SMS marketing
SMS marketing in Malawi that people do not mind reading
A text is personal, so a promotion has to earn its place. Here is how to run opted-in campaigns from the SMS YANU dashboard, and what the platform does to keep them clean.
Start with people who said yes
The list decides everything. A small list of customers who asked to hear from you will do more than a big list of strangers, and it costs less to reach. Collect numbers where people already deal with you: at the till, on a sign-up form or when they order. Tell them what you will send, and keep a note of when they agreed.
What a good promotion looks like
- Your name first, so nobody has to guess who is texting
- One offer, with a clear end date
- One thing to do next: visit, call or reply on another channel
- Plain characters, so it stays in one part
- A way to opt out
YourShop: 10% off school shoes until Saturday. Show this text at our Limbe branch. To stop these messages, call 0999 000 000.
How the dashboard keeps campaigns clean
Opt-out line built in
Mark a campaign as promotional and an opt-out line is added, using your own wording if you set one.
Quiet hours
Promotions respect quiet hours by default, so nobody's phone buzzes with an offer in the middle of the night.
Groups and merge fields
Send to the right group, and use fields like a first name so each message reads as if it was written for that person.
Budget and measure it
At K20 per part, a one-part message to 2,000 customers costs K40,000. Work out what that send must bring in, and give each campaign its own code or offer so you can count the customers who come from it. Your reports show what was delivered and what failed, and you can export them as CSV.
Do not send too often. If people start asking to be removed, slow down. For ongoing news from a shop see SMS for retail, and to keep offers cheap read the GSM-7 and Unicode guide.
Questions
Can I buy a list of numbers for SMS marketing?
Do not. Use only numbers from people who gave them to you and agreed to hear from you. Bought lists bring complaints, and sending to people who never agreed can break the law and our terms.
How do people opt out of my promotions?
Campaigns marked promotional always get an opt-out line. With a sender ID the default line asks people to contact you, because replies to a name do not reach the platform. You can set your own wording, and numbers you add to your opt-out list are left out of later sends.
What is the best time to send a promotion?
There is no single answer, so test it on your own customers. Stay inside daytime hours: promotional campaigns have quiet hours on by default, so a message that would land at night waits for the morning.
How much does an SMS campaign cost?
K20 per SMS part for each person. A one-part message to 1,000 people costs K20,000. The campaign screen shows the total before you launch.
Keep reading
Plan your first campaign
Create an account, upload your opted-in list and review the cost before you launch.