and its sender. Such reach cannot be overstated, allowing brands to reach customers worldwide, even without internet access! Further, easy integration of SMS into various platforms via data programs, and now AI, provides analysis of consumer intent and sentiment, tailoring messages to individual preferences and behaviors. Its an unmatched choice for ANY marketing objectives.

Building and managing an effective message management database involves several key steps. Below is a general guide to help you get started. Keep in mind that the specific implementation details may vary depending on your requirements, the technology stack you are using, and the scale of your application. ### 1. Define Requirements: Before building a message management database, clearly define your requirements. Understand the types of messages you'll be handling, the data associated with each message, and any specific features or functionalities you need.

Avoid the myth of "my program is compliant because it meets TCPA standards!" The law is important, but it does not determine SMS industry standards. Not only does the FCC (TCPA) oversee SMS, so does the FTC (CAN-SPAM), as well as other government agencies for verticals like Healthcare (HIPAA) and Finance (SEC, overseeing FINRA). There are also privacy laws and most states have their own communications laws (some even enacted "mini-TCPA" laws like Florida and Oklahoma). But the CTIA determines SMS best practices and the carriers are non-governmental enterprises bound to protect their customers' best interests. Aim to meet carriers' expectations and you'll be far less likely to run into issues than relying on legal standards alone.

I've just completed six months consulting an enterprise on its compliance and consent policies for their SMS campaign. Bar none, obtaining consent from subscribers is the cornerstone of SMS marketing ethics and success. Without question, it is fundamental to your commercial success and ensures staying in the rules. Transparency and honesty drives success. Clearly communicate the value of their participation subscribing to the campaign. Clear, easy opt-in processes ensures their understanding of the return on "signing up." Build and leverage their trust in your brand and you'll get ready consent. It isn't a one time event, but an ongoing process of compliance with industry, government oversight and respecting subscribers' preferences.

Segmenting SMS marketing, while reaching a wider audience is like my experience in opening heterogeneous international markets from a homogenized domestic one. Goal: deliver tailored SMS marketing messages that resonate with specific customer groups linked to a wider appeal. Start with data analysis to identity distinct segments based on shared and different usage, demographics, behavior insights aligned with your CTA. Move to developing targeted messages for segment-specific campaigns that address personalized needs and interests of each target group. Refine the narrow targeting across the wider market by analyzing micro and macro feedback to refine your macro and micro messages in order to stay relevant to the whole as well as its parts.

As in a good marriage, without engagement there's no long term commitment. Grab attention with a sharp hook, whether a compelling offer, a provocative teaser, or a micro-targeted question, thus ensuring high relevance with your audience. Clarity and relevance are your watch words. Frame Calls to Actions (CTA) that clearly guide subscribers on each step of their journey. Each step being easy to follow, whether "Act Now," or "Learn More!" Personalization and segmentation should craft content engaging specific interests and different behaviors of subscriber segments. Analyze your on-going data to sharpen your messages further, illuminating what resonates best with your audience. In this way, you'll better integrate SMS with other platforms.

The importance of staying on top of mobile number disconnects and ports goes without saying. An active status check can also help and save the sender some expenses and boost response rates.

Organization, process and purpose are essential for a successful SMS marketing campaign. Begin with clear campaign objectives and defining key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the frequency and timing of your messages based on your subscriber preferences and behavioral insights. Use delivery tools to automate and segment catering to the interests of your different segments. Monitor campaigns in real time, analyzing open rates, click through rates, number porting, conversion metrics and opt-out rates to gauge your campaigns' effectiveness, thus optimizing your future campaigns, while managing. your present campaign with efficiency and impact.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Once you've established the tactical elements of your campaign database, its imperative to leverage its strategic value by seeking constant improvement for long-term success. Routine hygiene checks purging inactive or valid numbers maintains the integrity of your database. Implement cybersecurity and firewall measures to protect the subscriber data and guarantee consumer trust in your brand. Conducting regular surveys and feedback loops will ensure better understanding of your subscribers' preferences and collect more insights for your processes, management of this critical data, and establish a continuous feedback loop of improvement.

Expanding from the SMS strategies outlined, the integration of Customer Data programs, AI, machine learning, chat bots and RCS will make SMS more powerful personalized tool for engaging wider audiences through enhanced personalization, richer SMS experiences, automated interactions, advanced segmentation and targeting, integrated multi-channel strategies, improved analytics and insights and more on-point compliance and privacy considerations. What I call, "just over the horizon" technical evolutions will enable enterprises to craft more targeted, interactive and effective messaging campaigns.