If you’re sending SMS marketing campaigns to your customers, you know that it’s crucial to get them to take action as a result of your texting efforts. One of the best ways to do that is by inserting links into these marketing text messages.
With links, you’re guiding your subscribers to the action you’d like them to take: purchasing an item, signing up for something, or learning more about your business. In this guide, we’ll show you how to insert a link into a text message easily. To start, here’s why SMS links can be so powerful for businesses of all sizes.
Why Include Links in Text Messages?
There are many reasons to use links in business text messages, including:
- Drive Website Traffic: When you send a link to customers, you direct them to your website from the text message. The link could lead to a landing page, a product page, or a blog page.
- Increase Conversions: Texting links can also help streamline the customer journey. Instead of going from the text message to a web search for the action you want them to take, a customer can go directly to the correct page to purchase, sign up, or learn more.
- Enable Easy Engagement: As a business, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers. Including a clickable link encourages action more than plain-text instructions.
- Track Campaign Success: It is incredibly valuable to gain actionable insights from customer actions, and link tracking can help you measure click-through rates and conversion rates.
- Enhance Customer Experience: Customers prefer concise messages, and direct links improve clarity and encourage action.
Text message links can be valuable for businesses in almost every industry. In healthcare, for example, a link may lead to an appointment scheduling page or a crucial patient resources document. In education, a link may lead to a grade report or a parent-teacher conference signup page. Implementing text message links is a powerful way to optimize your text marketing, no matter your industry.
Best Practices for Adding Links to SMS
Now that you better understand how powerful links in SMS text messages can be, here are some of the best practices as you implement them.
Keep Links Short and Clear
Many web pages have lengthy full URLs; every character counts in texting. SMS messages are restricted to 160 characters, so it’s crucial that you keep links short and clear. Utilize a branded short link or shorten your URL with a URL shortener.
Place Links Strategically
You’ll want some rhyme or reason for placing the link in your messages. A tried-and-true way to place links is to put them directly after the CTA. For example, “Hi, [INSERT NAME], we have an exclusive 25% off just for you. Shop now: [INSERT LINK].”
Make it Action-Oriented
Customers are more likely to click links when they understand precisely what is being asked of them. Therefore, ensure that CTAs are clear and action-oriented. For example, if you’re a style consultancy, you may send a message like: “Book your free consultation here: [INSERT LINK].”
Ensure Mobile Optimization
Sending text messages with links means your customers will likely open them on their mobile devices. Therefore, ensuring you have mobile-friendly pages for these links is crucial. Often, if a customer struggles with a web page displayed incorrectly, they’ll just decide to quit without converting.
Avoid Spammy Language
Sending mass text messages to your subscribers can be great, but you’ll want to ensure your messages don’t sound like spam. Not only do you run the risk of customers simply deleting them before reading, but you also run the risk of them being filtered out before they even get to your customers.
Test Links
Be sure that the links you send work and direct customers precisely to the page or pages you intend. In addition, take time to preview the entire text message to ensure it appears exactly as you want it to.
Include Opt-Out Language
Giving subscribers a straightforward way to opt out is integral to ensuring compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). This can often be as simple as “Text STOP to unsubscribe.”
Now that you’ve seen some of the best practices for including text links in your SMS communications, here’s how to shorten and track SMS links.
How to Shorten and Track Links in SMS
Getting your links ready to send is a straightforward process once you have the right tools at hand. First, as we’ve already discussed, utilizing a link shortener like Sakari’s can help tidy up your messages while helping you reduce the character count.
When it comes to tracking links, this can help you measure click-through rates and assess your campaign’s overall performance. This data will give you better insight into what is working and what could be refined. You’ll need to add UTM parameters to a URL to track an SMS link, enabling you to measure the SMS-driven traffic in Google Analytics.
For Sakari users, here’s how to add link tracking to URLs.
Examples of Effective SMS Campaigns with Links
Looking for ways to incorporate links into your company’s SMS campaigns? Here are some example texts with links to inspire you:
- Promotional Campaigns: “Hey [INSERT NAME], we’re having a flash sale! Get 35% off for the next 24 hours here: [INSERT LINK].”
- Appointment Bookings: “Hi [INSERT NAME], it’s time to book your next appointment! Schedule here: [INSERT LINK].”
- Event Invitations: “Hey [INSERT NAME], don’t miss out on our upcoming webinar! Sign up here: [INSERT LINK].”
- Order Tracking: “Hi [INSERT NAME], your order #48294 is on its way! Track it here: [INSERT LINK].”
These examples are simply a starting point for businesses. Depending on your business needs and audience, there are many different ways to utilize SMS links. You can use these examples as templates, but you’ll need to find what’s right for your business and what works best for your subscribers.
Send SMS Links with Sakari
By including web address links in your SMS messages, you can drive more engagement, improve conversion rates, and clarify the actions you want customers to take. Links help you improve the relationship between your business and its customers.
To take your SMS marketing to the next level, work with a trusted partner like Sakari. We’re more than an SMS marketing platform, we’re invested in your company’s success. In fact, we offer tools to help your SMS campaigns succeed, such as:
Built-In URL Shortening
Sakari’s tools make it easy for you to simplify long URLs. Shorter URLs can save your character counts, which lowers your marketing costs while making these web links more user-friendly.
Comprehensive Campaign Management
Manage every step of your campaigns with Sakari. From crafting messages with personalization to creating subscriber groups based on specific criteria to tracking performance, Sakari is your comprehensive campaign management tool.
Seamless Integrations
Managing and manually syncing your customer data across platforms can be inefficient and time-consuming, but there’s a better way. Our robust API makes it easy to sync your customer data with integration support for top CRMs and marketing tools such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign, and Slack.
Advanced Analytics
Sakari’s real-time monitoring dashboard puts all your data in one place, making it easy to see your campaigns. Uncover valuable audience insights and effortlessly adjust your campaigns based on real-time customer data, all in the Sakari dashboard.
Scalability
No matter the size of your business, having technology that can scale to your needs is crucial to your success. Sakari’s SMS text messaging platform makes sending a high volume of messages to your audience effortless.
The flexibility of Sakari means you’ll be able to create unique audience groups, automate campaigns, include personalized messages, and easily adjust messaging based on real-time data and analytics.
Dedicated Support
At Sakari, we’re SMS messaging experts, and we’re here to help your business succeed. When you work with us, we’ll help take the guesswork out of SMS marketing.
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Adding a Link to Text Message FAQs
