Best Practices for Creating Compelling SMS Calls to Action
You send your mobile subscribers a message and they read it, but you find they do not take any action and your dance floor remains empty. This may be due to a missing or ineffective call to action (CTA). Although you have limited space in a text, it is important to always include a strong CTA so that you gain all the benefits of this marketing channel. If you need to create stronger CTAs that motivate your customers to come to your nightclub, then you may find help from the following advice.
Be Clear and Direct
Offer your customers free entry to an event to motivate them to take action.
A strong CTA should be clear and concise. It is beneficial to write a message that directly states what you want, rather than including assumptions or insinuations. You do not want your customers to wonder what they are supposed to do. Instead, make it very clear how they should act, whether you want them to visit your nightclub for a special event, join your subscriber list, or participate in a survey. You should not worry about appearing rude just because you are being direct. You can create a nice, compelling message that also states exactly what you want your customers to do.
Use Action Verbs
The best way to ensure that your message is not only clear and direct but also encourages action is to use action verbs, which are those that specifically describe an action. Popular options are buy, click, donate, compare, find, order, join, talk, start, and get. Pairing these strong, descriptive verbs with a short message about your event or offer gets people responding to your messages.
Offer Incentives
You cannot simply ask customers to take an action and expect them to do so; they need to feel as though doing so benefits them. Including an incentive, such as a discount on the entry fee of your club, as a strong motivator. Other popular offers for nightclubs include early access to an event, exclusive access, or pre-sale tickets. If your subscribers feel rewarded for acting, they will be more motivated to do so. Incentives also create a mutually beneficial relationship between you and your subscribers by saving them some money, developing a positive image for your club, and improving your bottom line.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Another powerful tool that can inspire your patrons to take action is creating a sense of urgency. A simple way to do this is to include time words, such as now, today, immediately, special time only, and limited time offer. The more immediate and short-lived you make something seem, the more likely your subscribers will act right away before they have time to be distracted and forget about your message. If your texts do not have a sense of urgency, then your patrons may never get around to acting because they feel as though they can take advantage of your offer at any time.
Don’t Over Think It
Simple texts have a powerful impact, so don’t spend too long developing content.
When creating your messages, especially the call to action, do not over-think it. Often, the simplest messages have the greatest impact. Using a simple sentence, such as ‘get free entry to an event’, can often work the same, or even better, than something more creative. However, it is best to not rely on the same CTA every time, as it can lose its impact. Instead, continually change your message by having a few different categories of CTAs that you alternate.
You can get creative with the messages that you send through your SMS marketing campaign, but you always want to ensure that your calls to action are simple, clear, and direct. For an even stronger CTA, include an incentive and a sense of urgency. Compelling CTAs increase the chance that your customers will act in the way that you want them to act, which in turn improves the effectiveness of your campaign.
If you want to learn more about using texting to pack your club every night, then read this Nightlife Texting blog post.
Categories: Uncategorized