Before you start enjoying all the great advantages of business messaging you need to focus your efforts on devising a strategy for your business.
Whether you’re just starting out or your company is firmly set, an effective plan is the key to your success. Not sure where to start? No worries! Here are some best practices that will help you kick off.
Get your team together and set your goals
Henry Ford said “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself” and we believe he was right. Business messaging needs time and your best bet to learn, experiment and find out what works for you (and what doesn’t) is a dedicated team.
Everyone should be working towards the same vision and that’s why you need to create a roadmap. What do you hope to achieve? How will you achieve it? Consistency, effective reporting and matching skills between members will help you keep your focus and get the wanted results.
Pick the right platform
Before you can begin incorporating messaging into your business, you need to pick the right platform to help you do this. Apart from creating and sending messages, there are many other factors that come into play when choosing the right medium. Is the interface user friendly? Can you easily connect your subscribers base with it? Does it offer automations so that you can target people based on preferences and behaviours?
You should also consider the channel options, the analytic tools it offers, plus the extra tools, like landing pages and sign-up forms that will help your campaign stand out. There are many choices out there and no two platforms are the same. Puzzled? You might want to take a look at the Apifon Platform.
Identify your audience and build your list
A good business messaging strategy will not work without knowing your audience. You need people who will react positively to your messages and will take action. Think about their needs, wants and values and start collecting their information to build your list. Need help building your list? Here are 8 ways that will help you build a list from scratch or grow your existing one.
Plan your campaigns
Now that you know who your audience is, it’s time to figure out how you will be communicating with them. Take a few moments to think about which channels you will use to reach your customers. You might choose email to let them know about your blog updates or interact with them on Viber or through SMS when offering special promotions.
In order to remain effective you also have to think about messaging frequency. If you send too infrequently, you risk your subscribers forgetting you. On the other hand, too many messages violate their personal space and might result in alienation. Finally, you need to decide what you want to say! The context of your messages should be a unique and enjoyable experience for your customers. Remember, you’re a guest in their inbox.
Create relevant messages
Speaking of context, each person on your list is unique and has certain expectations. Therefore your messages should be individualized in order to meet these expectations and, why not, exceed them. Treat your subscribers like VIPs and make every communication with them a unique and personal experience.
In order to achieve this you have to organize your contacts based on what you know about them. What are their interests and individual preferences? What’s their age and location? The right platform will give you all the personalization and segmentation tools you need to make your marketing unique to ever customer.
Measure your results
Last but not least, data analysis and optimization is an essential part of your strategy. With every campaign you run, you gain valuable information about how your subscribers behave and what are their preferences. This is a great chance for you and your team to dig in and see how things are going! Learning about your audience will greatly help you to start making more informed marketing decisions, adjust your strategy and take your business to the next level.
At the end of the day, your customers are the base on which the success of your business is built. Take the time to develop you plan and get to know them better. It might seem daunting at the start but, we promise, it pays off.
