A product launch can be one of the biggest money making events for your business and SMS can be a huge driver of results…
...If you do it right and avoid common mistakes!
In this guide I’ll walk you through the most important things to get right...
So you can maximize sales, save money, and crush your launch using text message marketing!
1. Use SMS to Build Hype + Generate Consumption Early
Don’t wait until the end of your launch to text your list!
Instead, use SMS early in your campaign to build anticipation, get early engagement, and remind people about key events like webinars, challenges, or content before the product drop.
We’ve found that SMS can be one of the top sources of REGISTRATION for your launches….
So definitely promote your event / launch registration to your SMS list!
Typically a product launch has a series of content pieces (or a big webinar event) that gets people hyped, and SMS should be a big driver to get people to the content.
Great ways to use SMS before launch:
- Launch Promotion: Use SMS to get people registered
- Registration Confirmation: Use SMS to confirm the registration, and get them to either buy a “VIP” upgrade, One Time Offer, or send them a link to join a community
- Event / Content Reminder Messages: Text your registrants list each day you launch content
- Get People To The Community: Get people to join a community / FB group / Skool group to generate social proof
- Pre-Drop Case Studies: Send attendees case studies / proof before the drop
Goal: Drive consumption and attention early so your mid-launch content actually gets seen.
You can plan and schedule all these messages out in Roezan Broadcasts so they'll all fire automatically at the exact time!
2. Use SMS for Urgency To Close WAY More Sales (But Segment It)
SMS can drive high-intent traffic and buyers in the final hours of your launch when urgency is highest.
….But don’t send the same blast to everyone!
If you just send all the texts to all your contacts, you’ll end up likely with low engagement and an expensive SMS bill.
Instead, segment your list based on behavior as they go down the funnel.
How you segment will highly depend on your funnel but the idea is to send promo texts to everyone to get them to register, then send follow ups to much smaller lists the more they interact.
This video shows the exact strategy to maximize your ROI with segmentation:
For example:
In the beginning > Hit the whole list (All Contacts) to promo the event
For event reminders > Just send to registrants
For the closing sequence > Just send to attendees, exclude people who already bought
This will give you better ROI and avoid burning your list!
You can easily create lists and segments in Roezan so the right contact gets the right message, at the right time.
3. Keep Messages Short to Save Money and Increase ROI
This is the EASIEST hack to reduce your costs...
SMS is billed based on "segments" depending on how long the message is.
1 segment = ~160 characters.
If you have a list of 10,000 contacts, and you send a 1 segment message, it will cost you 10,000 credits.
But if you go over even 1 character to 161, and send a 2 segment message…
It will DOUBLE your costs to 20,000 credits!
This isn’t a big deal if you have a small list, but once you have a large enough list, you can blow through a few hundred thousand credits WAY too fast on a big launch!
Tips to keep SMS short & cost-efficient:
1) Plan your messages in advance: Make sure they are 1 segment!
You can use our tool here https://www.roezan.com/tools/sms-character-counter
Or check the segments in the Roezan broadcast dashboard:
You can use multi-segment messages if you want, but just be aware!
2) Write your SMS like a headline: You don’t have to be a creative copywriter, just write it kinda like an email subject line. Get the curiosity and the click. No need to describe and sell your whole product in SMS…. just get them to click. Let the sales page do the selling.
3) Use dynamic first names wisely: Dynamic first names can make the length of the SMS vary, and some long names might push you into multiple segments, so save some space for the long names!
4) Use STOP language: Use opt-out language like “reply stop to stop” at the end and give people a chance to opt out. Roezan will honor opt-outs automatically. This will help reduce sending messages to people who don’t want them!
5) Be careful with long URL links: Links are often loooong and can push your messages into multiple segments (expensive). Use short links or our built-in link shortener.
WARNING: Do not use a public link shortener like bit.ly in SMS though as it often triggers spam filters in SMS and your messages won’t get delivered. You can use the Roezan link shortener or just make sure your links are short!
4. Understand SMS Throughput: Make Sure Your Messages Get Delivered On Time!
If you’re doing a live event, you need your messages to go out at a specific time.
The most important message in getting people to show up is the “We’re starting now” text - and SMS throughput becomes VERY important.
