We’ve all been there. Buzz. Your phone alerts you to a new text message.

Excitement courses through your veins. Maybe it’s an old friend going to say hello. Maybe your crush finally responded to you. Maybe it’s someone asking you to do something incredibly fun—

Then, you read the message.

It’s from a mortgage marketer, and it reads a lot like spam.

Even though you might have signed up for text alerts, you find yourself regretting that decision. You cancel and decide to enjoy your blissful, spam-free life, happily ever after.

But let’s pretend you’re the mortgage marketer in this situation.

A potential client has signed up to your text message marketing services. They’ve told you they want to receive your text messages. Why are they so disappointed when they read your actual texts?

If you want to employ a solid text message strategy without annoying and even alienating your potential clients, let’s figure out how.

Principle #1: Underpromise, Overdeliver

Text message, or SMS, marketing is unique in that it only works with the full participation of those you want to text.

You have their permission, in other words.

You’d better not disappoint.

That’s why SMS marketing only works when you meet and even exceed the expectations you established when they first signed up.

Think about it this way: on your website, you included a prompt that allowed them to enter in their number and sign up for your texts. You promise them the moon: great deals, cutting insights, and all the rest.

Then, when it comes to the actual content of your marketing services, you don’t deliver.

Think about it from your potential client’s point of view: would you still want to receive those texts?

That’s why you shouldn’t ask people to sign up for your SMS marketing unless you’ve got something you can really deliver. And if you promise them the stars and only give them the moon, they’re going to turn on you in a hurry.

Set realistic expectations and work to make your content even better than you claimed, whether it comes through unique offers, special promotions, or whatever your mortgage company promised upfront.

Principle #2: Give something away.

When someone signs up for SMS with you, they’re giving you trust. If you don’t reward that trust without a little something in return, they’re going to feel that you’re wasting their time.

But “give something away” is vague. So let’s get specific.

What can you give your potential clients via text?

• Unique offers
• Special alerts
• Valuable “insider” insights
• First “crack” at newly-available opportunities

Presumably your SMS audience is signing up with you because they expect to get something out of it. If that weren’t the case, they’d never bother.

If you don’t throw a lot of love their way in return, they’re going to look elsewhere for the offers and alerts they need in the world of mortgages.

The goal of SMS marketing? To make your mortgage company the one they turn to when they need a mortgage.

If you ever run out of ideas, hold monthly brainstorming sessions in which you come up with different ways to give something to your SMS audience.

It may feel like “giving the goods away” at first, but remember that these are potential customers you’re talking to—eventually, some of them will reward you.

Principle #3: Don’t Be Such a Tease

The potential client’s job? Be a potential client and sign up for your SMS marketing.

That’s it. That’s where their role in this whole thing ends.

That’s why it can be so annoying when customers sign up for SMS marketing and receive nothing but non-stop teases in their inbox.

You know the types of messages I’m talking about: “Find out more…” “Here’s a new hidden offer…”

Anything that asks for your potential customers to do more work without telling them what they’re going to get out of it could be construed as a “tease.”

It’s a bad habit. Stop it.

Teases might work in other marketing campaigns, such as writing an intriguing subject line for an email marketing message. But in the world of SMS, you have to think of it like sending telegrams back in the 1800s. You have to deliver the goods right away—and you have to do it simply.

When you construct your next text message, make sure that you edit it down so that it gives something valuable upfront. That keeps people subscribed to your messages and ensures that they feel the whole campaign is worth the trust they placed in you when the signed up in the first place.

Principle #4: Don’t overwhelm your potential customers.

It’s tempting when you read all of these tips to get excited about the potential of SMS marketing. Suddenly you want to send out a thousand next texts every week, getting more attention from potential customers than ever.

But it will be far more effective if you simply provide slow but consistent messages.

That way you avoid overwhelming your potential customers. When they see a text from you, they don’t think “Oh, boy—here comes another one.”

Instead, they should think: “It’s been a while, and the last time they texted me, I got something good. I wonder what’s next?”

Obviously, you want to keep in touch with your SMS audience that they still know they’re subscribed. But avoid overdoing it, too.

Principle #5: Set Clear Calls to Action

You might put this at the level of “don’t tease your potential clients.”

If you have a call to action somewhere in your text marketing, you’ll want to make it clear, easy to find, and easy to use. Failure to do so doesn’t only result in confusion for your potential clients, but just makes everything harder for both parties.

Instead, if you include a promotion in your SMS marketing strategies, be sure to make your call to action as clear as you can. Give it a prominent place. Make sure that it’s easy to understand what happens when you click it.

This doesn’t mean to insert as many details as possible.

For example, consider the “STOP” sign you see at so many intersections. That is a great call to action: it’s clear, it’s loud, it’s bold, and everything about it agrees with the central message. STOP.

It doesn’t say “Stop and Yield to Traffic.” That’s too confusing.

It just says STOP.

With your calls to action, try to make it both as simple and clear as it can possibly be.

Principle #6: Try New Things

If you’re a mortgage marketer who’s never attempted SMS marketing before, now’s the time. Trying new things is what helps you continue to innovate and beat the competition in your market. Without it, you’re simply spinning your wheels.

Keep trying new things, measuring the results, and always staying on top of your marketing efforts. Your potential clients will thank you for it.

Want to try new things starting right now? Then do a low-risk free trial of leadPops. It won’t only introduce you to new marketing efforts, but will make your mortgage marketing more engaging as a result.