There are many different categories of messages you can include in your text marketing campaign, including offers, coupons, surveys, tips, and polls. Some businesses may omit polls in their text marketing, but by doing so, they miss out on one of the best ways to engage customers and learn more about customer expectations. If you are unsure whether or not you should add customer polls to your campaign, the following benefits of SMS polls should help you make up your mind.
What are Texting Polls?
Polls offer a fun way for your customers to provide feedback.
Texting polls are structured similarly to polls distributed through other channels: You ask a question and then provide a way for your customers to select one answer out of several choices. Then, you compare responses to see which option is most popular. To set up a poll with your text message service, start by incorporating multiple keywords. You promote your text poll through a variety of channels, including print ads, social media posts, emails, and text messages, and ask subscribers — and prospective subscribers — to vote for their favourite options by texting one of a series of keywords to a special number. The keyword with the highest number of votes wins.
Immediate Feedback
One of the major benefits of text message polls is immediate feedback. Most people open their text messages within just a few minutes and respond quickly. On average, people respond to text messages within 90 seconds, compared to 90 minutes with email. Furthermore, a large portion of people always have their cell phones with them, so they can participate in the poll no matter where they are. Polling during live events is a perfect way to keep customers or audience members engaged.
Larger Engagement
Although text message offers and discounts result in high engagement among subscribers, polls take it to the next level. You are asking a question that needs to be answered, encouraging your subscribers to actively engage. With the right polls, you can also initiate excitement around your new product or your company. For example, you can poll subscribers about a potential new (and delicious) menu item for your restaurant. Your customers will be getting involved in the direction of your company, increasing their emotional connection to your brand and its services or goods. This can help boost customer loyalty.
Discover What Your Customers Want
Keep your customers happy by offering what they want.
SMS polls also provide you insight into what your customers want, which makes it easier to meet their expectations. If you are rolling out a new product, you can ask your customers to vote on different aspects, such as the colour. This strategy has two benefits. First, you learn what your customers want so that you can provide it. Second, your customers feel as though they helped to create something, so they will be more motivated to buy it upon release. This also takes some of the guesswork out of product launches.
Polls and surveys are great tools to communicate and engage with mobile subscribers. You can easily learn their preferences, and as a bonus, customers appreciate feeling heard. Ready to run a poll for your company? Try us free