Including links in an SMS campaign is a great way to extend the campaign into the mobile browser. This is a quick guide with tips on how to get people to click through, how best to show & layout content on a mobile page and how to measure a successful campaign.

1. Using Links in SMS
Marketing Campaigns

2. 1. Keep it nice and short
» Keep the message nice and short
» You have 160 characters but including a link
allows you to show more than the SMS
» Have a clear call to action in the message
» For example “Click to claim a 15% coupon”
» Encourage people to click through by telling
them it’s mobile ready
» For example “Click to claim a 15% coupon on our
mobile site”

3. 2. Use www. Instead of http://
» Phones are clever to detect a link in a text and make it clickable but
what’s the best format to use?
» Our studies have found people prefer links with www. instead of ones
beginning with http://
» For example use www.abc.com instead of http://abc.com in the message for
better results

4. 3. Trustworthy
» For any marketing campaign to work the
consumer must trust the SMS and the contents
» Make sure the Sender ID is set
» Be professional - don’t use text language in your
message
» Try avoid using URL shortners
» Services like bit.ly are great and will save you some
characters but most people don’t associate the link with
your brand and might be put-off on clicking through
» If your goal is to encourage people to visit your store
try using one of our links like www.directions.to or
www.myclose.st

5. 4. Accommodate all mobile devices
Windows Other
3% 0%3%
» Not everyone in the U.K. has a
smartphone but they are the majority Android
30% Apple iOS
» December 2012 Ofcom stated 58% of all 45%
U.K. phones are smartphone
» The same report stated 23.1% of U.K.
smartphone users used their device to
BlackBerry
visit retail websites 19% Source: statcounter Feb 2013
» A lot of feature phones can connect
to the internet so make sure they can
view your mobile page

6. 5. Mobile ready landing page
» It might sound obvious but when the link in the
SMS is clicked the site must be optimised for
mobile
» It should work on smart and feature phones
» It should be quick to load
» Organise the page into sections like ‘Opening
Hours’, ‘Coupons’, ‘Gallery’ or ‘Video’
» It should have big clear call to action buttons like
‘Claim’, ‘Call’ or ‘Directions’
» Don’t overload the page with information – like the
text message be precise

7. 6. Personalise the mobile page
» If you have personal information for the customer for example their
first name you should include this in the SMS and in the mobile page
» On clicking the link smartphones are able to determine the location of
the person so you can do clever things like:
» Have a store locator feature which dynamically finds the nearest and updates
the page with the stores details
» You could provide directions or updates from local transport

8. 7. Reporting and Analytics
» Sending marketing SMS with links is pointless unless you can measure
how well the campaign is doing
» You should measure
» Click rate & returning visits
» Activity while on the mobile page
» Share rate i.e. sending to people or social networks
» The location of person when they clicked
» Breakdown of customer phone type

9. Thanks for reading.
Any questions please drop me a line: ronan@morethan160.com