Throughput is the measure of how fast your messages can go out, and for MOST phone numbers (and other providers) it’s way too slow.
In fact, we’ve heard of cases on other providers where the event was OVER and people were still getting “we’re live” messages!
Don’t let this happen to you - instead, understand throughput:
Many phone numbers from other providers send at 1-3 MPS (messages per second).
If you’re at 1 MPS and you send a blast to 10k people, it will take 10,000 seconds, or 166 minutes (2.7 HOURS) to complete.
But with Roezan Turbo (our high-throughput SMS infrastructure), by default our numbers can send ~20-35 MPS.
That means that same blast would be done in less than 5 minutes!
Side note - If you have 500k-1M+ contacts and need even higher volume, we can also offer you Roezan Lightning (ultra-high-throughput SMS infrastructure) if you have a legitimate use case. We can make sure you get the throughput you need with blazing speeds of 500 MPS-1000 MPS. Contact us for details.
5. Don’t Send Time-Sensitive SMS via Your CRM Automations
Don’t use your CRM (like ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, automations etc.) to trigger time-sensitive SMS.
CRMs often rate-limit SMS or queue messages slowly, resulting in time-sensitive texts taking hours to go out.
Instead, use Roezan scheduled broadcasts to send time-sensitive messages. This will give you the max throughput and reduce “hops” and help avoid rate-limiting.
Note about Event Notifications in Automations:
We’ve seen some other (seemingly inexperienced) providers recommend sending a webinar / event campaign in an automation.
It’s a bad idea for multiple reasons -
Typically this involves sending people a series of messages with “wait until” steps.
The problem is that when someone signs up close to the webinar, they are going to get all the messages in rapid succession - the confirmation, the 2 day, the 1 day, the morning of, the 1 hour, etc….
All instantly because they have to go through the whole flow.
Much better idea to just use Roezan events, or schedule broadcasts.
Automations are made for evergreen actions that can occur at any time…. NOT date based actions!
6. Track Your Click-Through Rates (CTR)
Track how many people click your SMS links so you know what’s working.
Generally speaking we think you should shoot for a 10%+ CTR on SMS at least (a sign of a healthy list)
You can use the Roezan built in link shortener to track, plus you can add UTMs for your analytics software.
7. Deliverability: Avoid Getting Filtered or Blocked
Carriers have filters in place to block spammy or non-compliant messages, and if you trip the filter, a portion or all of your messages will not be delivered.
How do you avoid getting "carrier filtered"?
We actually wrote a whole expert guide to this -
Check out our Underground Guide To Avoiding Carrier Filtering
We wrote this after watching sending and deliverability on millions of messages!
8. Use MMS Strategically to Stand Out
Regular text messages works great and can get you the cheapest cost...
But in some cases it makes sense to send strategic MMS (multi-media message) for high-stakes moments in a launch to really stand out.
With MMS you can send pictures, a PDF, a short video, audiogram (like a voice note) AND you can get up to 1600 characters of text.
MMS costs 3 credits, but it can totally grab attention if you've only previously sent regular SMS messages.
9. Keep Your List Healthy (Or It Will Cost You)
You’ll pay for every message you send, so make sure to keep your lists healthy!
Roezan can help with this AUTOMATICALLY a few ways
- Auto-Opt-Out Keywords: Roezan automatically honors opt-out keywords, like STOP, END, & CANCEL… Plus you can even set your own custom opt-out keywords.
- Roezan Auto List Cleaning: Every time you send a message, we check the carrier response, and if we get a hard bounce (fake numbers etc) we’ll auto opt them out. We do this on every send, so your lists are always auto-cleaning.
- Phone Validation On Import: If you’re importing large lists, you can select the advanced phone validation option on import and we’ll check to see if the number is valid with the carrier, and auto-opt out any landlines or fake numbers.
Cleaner list = better deliverability, lower cost, and more ROI!
Final Thoughts
SMS can be your highest ROI channel during a launch if you use it the right way.
When you follow these simple tips you can dramatically increase your results and ROI!
We built Roezan to help marketers with big lists crush it with SMS…
Want help planning your SMS for your next launch?
We offer free strategy sessions to help you nail it and get the most out of your list.
👉 [Book your launch planning call here]
